Jonathan Alter wrote a book about Barack Obama’s first year in office called “The Promise.” That’s a great title because it works on so many levels. For example, over the past four years, Obama’s career has been marked by a constant promise: He has continually said he is on the verge of doing something serious abut the national debt.
David Brooks, Tomorrow Never Comes, NYT Feb 18, 2011
David, here's an example of a good topical sentence for an opinion piece:
— Dude, David Brooks said “abut” in the New York Times, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh...
Every reader gets it, unlike your reference to a book that Beavis didn’t read. It’s vivid, and you can go just about anywhere with it, for example,...
— Calm down Butthead. You're gonna soil your drawers!
— Brooks said, “The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget calculates that $780 billion of the proposed deficit cuts are politically dubious.”
— “Dubious” is cool.
— He said that we have deficit issues.
— He said, "issues” in the New York Times, heh, heh, heh
— And our deficit issues require a new way to think about how the government pays for social insurance.
— Like “with money”…
— He said our budget has issues too… it fails to touch the big programs.
— If the budget touched its big program, maybe its deficit would issue.
— He said, "the budget has some fine features. But it is laughably inadequate compared with the fiscal problems before us."
— Heh, heh... Mr. Budget’s "program" is smaller than Mr. Fiscal’s "problem."
— That’s the issue, dumbass.
— He wants to rewrite our social contract too.
— Yeah, to pay for social insurance with poor people’s money.
— Poor people’s money is an oxymoron.
— Heh, heh... rich people's money must be a deoxymoron.
— He said the president’s debt commission produced a series of great conversations…
— Like the one we’re having?
— Yes, ass-wipe.
— Here’s one more before commercial break: "Tomorrow never comes, it just promises to."
— That’s your issue, not mine, Butthead.
