Mulling over my latest piece for PunditWire I started to look at one of President Obama’s rhetorical tics: his use of the word ‘clear’.

Take, for example, his 10 September statement on US policy towards ISIL/ISIS. Three hits!

Now let’s make two things clear:  ISIL is not “Islamic.”

Our objective is clear:  We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL

I have made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are

This speaking trick is designed to ‘frame’ issues in a way that demonstrates the speaker’s wisdom and lofty authority. If something is ‘clear’ who can disagree with me when I point that out? 

Not really. What is clear to the President may not be clear to other people. For example, it simply makes no sense to assert that ISIL is not ‘Islamic’. The whole problem – and the reason US airpersons are now bombing ISIL targets in Iraq and Syria – arises from the fact that within modern Islam there is a powerful strain of violent insanity. It is funded and supported and furtively admired by all sorts of Muslims who would never descend to ISIL’s savagery but quite like the fact that ISIL is so audacious in its hatred of Western values. Asserting that only ‘good, peaceful’ Muslims are really Islamic is absurd. Or at least highly tendentious, and so trivially ‘unclear’.

The President’s 3 September speech in Estonia, by contrast, uses ‘clear’ in a powerful way:

We have a solemn duty to each other.  Article 5 is crystal clear:  An attack on one is an attack on all.  So if, in such a moment, you ever ask again, “who will come to help,” you’ll know the answer — the NATO Alliance, including the Armed Forces of the United States of America, “right here, [at] present, now!”  (Applause.)

When in doubt, always go back to that doomed Cairo speech in 2009. A startling 10 hits:

Let me speak as clearly and as plainly as I can

In Ankara, I made clear that America is not — and never will be — at war with Islam

But let us be clear:  Al Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people on that day

I have made it clear to the Iraqi people that we pursue no bases

The obligations that the parties have agreed to under the road map are clear

Rather than remain trapped in the past, I’ve (sic) made it clear to Iran’s leaders and people that my country is prepared to move forward

But it is clear to all concerned that when it comes to nuclear weapons, we have reached a decisive point

So let me be clear: No system of government can or should be imposed by one nation by any other

But this much is clear:  Governments that protect these rights are ultimately more stable, successful and secure

Now, let me be clear:  Issues of women’s equality are by no means simply an issue for Islam

Note the penultimate one: “But this much is clear…”. This variation on the theme purports to add even more Wisdom to what the President is saying. He’s personally weighed these mighty issues, and is now able to tell us what exactly is clear, and what by implication isn’t.

Speechwriters! When in doubt, leave it out.

If something really is clear, you don’t need to say so. It becomes a cliché. The clarity speaks for itself.

If instead you keep reminding the audience that certain things are ‘clear’, they may end up thinking that perhaps, after all, they’re not.