How dazzling is President Obama? So dazzling that he didn’t merely give a dazzling inaugural speech. Any old timeserving hack could do that. Instead, he had the sheer genius to give a flat dull speech full of the usual shopworn boilerplate.

Mark Steyn. Who else?

When I try to explain the secret of Good Writing, I argue a lot of it boils down to short, sharp sentences.

But then there’s also this majestic thought, 63 words ripp’d asunder by two puny commas:

At a stroke, he not only gently lowered the expectations of those millions of Americans and billions around the world for whom his triumphant ascendancy is the only thing that gives their drab little lives any meaning, but also emphasized continuity by placing his unprecedented incandescent megastar cool squarely within the tradition of squaresville yawneroo white middle-aged plonking mediocrities who came before him.

When you have mastered the rules, break them.

What about the Obama inconsistencies already showing in some policy areas?

Doesn’t matter that the new CIA honcho is open-minded on the virtues of waterboarding. Doesn’t matter that the new treasury secretary who’s gonna stick it to those greedy fat cats who don’t pay their fair share of taxes is a greedy fat cat who didn’t pay his fair share of taxes.

If one night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble, one night in D.C. makes a cool man boring. But it doesn’t matter, because Obama’s so cool even his boringness is hot…

Indeed. Read on.