Pastors who are not part of any overarching institutions have few limits to their rhetoric and interpretations of visions.
That is precisely what democracy is meant to be: a civil war of ideas, rhetoric and vision pitting passionate challengers versus equally passionate incumbents.
But though Jay Stewart of the Better Government Association, a local watchdog, commends Mr Obama for his work on ethics reform, he adds of his post-partisan rhetoric: "That vision the senator talks about is inspiring.
As if adopting a typical voter's view of President Obama, Cuomo told me, "Beautiful rhetoric, beautiful vision — I'm sold on the vision — and what happens?
If nothing else, it can warn us against becoming mesmerized by the heady visions and soaring rhetoric of the moment.
If the Republican party gets behind the proposal, Weisberg writes, "it will become for the first time in modern memory an intellectually serious party — one with a coherent vision to match its rhetoric of limited government".
His rhetoric reaffirmed a vision of law and order forged on the front lines by the agents themselves, rather than from the top down.
However, Obama's administration should be praised for at least reframing the rhetoric and ideological vision of America's intentions in the Middle East, away from the archaic and reactionary "us versus them" posturing to a more inclusive, conciliatory partnership fostered by mutual interests.
And rather than countering the Sweden Democrats' anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant rhetoric with a vision of their own, the liberals shifted to the right with proposals that included sending the army into neighborhoods with high crime rates.
Mr. Salam said he favored a new prototype of Republican leadership that projected humility rather than grandeur, understated competence rather than soaring rhetoric and vision.
