The Phrase Merchants

It is late at night, but the lights still burn brightly at the most famous address in Washington, D.C. Tomorrow, the President of the United States will make an important policy speech. Seated around a table, three of his closest advisers— Walt Rostow, McGeorge Bundy and (who else?) Arthur Schlesinger Jr.—are fighting gallantly with syntax and phraseology. Their conversation may have gone something like this:

Rostow: Now, where were we?