Bernie Sanders loves the podium.  Whether it is debate or just campaign rabble-rousing, he loves to shout and gesture with his right arm.  Voters love the punctuated drama, oddly the same drama Donald Trump generates with his own forms of crowd baiting. To make a distinction, Trump is much more into sarcasm and defamation than Bernie, but they both like to speak with exclamation points.

The exclamation point is Bernie’s favorite punctuation. Almost every statement he makes deserves an exclamation point, whether the transcript reflects it or not.  Nothing better than one exclamation, except maybe two, and occasionally three!!! Rhetorically, both he and Elizabeth Warren grab attention with exclamations, but Bernie is wedded to the sentences that end with slam, bang, here it is, in a nutshell! Elizabeth defers to the single exclamation point contrasted with the occasional question mark. She has the academic flair for questioning the status quo with the disturbing question.

Amy Klobuchar often prefers the rhetorical question, as in “Are you calling me dumb?” Like any good prosecutor, she never asks a question she doesn’t have the answer to, but she likes the question mark to engage a defendant. Senator Klobucchar interrogated her arch-rival, Pete Buttigieg, and he responded with the utter rationality of the period. It is the profoundly  rational punctuation. No inflection, unlike the question mark or exclamation point.

“You’re staking your candidacy on your Washington experience. You’re on the committee that oversees border security. You’re on the committee that does trade,” Buttigieg said, turning to face Klobuchar just to his left on the stage. “You’re literally in part of the committee that’s overseeing these things and were not able to speak to literally the first thing about the politics of the country to our south.”

Four lines and four periods, with a couple of “literally’s” just for emphasis. So we have the perfect face-off– Klobuchar’s question mark vs. Buttigieg’s period.

Just as combative, but less facile with words is Joe Biden. In his younger days, he might have been stronger with the exclamation point or the question mark, but right now his trademark is the stammer, conveyed by the ellipsis . . . .  In debate performance, Biden often stammers, trying to put language to emotions, and he looks weaker for it.  Sometimes, when his ire rises, he’ll say, “Are you kidding me?” or to take the temperature down, “Folks, look . . .”  But he has not competed with the  strident punctuation of Bernie and Elizabeth.

Donald Trump has all the punctuation marks fully engaged.  Even if he couldn’t place the punctuation where it belongs, he certainly knows how to put it to good use. He is better than any of the candidates with sarcasm and name-calling, better with raising the room temperature with outrage, better than any with folksy chat with barbs on the side. Whoever engages with this man has to nail him with facts and bear-baiting.  Not with indignation or logic. He will not debate; he will taunt or ridicule in every register, every punctuation mark in the repertoire.

Rhetoric and punctuation should not be the basis for nominating a Presidential candidate. If Trump and Sanders make the loudest background noise, it is not a good sign if they become the future protagonists of the campaign. They are full of sound and fury, signifying indignation.

Voters should be paying attention to the substance, rather than the punctuation marks. The moderates with the periods and question marks and ellipses are not drawing enough interest. They speak the rhetoric of reason, more than self-righteousness.  In the words of William Butler Yeats, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”

Time for the best to make their case !!?? WITH UPPER CASE!! Nothing will come of ranting, unless you are Donald Trump.