Obama and the West Point Cadet Prayer

It is always interesting to listen to or read the words public officials use. At times it is clear that certain words are used for the associations they will have on certain segments of the audience. I remember listening to Pres. George W. Bush give a speech, it might have been a State of the Union Address, and he used part of a line from an old hymn, using the exact cadence of the words. It probably went over the heads of many listeners but a good many others, myself included, caught it.

Something similar may have happened in remarks Pres. Obama gave at Children's Hospital in Washington on July 20th. Here is an excerpt:

Now, we always knew that passing health care reform wouldn't be easy. We always knew that doing what is right would be hard. There's just a tendency towards inertia in this town. I understand that as well as anybody. But we're a country that chooses the harder right over the easier wrong. That's what we have to do this time. We have to do that once more.

Here is part of the West Point Cadet Prayer:

Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half truth when the whole can be won.

Could just be coincidence but interesting nonetheless.