With Hurricane Ike cutting a savage path through Texas, Senator Barack Obama canceled plans to appear on the season premiere of “Saturday Night Live” and asked voters to consider the “quiet storms” taking place in the lives of many Americans as they weigh their choice in the presidential race. ~The New York Times

Why does Obama do this?  Does he really want to remind people of the time when he referred to the Virginia Tech massacre (on the day it happened) to talk about the “quiet violence” of Don Imus?  Or does he want to call to mind the occasion when he warned about the “quiet riots” in the black community?  This sort of language has one of two effects: it trivializes the violence or the storm in question, or it grossly exaggerates the power of the less dramatic and destructive problems to which Obama is referring.  Either he is saying that the storm is not all that devastating to east Texas, or he is saying that these “quiet storms” are as damaging as a powerful hurricane.  Neither is true.