In Saturday’s Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, Ville Blåfield compared two political cultures through speeches by two presidents, Sauli Niinistö of Finland and Barack Obama. Citing Antti Mustakallio and Jussi Lähde, he states that Niinistö uses a highly formal style laden with Finnish officialese. Niinistö presents issues abstractly and impersonally, while Obama frequently uses “I” and “me”. Why do Finnish politicians think they have to hide themselves? The former MP Rosa Meriläinen writes in The Researcher’s Book that in Finland politicians imitate the style of experts, because we Finns have very rigid ideas about the speaking style that a politician should use. In order to be credible, a politician must not only speak like a technocrat but also mask his intentions with a coating of facts and neutral language. This kind of rhetorical posing should not, however, add to someone’s apparent trustworthiness. Instead, credibility comes from openly stating what you think and what you propose to do.