The president stammers because he thinks too fast.
I don’t recall Buckley as a stammerer, just a deliberate speaker. It’s been a long time since I heard him, though. And I do find Obama’s long “aaaaaannnddds” annoying. Of course, I think that Sarah Palin needs a speech coach, too, not to get rid of her accent, but to lower the register of her voice a little and not sound quite so screechy.
I too have made an effort to hear him as infrequently as possible.
Sarah’s speechifying reminds me of of Hillary’s. IS. THERE. SOME-THING. ABOUT. THE. WAY. WOMEN. SHOUT. ON. STAGE. THAT. MAKES. THEM. ALL. SOUND. LIKE. CROWS?
I might be wrong — I only listen to politicians by accident.
You could add Ron Paul to the list of people that need a speech coach.
Maybe we should just elect the speech coaches to office.
I used to watch Buckley on television constantly, when I was (much) younger. The one thing that began to grate on me was his halting speech. In retrospect, I think his experimentation with marijuana may have followed him back from beyond the 12 mile limit…
I have always found both Palin’s accent and her voice grating, which is unfortunate, since I agree with a number of her positions and she has repeatedly come up with devastating responses to the Dems (see: death panels).
St. Margaret Thatcher had to be trained to drop her voice an octave. She did; though under stress she could revert to her higher pitched voice.
I like Palin but it’s true her speech grates. But I think most women’s voices grate. Not all: no one could accuse Bella Abzug of having a high pitched screechy voice. Someone needs to help Palin lower her voice just a notch….if she wants to run for President (I don’t think she will).
The only think that bothers me about Obama’s method of speech is his “tuh”s when he wants to say “to”. But it’s only an annoyance.
As for this article by Meghan Daum, well my god, can she have ANY more of a high school, syncophantic crush on The One? Half the article was to trash Buckley. And I can entertain the possibility of her basic thesis until she got to this:
“Unlike other presumed political brainiacs — Bill Clinton or Newt Gingrich, for example — he isn’t able to bury his ideas behind a folksy regional accent or good-old-boy affectations when he wants to.”
No affectations when he wants to???? Oh no Obama never moved from professorial, to Southern Baptist, to “‘hood” talk. Never pronounced “movement” as “move-MENT”.
Sheesh.
Then she admits he moves from style to style but THEN claims it makes him look like “a university man”.
She says inarticulate is not the right word but that if we think hard and long it’ll come to us….
Came to me after a few speeches in 2008:
Fraud.
Same as ol’
“Can Ah get me a huntin’ license heah?”
I have just contacted the Chicago PD and reported Meghan Daum as a high-order Crack Cocaine abuser and likely in possession of felonious amounts at this time.
Don’t worry Meghan, they are from the Government and there to help!
“The one thing that began to grate on me was his halting speech. In retrospect, I think his experimentation with marijuana may have followed him back from beyond the 12 mile limit…”
I remember attending the Houston, Texas Young Americans for Freedom convention in the summer of 1971, and I remember hearing a large number of speakers who were all very good speakers and very articulate. And then William F Buckley came on the stage to address the convention (YAF, by the way, was something Mr. Buckley put together at his house as a conservative counter to the far-left youth and college organizations).
My recollection was that he was sweating, beet red, stammering even more than he did on TV’s Firing Line, and didn’t seem to make much sense, especially in contrast with his publisher William Rusher, who gave a very inspiring speech. His brother James Buckley as Senator had some of the stammer but always sounded much more coherent. Years later his son Christopher came out with his tell-all.
Do you suppose Mr. Buckley’s speaking performance had little to do with a chance encounter with cannabis and perhaps a lot more to do with, say, the grape?
Churchill, Churchill and, oh, Churchill.
This is a man who’s mouth can’t keep up with his brain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLBvCB2kr4Q
Painful to watch but still worth it.
Obama’s alleged intelligence is an assertion without evidence. If he’s so smart, why does he keep doing so many stupid things?
“why does he keep doing so many stupid things?”
Send him victorious,
happy and glorious,
long to rule o’r us . . .
I think Mark Steyn has it pegged when he suggests Obama has been “wafted up” from school to school to community organizing, to the Illinois legislature, to the US Senate and to the “ultimate waft” the Presidency….without ever staying long enough anywhere to do anything or say anything of consequence…not having to face the consequences of his actions….
until now.
He loves the perks, loves throwing grand parties, loves big dinners and Air-Force One transportations for a night out with Michelle, loves numerous and lavish vacations….
But he finds himself, for the first time, with a serious job with actions that must be taken – though he tried really hard to run away from that by handing over big things like Obamacare to the Congressional Dems – and serious consequences.
Buckley did have that “Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah,” thing he’d do in interviews, but it wasn’t so much stammering as a placeholder to keep whoever he was talking with from interrupting.
When I said:
“I like Palin but it’s true her speech grates. But I think most women’s voices grate.”
I meant when giving political speeches.
Well, if you want women’s voices taken down a register, isn’t there a simple solution?: smoking.
“Well, if you want women’s voices taken down a register, isn’t there a simple solution?: smoking.”
They can’t talk at all when their mouths are full.
Heigh-yo!
You know, an occasional female woman does poke her head inside your treehouse, guys. Oh I’m sorry — did I leave cooties? Tell you what, I’ll go get my violin. Anyone know where I can rent an electron microscope at short notice?
If it makes it any easier, imagine I’m saying all this in a low, sexy, cigarette smoking woman’s voice. Like Phyllis Diller’s.
Andrea, oh thank you for finally saying so.. I’ve been playing the pronoun game when replying to you for years now.
I wasn’t talking to you, Trent.
You’re female? I thought that you were Italian-English 😀
Ooo-maahhn! You let your feeemail wear clothes?
“Italian”? Where did that come from?
Meh, I might be. I’m adopted, though, so my provenance is a mystery. (Those stories about that bright light in the sky and then the miraculous appearance of my infant self in a cornfield in Iowa wrapped in a blanket made of some space-age material are purely rumors. Or legends. Hmm…)
“Well, if you want women’s voices taken down a register, isn’t there a simple solution?: smoking.”
Patty and Selma agree.
“smoking”
Well why didn’t I think of that! More women should just start a life-threatening habit that not only makes them cough up gobbets of brown phlegm, turns their fingers yellow, ages them prematurely (and women already have more wrinkle-prone skin than men, but men love wrinkly dried-up-looking women, right?), but also makes them smell like — well, like an ashtray. Old ashtray smell — the component of the world’s best-selling perfumes!
Also, back to that “life-threatening” thing — well, women have an unfair advantage over men anyway in the living longer department. Bitches. This will even things out. Also they’ll all get that sexy “smoky” voice. There’s nothing like the guttural cawing laugh of a chain-smoking bar hag to put romance in the air.
Guys, have you really thought this through? Not every smoking woman looks and sounds like whatsername in Mad Men.
““Italian”? Where did that come from? ”
Um, in some cultures, Andrea is a dude’s name. On the other hand, your “avatar” is a cartoon of a dudette, hence no one should have any “pronoun issues” in addressing you . . . unless they are trolling.
“Um, in some cultures, Andrea is a dude’s name.”
I thought that would be Andreas…but what do I know from culture.
“There’s nothing like the guttural cawing laugh of a chain-smoking bar hag to put romance in the air.”
Unless it’s a chain smoking, *gum snapping*, bar hag with those pointy glasses, skin tight leopard skin print capris, whose ankles cave in and wobble at every step of overly-long high heels….
THAT’S romance….
“I thought that would be Andreas”
I think that’s German, not Italian.
“in some cultures, Andrea is a dude’s name.”
Oh yeah I’d forgotten that “Andrea” is a unisex name in Italy. Okay I get it. But no, I’m not Italian, and I’m not a boy. I’m the real thing.
PS: Gregg, you forgot the multiple necklaces of dirty plastic beads, and her hair, no matter what her age, will be dyed a brassy orange-yellow color. Now now, guys — don’t fight over her. At least, not inside the bar. Step out into the parking lot.
Well, this thread certainly took a turn for the weird…
It could be an emo guy, now that I look at it more closely.
…and now I’m going to run very fast before Andrea comes back and sees my comment.
You Racist™! — proud Emo-American.
Not sayin’ anything, but in the past, when talking about matters of a military nature where I had been privy to items not for general public discussion, I had to sometimes think for a second or so while filtering what was going to be the public thing and what was the real thing.
So, like I said, not sayin’ anything, but for the record when I had to be less than absolutely candid I did act somewhat like the President does.