Thursday, November 20, 2008

SOMEONE WHO CAN STRING THREE WORDS TOGETHER

I'm going to share a bit of sarcasm and wit with you, much in the vein of Jon Stewart. Like it or not, it taps into something we have talked about before. This email says it clearer than I did. Thanks to superdog for sending it my way.

NOVEMBER 18, 2008

In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.

Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on CBS' "Sixty Minutes" on Sunday witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal tick, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth.

But Mr. Obama's decision to use complete sentences in his public pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last eight years many Americans may find his odd speaking style jarring.

According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota, some Americans might find it "alienating" to have a President who speaks English as if it were his first language.

"Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement," says Mr. Logsdon. "If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist."

The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete sentences in his speeches, the public may find itself saying, "Okay, subject, predicate, subject predicate - we get it, stop showing off."

The President-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

"Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she said.

(unfortunately, author unknown)
Why, oh why, do we consider an education as something bad? Our social experiment – the one where we elect a President we could see ourselves sitting down and having a beer with – didn't work too well.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it is Andy Borowitz.
(Pardon, what was I thinking?)

Might be that that there, um, stuff was by not Joe the Plumber...there...now.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-borowitz/obamas-use-of-complete-se_b_144642.html

Jeremy D. Young said...

Education is an excellent thing. Unfortunately we have a system that indoctrinates the masses into allowing their peers or worse, the authorities, to think for them.

We need a system that actually encourages individual thought, and enables people to learn on their own.

Democrats don't have a monopoly on educated politicians.

Busplunge said...

Ah, short, simple declarative sentences in chronological order with subjec/verb agreement....

sigh.

It is so wonderful.

Jason said...

"We need a system that actually encourages individual thought, and enables people to learn on their own. "

I completely agree with you, Jeremy.