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Posted on 09/17/2004 6:10:20 AM PDT by kattracks
Of all the horrors that George Bush has committed over the last four years, one of the most egregious has been his assault on the English language.However, as this election campaign has heated up, something strange has happened - John Kerry has taken on the role of the oratorically challenged, and Bush is suddenly scoring As in the speech department.
After 20 years in the Senate, Kerry has developed a meandering, circumlocutory speaking style. The point he is trying to make is pushed to the distant end of ridiculously long verbal structures.
I had hoped that, during the campaign, his speechwriters would fix this problem - but no such luck. Here is a typical example from a recent stump speech:
"The other day, we were driving along the road in our campaign bus, and I saw a sign with a lone W leaning up against a post," Kerry began at a campaign stop in West Virginia last week.
"At first, I was a little confused. But then it all made sense. As the president likes to say, there's nothing complicated about it. It does all come down to one letter - W. George W Bush. What do you think that W stands for? That W stands for wrong. Wrong choices, wrong direction for America."
That is what, in boxing, you call telegraphing your punches. Kerry took such an age to make his assertion, pausing for an excruciating caesura to no dramatic effect on the letter W, that by the time he got to his punchline he had almost lost the crowd.
He lumbers along at a pace that almost matches Al Gore's for slowness. Wags once said Gore spoke English as if it were his second language. Kerry isn't that bad, but he makes it almost impossible for TV news producers to find a usable 10-second soundbite. I recommend that insomniacs among you read the full texts of his recent stump speeches - his August 12 offering on the economy, for example, took the biscuit for monotony.
"We've been told over and over again that America has turned the corner," he opined, before proceeding to use the phrase "turned the corner" over and over again himself - a staggering 11 times in all. There is a place for repetition in effective rhetoric but, by the 11th time, the motionless body of a whip-scarred horse had nullified any potential harm to Bush.
Bush may not be an intellectual powerhouse, but he has a mugger's savvy for gutting a political opponent, and also has speechwriters who have nailed Kerry's vulnerabilities.
"After voting for the war, but against funding it," he chuckled from the stump in a jaunty sing-song, "after saying he would have voted for the war even knowing everything we know today, my opponent woke up this week with new campaign advisers and yet another new position. Suddenly, he's against it again."
There is nothing redundant in this campaign utterance. The "for it/against it" formulation is fuelled by ammunition Kerry has amply provided, and perfectly sets up Bush to say: "No matter how many times he flip-flops, we were right to remove Saddam Hussein from power."
While Bush can't take credit for the skill of his writers, his folksy, abbreviated style is all his own. One political observer has gone as far as saying "Bushspeak" is Mamet-like in its condensed, verbal economy. That may be too lofty, but even the introductory passages in his speeches - the bits not meant for media consumption - are packed with subliminal meaning.
"Thanks for coming," a typical stump speech begins. "I'm proud you came out. I'm honoured you are here. I'm pleased to be with the good folks here in Johnstown. I know you like to hunt and fish. So do I. I know you care about your neighbours. I appreciate that."
The longest sentence in this passage is 11 words. The average is five. In a few sparse phrases, Bush has effectively conveyed that he is one of you, he shares your values, and he is humbly worthy of your vote. Compare it to one of Kerry's favourite warm-up lines:
"I've travelled from one end of this country to the other," he informs the crowd (as though they might be unaware he's in the midst of a national campaign), "from great cities to the great south-west, from the flag-draped front porches of main street America to the small family farms that dot the Midwest. I'm proud that we've made this great journey together."
The lines are pompous huff and puff - a string of clichés almost devoid of meaning.
"An army of pompous phrases moving across the landscape in search of an idea" was the criticism applied to speeches by Warren Harding - one of only two senators to make it to the White House. The aphorism, unfortunately, applies to too much of Kerry's rhetoric.
It gives me no pleasure to harangue Kerry for his oratorical inadequacies - but clearly the people close to him aren't being honest. Someone from his inner circle needs to grab him by the lapels and yell: "Get your act together!"
It's not as though all his speeches are bad. On the day the assault weapons ban expired, he came out with this zinger: "George Bush chose to make the job of terrorists easier and make the job of America's police officers harder - and that's just plain wrong."
However, Kerry needs to dramatically increase his zinger ratio and find a style that, if not folksy, is at least less condescending. I found a line on his website that captures the right tone: "Everywhere in America, families sit at the kitchen table and divide the bills into two piles: one says 'pay now' and the other says 'pay later'. You're worrying that this week's paycheck won't cover last week's doctor's bill. That it won't cover the mortgage and the college tuition bill."
The line comes from a speech by Kerry's running mate, John Edwards. Kerry should steal some more from him.
· Philip James is a former senior Democratic party strategist
The last two paragraphs are hilarious....coming from a combined net worth in the billions. The Kerry-Edwards team knows nothing of kitchen table issues. They don't have a kitchen table. Hell, they don't even rub elbows with those they keep in the kitchen of their own homes.
'...(Bush) has a mugger's savvy for gutting a political opponent'...
sweet.
I loved it when he said, "Cheney could be President. Next"
Drop the "almost" and the author's nailed the essence of Kerry.
"It's the nuance, Stupid."
???? Kitchen???? ???Kitchen???? Oh yes, that's the room that the servants use, isn't it, lovey?
He is so smart he can't make sentences simple enough for the little people. And, it's the Senate's fault.
Bwahahahahaaa!!!!! Great line!
BTTT
Did anyone hear how he began his speech to the National Guard yesterday?
He started with a joke. They were meeting in Las Vegas so he says;
I've just come here from Washington. You know the difference between Washington and Las Vegas? In Las Vegas people gamble with their own money! Ha..ha...ha
Stony silence from the audience.
That joke might have been appropriate if he was a Washington outsider running against the political establishment but I thought it was bizarre that a 20 year sitting senator would say something like that.
This guy is so out of touch it's incredible. I know he doesn't want to talk about his senate record but does he think that we've forgotten that he is a senator?
This reminds me of a clip of Kerry I saw last night from his speech in front of the National Guard. It looked like Kerry didn't shave, looked really tired, and couldn't form a complete sentence or gather his thoughts.
If I didn't know anything about the presidential race and were a voter watching the two candidates for the first time on TV, I wouldn't vote for Kerry because he looks old and tired.
I LOVE it!
Gut away, dear W!
I worry that John Kerry might take this advice to heart. The stratigest, however, is beneath him and the chances he actually admits a weakness are to small to matter. Besides he doesnt' have any heart . . . or soul.
"Of all the horrors that George Bush has committed over the last four years, one of the most egregious has been his assault on the English language."Their candor is amazing.
~The Guardian~
These people have just announced that President Bush has done little worse than assault the language.
No one can honestly say such a thing about Sen. Kerry, considering his admissions about his actions in Viet Nam.
For such a stupid man, the President does seem to have a remarkable string of luck going when it comes to making his opponents look like idiots...
Kerry's problem is that Karl Rove has defined him as indecisive. Everybody, even those who are voting for him, have that "flip-flop" image in the back of their minds.
And Kerry plays that image out almost every time he speaks. He fulfills Rove's definition of him before our very eyes.
Kerry's through. No matter what he says, no matter how definitive he tries to sound, that image is there, and every listener, even those voting for him, will be waiting for him to say something different tomorrow.
Kerry has committed the fatal mistake of allowing his opponent to define him, and he will never be able to change that definition.
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LOL, I love that line!
15 posts into this thread and nobody highlighted this priceless quote. =)
Another great quote that relates to Kerry (his campaign's implosion, at least) was on one of the earlier threads and went something like, "never murder a man who is about to commit suicide".
And with the help of Mr. Apostrophe you can start scoring A's in the Writing Department.
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