Althouse: "I guess O'Donnell could have deliberately inserted a casual malaprop to enhance her populist appeal and distinguish herself from the nitpicking media elite..."

September 20, 2010

"I guess O'Donnell could have deliberately inserted a casual malaprop to enhance her populist appeal and distinguish herself from the nitpicking media elite..."

Hey! What if these rubes are just pretending to be rubes?

44 comments:

roesch-voltaire said...: Ann, since you were quoted, does this make you part of the nitpicking elite? :); 9/20/10, 4:25 PM
chickelit said...: Is that really what women really think?; 9/20/10, 4:29 PM
The Dude said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/20/10, 4:33 PM
Bob_R said...: It is pretty darn silly to examine the nuances of diction of someone speaking on a TV show under pressure to speak quickly. It is a very hard thing to do. Our current president is bad at it. The past one was worse. The frequency that Bloggingheads episodes are "lost" due to technical problems makes me wonder if there are others who lack this skill.

WV: allibi???; 9/20/10, 4:36 PM
David said...: WTF?

From Liza's web site:

"Liza Mundy was raised in Roanoke, Virginia, and received her AB degree from Princeton University. She earned an MA in English literature at the University of Virginia, where she also taught writing. She is a staff writer at the Washington Post, where she has written articles and essays on family life, popular culture, the arts, and politics."

That's a lot of expensive education. She's been hanging around "smart" people for quite a while.

Education bubble indeed . . .; 9/20/10, 4:37 PM
Sprezzatura said...: Now O'Donnell is saying that hyping the witch stuff was her way of getting ratings for Maherl.

And, presumably she knew that getting ratings for Bill was correlated with getting dollars in her own bank account. And, she was right. She was invited (and I'm sure payed) to be on the show twenty two times.

Overall her Maher experience could make her seem fairly reasonable, at least compared to Ricky Schroder. Although she's about tied w/ Stewart Smally.; 9/20/10, 4:39 PM
Superdad said...: Bob_R nails it. Watch the clip. She was not giving a speech; she was on a panel show where everyone is talking over each other and verbally elbowing each other out of the way to get a word in.

This is just stupid. I don't know anything about this women, but if this is the best the left has to talk about re: her, I think we can start calling her Madam Senator.; 9/20/10, 4:40 PM
Thorley Winston said...: It is pretty darn silly to examine the nuances of diction of someone speaking on a TV show under pressure to speak quickly. It is a very hard thing to do.

Agreed, there’s no “preview” button when speaking extemporaneously. If you edit yourself or try to change what you’re going to say mid-sentence, it won’t always be neat.; 9/20/10, 4:40 PM
Phil 314 said...: This story feels strangely similar to the "lusted in my heart" story from the Carter era. And of course for O'Donnell it dovetails nicely into previous "news' about old statements on masturbation.

Why don't we just "cut to the chase"

silly, ignorant rube. Not only is your grammar poor but you fret over provincial matters. Don't you know there are important issues to be discussed

(And now jimmy is a darling of the elites. I guess because he sat next to Michale Moore. Now there's a serious intellectual!; 9/20/10, 4:44 PM
David said...: Bob R sez: nuances of diction of someone speaking on a TV show under pressure to speak quickly. It is a very hard thing to do. Our current president is bad at it. The past one was worse.

During the primaries in 2008, I had a real world experience listening to Obama answer audience questions in a high school auditorium. He was awful. That surprised me because I had just listened to him give a very fluent speech.

Now it's not surprising. The guy uses a teleprompter for a reason.

As to Bush, I don't think he's President anymore, but he did pretty well with the bullhorn in the rubble of the World Trade Center. Why do I think Obama would never have tried that?; 9/20/10, 4:44 PM
David said...: "She was invited (and I'm sure payed) to be on the [Maher] show twenty two times."

It took twenty two tries for Maher to realize that he was not going to be able to bonk her.; 9/20/10, 4:47 PM
traditionalguy said...: This is not the year of the elites...and talking smoothly only points out another educated fool ,who are always who gets us into a mess. As a southern man once asserted, he is every bit as smart as graduates of Ivory League schools.; 9/20/10, 4:51 PM
Opus One Media said...: Don't make fun of her. ... go forward with caution....her second car is a broom.

"..you really are the brightest witch of your age".

wingardiom leviosa; 9/20/10, 4:57 PM
David said...: "As a southern man once asserted, he is every bit as smart as graduates of Ivory League schools."

Yeah, and our southern assholes are just as obnoxious as the northern assholes. (Cf. Lee Atwater and Rahm Emmanuel.); 9/20/10, 4:58 PM
Anonymous said...: Dealt with this elitist grammar bullshit my whole life. Do I care to make a point of it? I don't care to.

Anyone from south of say Kansas City knows what I just said. Most people north of there didn't.; 9/20/10, 4:59 PM
TMink said...: I don't care what she talks like. I care what she votes like.

Trey; 9/20/10, 5:01 PM
KCFleming said...: Hey! What if these rubes are just pretending to be rubes?"

"Drown me! Roast me! Hang me! Do whatever you please," said Brer Rabbit. "Only please, Brer Fox, please don't throw me into the briar patch."; 9/20/10, 5:02 PM
Hagar said...: Whatever, but at least she is not Mike Castle!

Wv: Sellabl - typo, or Ms. O'Donnell?; 9/20/10, 5:03 PM
Opus One Media said...: by all means give her a pass on this. if dull as a flat rock is appealing to the right wing, then she is your girl - why she might even be plain spoken enough to give Sarah a run to the money....ohmymalaprop....; 9/20/10, 5:04 PM
Anonymous said...: HDHouse, since when does being dull or not have a thing to do with being a decent politician?; 9/20/10, 5:05 PM
Anonymous said...: And yes, I would welcome a plain spoken politician. You wouldn't?; 9/20/10, 5:06 PM
Anonymous said...: Oh, oh, oh. HDHouse is no brighter than O'Donnell. It's a run for the money. Seeing as how you're liberal, I have to admit run to is probably what you're used to thinking.; 9/20/10, 5:08 PM
chickelit said...: Hmm, on second thought I see here that "to dabble" has a sense of "to dip into." People can certainly become immersed in witchcraft, metaphorically at least.

Did you two actually check dictionaries or do you have only sanctioned favorites?; 9/20/10, 5:12 PM
Phil 314 said...: HD;

by all means give her a pass on this. if dull as a flat rock is appealing to the right wing,

Given how clearly she is unqualified do you believe she will win in November?

If no, then why all the fuss?

If yes, then what are you saying about the electorate?

PS this is what gets me about the Democratic campaign strategy of painting the Republican Party as "too far to the right". If they are too far to the right, meaning they're not in sync with the electorate then they won't win the election; unless the Democratic party is suggesting that people are easily fooled. (you wouldn't suggest that would you, you the Party of the Common Man)

And if they're "too far to the right" but in fact the electorate is "that far to the right" then who's looking foolish.

The strategy is as silly as the Republican over-usage of the word "socialist"; it begs the question "Are people that stupid!?" Not a question either Party should ask.; 9/20/10, 5:15 PM
Bob_R said...: Biden was elected to this seat several times. Dull as a flat rock may be an important qualification.; 9/20/10, 5:21 PM
Calypso Facto said...: Somebody better tell Hank Johnson that you must be a grammarian to be in Congress. Remember the "capsizing Guam" ramble?; 9/20/10, 5:26 PM
chickelit said...: It probably irks some people that Bob Dylan sang "lay lady lay" instead of "lie lady lie" or "Early one morning the sun was shining, I was laying in bed."

It doesn't bother me because I know that Dylan was just pretending to be a rube.; 9/20/10, 5:30 PM
Bob_R said...: So if your kid showed up at a Harry Potter release party dressed up as Hermione should you tell her to give a life in politics?; 9/20/10, 5:33 PM
Automatic_Wing said...: These are not the rubes you're looking for.; 9/20/10, 5:44 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: To the conservatives - take a moment and step back to appreciate the irony:

In less than two years after assuming power, it's now we who are driving the liberals crazy!

I suggest it's a damn good time to bring back the funny farms.; 9/20/10, 6:02 PM
jungatheart said...: "wingardiom leviosa"

Is that a picture of your familiar?; 9/20/10, 6:09 PM
Unknown said...: Some people think they are navel gazing when they actually have their headquarters where their hindquarters usually are (to paraphrase Abe Lincoln).

HDHouse said...

by all means give her a pass on this. if dull as a flat rock is appealing to the right wing, then she is your girl - why she might even be plain spoken enough to give Sarah a run to the money.

She's not dull; she's fun and interesting.

You want dull, you get The Zero, a guy so white he makes Bush 41 look like he has soul.; 9/20/10, 6:14 PM
Anonymous said...: Well, we're about to find out if Delaware is a Marxist state (re; Chris Coons-D). Personally, I'm doubtful given their favorable business climate - historically a great state to set up a corporation.

Then again, Das Kapital may be gaining.; 9/20/10, 6:25 PM
bagoh20 said...: "The strategy is as silly as the Republican over-usage of the word "socialist"; it begs the question "Are people that stupid!?"

I am. I'm so stupid, I think it's THE biggest threat to our nation, because it's an existential threat to a nation dependent on freedom, and that threat has been slowly coming alive for 80 years and speeding up lately. I must be a complete fool, insane or both. Woohooooo!; 9/20/10, 7:37 PM
Steve Burri said...: '...just pretending to be rubes?'

Ha! Amateurs! I pretend that I'm just pretending to be a rube!; 9/20/10, 7:54 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: And if they're "too far to the right" but in fact the electorate is "that far to the right" then who's looking foolish.

That is the problem, isn't it?

The left spent the 8 years of Bush (43) trying to convince the American middle that the Republicans were the extremists, and they (the Democrats) were the moderates. Guess what? They managed to blow that in less than two years. We now know which party holds the extreme views, and which one is closer to the middle of where Americans sit. And the answer is not what the Democrats want us to believe.

The strategy is as silly as the Republican over-usage of the word "socialist"; it begs the question "Are people that stupid!?" Not a question either Party should ask.

They were that stupid to elect a President whose sole qualifications for the job consisted of being old enough, having a Harvard law degree, and one Black parent. And, he could speak well with a teleprompter. That is it. Period.

And, along with him, they gave the Democrats their biggest majorities since 1994. Big enough that they could ram through a lot of extreme legislation without any input or consultation with the Republicans.

And, yes, a lot of the legislation was proto-socialist - but in the socialist mold of Mussolini instead of Stalin.; 9/20/10, 8:08 PM
Alex said...: It's a truism that no liberal commenter will EVER have a positive thing to say about a Republican.; 9/20/10, 9:01 PM
Alex said...: BTW - when has the left ever NOT demonized conservatives? Haven't they been doing it since 1930?; 9/20/10, 9:02 PM
jamboree said...: Who cares? She probably meant "got into" as in "I got into witchcraft for a while" and then messed it up on live TV.

Whoopee.; 9/20/10, 10:57 PM
Opus One Media said...: Oligonicella said...
Oh, oh, oh. HDHouse is no brighter than O'Donnell. It's a run for the money. Seeing as how you're liberal, I have to admit run to is probably what you're used to thinking."

i see that the ironic reference to the "casual malaprop" (topic of the thread) went pow wham zip right over your noggin.; 9/21/10, 6:57 AM
Opus One Media said...: c3 said...
"Given how clearly she is unqualified do you believe she will win in November? If no, then why all the fuss?"

Because this is a serious time in this country and the debate is good for us all because it brings out the issues and focuses us on them. You want the best there is from both sides.

do your share.; 9/21/10, 7:00 AM
chickelit said...: HDHouse wrote: You want the best there is from both sides.

do your share.

That's why we want to hear Coons' side of the story.; 9/21/10, 10:25 AM
Synova said...: "The left spent the 8 years of Bush (43) trying to convince the American middle that the Republicans were the extremists, and they (the Democrats) were the moderates."

The problem with that is that Bush was, is, and always will be moderate. He ran moderate... in 2000 the stuff he said was more or less indistinguishable from what Gore said about most things. He got the Republican nomination by being moderate.

The only thing that Bush was "right" about was the War on Terror. Domestically he was willing to spend, was moderate to liberal concerning illegal immigrants, etc. and his stated opinions on gay marriage are the same as Obama's, aren' they?

But he's made to be scary fringe right-wing Theocrat wanna-be vampire man.

And where does that leave "moderate?"; 9/21/10, 3:08 PM
Synova said...: "That's why we want to hear Coons' side of the story."

The interesting thing to see, and I hope people are still interested enough for us to be talking about it when it happens is...

Will Coons meet O'Donnell for debates?

Or will he refuse?

If he refuses, how will the voters in Delaware react?

(I notice that I'm not including the option that she'll refuse. I hope that assumption isn't in error.); 9/21/10, 3:12 PM