June 2, 2016

"If we turn against each other based on divisions of race or religion, if we fall for a bunch of 'okey-doke,' just because it sounds funny or the tweets are provocative, then we're not going to build on the progress we started."

Said President Obama, doing a rally at Concord High School in Elkhart, Indiana.

Here's the video of it, which is at the top of Drudge right now with the headling "TRUMP TURNS OBAMA INTO STUTTERING MESS":



He does get hung up on the word "if," repeating it perhaps 10 times.

But I want to concentrate on "okey-doke." I knew I had an old post on that subject. Yes, here, from November 2014:
On "Meet the Press" this morning, Chuck Todd was talking to Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell, and he presented one of those amazing Jonathan Gruber clips like this: "This is how Gruber explained taxing high-end Cadillac health insurance plans and sort of doing a little 'okey-doke.'"

I had never heard "okey-doke" used like that. I only knew "okey-doke" as a cute/corny way to say "okay." I Googled and got to Ice Cube's "Don't Fade Me": "I don't fall for the okey-doke/And before I fall for the okey-doke/I let the pistol smoke." Rap Genius explains: "'Okey doke' is slang for pulling a trick on someone. Cube would rather commit murder than take care of a baby that isn’t his because the girl lied to him."

I read all the lyrics. They're pretty evil....
ADDED: Obama's style of stuttering is highly reminiscent of William F. Buckley. I think it's what happens when a man with a will to dominate feels feels utterly relaxed and confident and is enjoying the game.

70 comments:

madAsHell said...

His teleprompter failed him, and left him speechless.

Michael K said...

What progress ?

madAsHell said...

All wee-wee upped.

Laslo Spatula said...

Okey-Doke lyrics a-plenty.

I am Laslo.

madAsHell said...

Corpse man.

madAsHell said...

Stupidly.

Big Mike said...

He does get hung up on the word "if," repeating it perhaps 10 times.

Did someone forget to advance the teleprompter? It's easy to forget that Obama is pretty incoherent when not reading things off a screen.

I had never heard "okey-doke" used like that. I only knew "okey-doke" as a cute/corny way to say "okay."

Me too.

"If we turn against each other based on divisions of race or religion, if we fall for a bunch of 'okey-doke,' just because it sounds funny or the tweets are provocative, then we're not going to build on the progress we started."

Unbelievable. The guy won two elections based on dividing Americans and setting us at each other's throats, and by getting the more gullible among us to fall for "okey-doke" (such as 'if you like your health care plan, you can keep it') and then he stands up and says all that. As I've said before, all sense of shame must have been surgically removed from Democrats as part of their party registration.

In your shoes, Professor, I'd have added the "civility bullshit" tag.

MadisonMan said...

Obama goes to Elkhart because RV sales are up.

I'm embarrassed for speakers when they get hung up on words. It's happened to me and it's frustrating.

buwaya said...

Dutertes problem is he isnt doing his schtick in rap.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Tricking a man into raising a child that isn't his is evil. Killing a bitch who would do that is justice.

Anonymous said...

Seeing Obama get hung up on a word other than "I" is a nice change of pace.

Robert Cook said...

I'm curious, not to say bothered, as to how Ice Cube's bladder can "taste the alcohol" that's filling it.

Ann Althouse said...

"In your shoes, Professor, I'd have added the "civility bullshit" tag."

That tag is reserved for posts about people who are bullshitting about civility, not just for uncivil talk by people who have previously bullshat about civility.

Rick said...

The guy who claimed opposition to his policies is because people don't like the way he looks is lecturing us not to accept divisions on race? The head of a party whose only philosophical principle is that everyone against their plans is racist? A supporter of white privilege - invented so the children of black millionaires get racial preferences over poor Asians and whites?

Not real self-aware is he?

Michael said...

I think "okey-doke" used in that sense is some kind of transferal from "hokey-pokey" the dance. "You do the hokey-pokey and you turn yourself around. That's what it's all about." The children's dance move became slang for some kind of senseless diversion and then just got confused with okey-doke meaning OK, probably because the hokey-pokey is long forgotten (is it?).

George Grady said...

Here's what the OED has about this meaning of "okey-doke" (does this require a trigger warning?):

C. n. U.S. slang (esp. in African-American usage).

1. A deception; a confidence trick or swindle.
1964 in R. D. Abrahams Deep down in Jungle v. 210 The reason why I took you for the okey-dok [sic], is because you was the sharpest nigger in town.
1975 R. Hill O. J. Simpson 13, I put the ‘okey-doke’ on them.
1994 N. McCall Makes me wanna Holler 272 Got hip, and figured out ways to pull the okeydoke.

2. Nonsense, foolishness; insincere or persuasive talk, ‘flimflam’.
1969 L. H. Whittemore Cop! 157 ‘What's happening man?’ ‘Same ol' okeydoke.’
1982 G. Tate in Flyboy in Buttermilk (1992) 21, I took the brouhaha for okey-doke.
1992 T. McMillan Waiting to Exhale (1993) 260 Why did I allow myself to fall for the okeydoke and do this shit?
2000 Essence Nov. 146/2 Men will tell you you're pretty.., but you..can't fall for the okeydoke.

Big Mike said...

That tag is reserved for posts about people who are bullshitting about civility

@Althouse, yes, I am aware. I argue that in this speech Mr. Obama is calling for "civility" without actually using the word.

Achilles said...

Obama was going to unravel under the scrutiny of history. Trump is just accelerating that process.

Wince said...

"If we turn against each other based on divisions of race or religion, if we fall for a bunch of 'okey-doke,' just because it sounds funny or the tweets are provocative, then we're not going to build on the progress we started."

- Said President Obama, doing a rally at Concord High School in Elkhart, Indiana.


Jeez, look in the mirror much? The racially divisive "okey-doke" has been coming from Obama 24-7, despite the sweet rhetoric and the media kid gloves. And he probably sees it all potentially unraveling with a master persuader like Trump.

"Utterly relaxed and confident"? Maybe in his own future economic security, but otherwise, no.

Ann Althouse said...

"@Althouse, yes, I am aware. I argue that in this speech Mr. Obama is calling for "civility" without actually using the word."

Okay. I agree with you. I will add the tag. Thanks for your persistence.

Wince said...

Achilles, swear I didn't see your comment while writing my comment.

But Obama's legacy apprehension is palpable, contra Althouse.

Michael K said...

Obama thinks in rap lyrics. That's all.

PB said...

A man raised in hawaii and kansas who went to the best schools uses "okey-doke"? Isn't that some sort of offensive culture appropriation or is it virtue-signaling?

On the stutter. It's not that he was thinking to fast it's that he was trying to think of something to say, but he doesn't have the self-control to STFU.

Etienne said...

I never voted for him. Whenever he appears on my TV, I change the channel.

I can't stand the lying. Clinton seems to be his clone. Ditto for her.

Draft Kaine 2016.

Qwinn said...

"If we turn against each other based on divisions of race or religion,"

I can see why Obama doesn't want this. He wants *his* side to turn against *us* based on divisions of race or religion - he hardly talks about anything else. He doesn't want us to turn *against each other* though. That would mean his targets would actually respond in kind. That's not allowed. They're just supposed to sit and take it without complaint, forever. It's their not accepting the constant vilification by Obama and his minions that is causing the "divisions". If we would just curl up and die (except for continuing to pay taxes), then we wouldn't be divided at all. Pretty sure that's the excuse for every gulag in history, too, once they decide they can forego the taxes.

Bob Boyd said...

Discrediting opponents of illegal immigration relies on the okey-doke narrative that they are motivated by racism.
Black unemployment is at an historic high. Illegal immigration contributes significantly to the problem.
Suppose Mexicans were all blue-eyed blondes. Would the opponents of illegal immigration suddenly be for it? I doubt it.
And the upper-crust, open-borders crowd, those who benefit from cheap labor, would they find a way to claim moral superiority when they hired illegal white immigrants over American blacks? Of course. They always do.
Would Obama support bringing in more white people to work in America at the expense of black people? He might if he thought it could change a big red state to blue.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

If we turn against eachother based on divisions of race or religion...

This from the man who, holding office as the highest elected official in the nation, nationalizes minor local events from Louis Gates to Trayvon Martin to Michael Brown in which "race" may - or may well have not - have been a factor.

Unsurprisingly, not mentioned are "divisions of wealth or income." Consider two hypothetical stump speeches:

If you do not have as much wealth or income as some of your neighbors, you have been cheated of your rights. When elected I promise to take from your neighbors who have more and give you the stuff free.

If some of us do not have as much wealth or income as others, often it is due to chance of birth - either of position in society or of innate abilities. But much can be overcome and gained through hard work. When elected I promise to lighten the burdens of taxation and regulation that Government obliges you to carry on your chosen path to advancement.

Quaestor said...

Obama's style of stuttering is highly reminiscent of William F. Buckley.

If one were to edit out Buckley's stammering, repeated words, ums and ahs, what would remain would be elegantly constructed prose establishing flawlessly logical arguments. Obama's cleaned up speech remains banality-laced obfuscation.

Michael K said...

"On the stutter. It's not that he was thinking to fast "

No, the mouth is 78 rpm and the brain is 33 1/3.

For those old enough to remember.

Dagwood said...

Our first black, uh, Max Headroom.

Bill Peschel said...

Althouse thinks he sounds like William Buckley, Ace of Spades thinks he stutters like a mental defective. I just don't know who to believe anymore.

jr565 said...

""If we turn against each other based on divisions of race or religion," it seems that the lefts playbook consists entirely of creating divisions based on race and religion then exploiting those divisions to get political power. So, this is just projection.

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, one learns persistence debugging computer programs. One has no choice. ;-)

Scott M said...

I have a will to dominate and feel utterly relaxed, but I've never said "if" that many times in a row. I assumed it was a glitch in the Matrix.

rhhardin said...

My own guess is that Buckley actually had a stutter that was suppressed by a certain style of letting out breath slowly while talking, which was taken as his style.

rhhardin said...

On Obama unraveling: lips are there to to keep your mouth from unraveling.

Paul Snively said...

My guess is the high-school students in Elkhart, Indiana, are looking at each other and asking "WTF is he talking about?" Both for the archaic "homespun" folksiness that no one in Indiana uses, and for the audacity of the lack of self-reflection.

The problem with this sort of ignorant audience pandering is that the audience can almost always see it coming a mile away, and if there's one thing the average teen-ager anywhere won't tolerate, it's having their intelligence insulted by a purported adult.

Anonymous said...

Someone has to say it:

I knew Buckley.* Professor, Obama is no Bill Buckley.

Obama is clearly trying to say something and can't figure out what it is or how to say it. Buckley never stumbled 10 times in a row over the same word because he was uncertain how to articulate his thoughts. He employed some strategic "uhs" -- possibly to avoid sounding too slick. I always thought it was more of a patrician affectation than anything else.

*Really. When I was in college, I worked for his brother Jim (in the days when "Senate intern" had no salacious undertones), and then worked for Bill at NR.

Roughcoat said...

In Britain back in the day it was considered very fashionable for an upper class English gentleman to stutter. It remains a common affectation among the educated elite. The actor Hugh Grant has a classic English toff stutter. It's a way of communicating one's sense of innate superiority while at the same time evincing a sort of humble-brag sensibility.

madAsHell said...

He wants to join the Towson State debate team.

Etienne said...

Michael K said......For those old enough to remember.

Off topic, but I loved those EP records (size of a 45, but played at 33 1/3 RPM). You got four songs and that was usually the only four songs you ever wanted to hear again.

My front license plate was made by my niece in her art class "OKEYDOKEY" (we only have to have one plate in Oklahoma).

I guess that may mean something different than I thought... Hmmm....

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Obama is lost in that video clip. He doesn't have the teleprompter working properly to make him appear erudite. Suddenly his crutch, his prop, his words that someone else likely wrote have all disappeared.

You can see the panic in his eyes. The deer in the headlights look. Oh Shit!! Now what do???? What should I say????? Crap I'm left to my own devices. On my own. So he stutters frantically. Searching for some words to say...stalling mentally for time and repeating.......if if if if if if....and and and and....uh uh uh uh.... then he falls back onto what is familiar...some ghetto slang. Without his crutch, he is lost. Deer in the freaking headlights!

The man is a fraud. About as real as those cardboard and plywood facades in those fake western towns in an old Hollywood western.

pdug said...

believing okiedoke makes you bamboozled by a flimflam man! Great Googlie Mooglie!

Rusty said...

I just think that Trump is living in Obamas head.

mikee said...

Obama wants to stop Trump from saying that Obama's policies and their implementation are bad things. Good luck with that, Mr. President.

buwaya said...

There are indicators of executive effectiveness. The US Presidency (the entire executive hierarchy and associated influencers of policy), not just the person on top, is globally critical.

Alan Greenspan says disaster is looming because of slow productivity growth and economic growth. He is too nice to say why, in detail, but generally the state has gotten too big for its britches and is choking growth. The USGov has been a leader in this, especially the Obama administration, and by that I don't mean just the skinny fellow who stutters.

"http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2016/05/26/greenspan-western-world-headed-for-state-disaster.html"

"Greenspan said the main thing confronting our country and the global economy is long-term economic growth.

“Our problem is not recession which is a short-term economic problem. I think you have a very profound long-term problem of economic growth at the time when the Western world, there is a very large migration from being a worker into being a of recipient of social benefits as it is called. And this is legally mandated in all of our countries. The size has got nothing to do with the rate of growth in economic activity, but if we stay down at the two percent economic growth in the United States and elsewhere, we’re not going to be able to fund what we are already legally obligated to spend,” he said."

Fernandinande said...

madAsHell said...
He wants to join the Towson State debate team.


Which language were they trying to speak?

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Fernandinande said...
"madAsHell said...
'He wants to join the Towson State debate team.'

Which language were they trying to speak?"

Ebola.

Darrell said...

Has a sitting President ever spoken out against the presumptive nominee of another political party? Against any candidate? How many times has Obama done it now without comment from the Media?

Bilwick said...

"Okey-doke." This from the Smartest President Ever.

n.n said...

Unqualified progress. Unknown in relative terms. Negative in absolute terms.

Bart Torvik said...

"Obama's style of stuttering is highly reminiscent of William F. Buckley. I think it's what happens when a man with a will to dominate feels feels utterly relaxed and confident and is enjoying the game."

And what explains this written stutter? ;)

Ken B said...

Well, I don't find the Buckley analogy convincing. Watch Buckley do it. You see the raised eyebrows, and the light in the eyes. There's no *groping* for a word.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

President "if you like your plan you'll be able to keep it" should probably shut the fuck up about "okey-doke," don't you think?!

Michael K said...

""Okey-doke." This from the Smartest President Ever."

But he thinks in rap lyrics.

CWJ said...

What progress ?

It bears repeating.

Michael Fitzgerald said...

madasHell said it right in the first comment. Obama looks at the teleprompter and his eyes go blank, then someone yells out from the crowd which throws him too... "If, if, if, if, if, if, if,... LOL's at madasHell's follow through too- All wee-wee'd up... Obama the greatest orator of all-time!

Lance said...

"when a man with a will to dominate feels feels utterly bored and over-confident and is enjoying the game."

FIFY

Real American said...

Obama's entire strategy for running this country is to sow division upon grounds of class, race, sex, pretend sex, religion, lifestyle and whatever else he can think of. That's how community organizers work. That he would now complain about it is utterly lacking in self-awareness. Or he's a lying piece of shit hack that will say anything for political reasons.

tpceltus said...

His stuttering reminds me of every male NPR anchor who seem to think Scott Simon's stutter is the way to go. Once you realize it, it's really hard to ignore and is a click-off to another station for me.

gbarto said...

Buckley was small time TV star on PBS. I adored him, but he was not presidential material.

ken in tx said...

When Buckley stuttered, he was trying to think of a polite way to communicate what an idiot he was talking to. He didn't stutter when he got fed up and stopped being polite to Gore Vidal.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Althouse is more right here than you'll ever know.

Obama, Mr. Genius if career trajectory no further than this point matters considered, is as adept as Buckley of course it would only be natural for Obama to "fake sincerity" by attempting to mimic WFB.

A genius masterstroke, we shan't be seeing their likes together again.

Guildofcannonballs said...

If you contrast, then compare, my avatar and The Garden of Earthly Delights you had best be prepared to be awed by that found.

Guildofcannonballs said...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/justice-departments-scrutiny-of-fox-news-reporter-james-rosen-in-leak-case-draws-fire/2013/05/20/c6289eba-c162-11e2-8bd8-2788030e6b44_story.html


http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/07/whefb_bill_buckley_playboy_and.html

Of course only a horrible racist would allow Struggle to be used here, among whites, so Obama was right to use his executive power like We All Know Buckley Would.

Duh.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Agony is the price
That you'll pay in the end
Domination consumes you
Then calls you a friend
It's a twisted fall
Binds are like steel
And manipulates the will to be
And it's hard to see
How soon we forget
When there's nothing else
Left to destroy
It's a useless ploy


http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/pantera/dominationhollow.html


Guildofcannonballs said...

My nest song "Starting Over Every Day" will include the lyric "poop on the paw on the pillow" and make Dylan weep at his comparable lack of gravitas.

Next song too, but nest too too.

Guildofcannonballs said...

I should like to think I ought let Bob know (finally for once): it was just business, nothing corporate aka human via law because we are civil and Not Steel Panther Shitting In The Streets.

jg said...

he was remarkably composed emotionally while flailing about like a moron who hadn't really come with any thoughts of his own

still give you that ol' thrill up the leg?

i did enjoy the heck out of okey-doke tho. he almost saved it.

dbp said...

WFB was not regarded, especially by himself, as a great public speaker. Yet at the end of a bout of pauses, he would come up with a word like tergiversation. Obama, greatest orator of our time, comes up with okey doke. He is easily the most over-rated person on the planet.