"Not to be confused with a stutter, which the president decidedly does not have, the intellectual stammer signals a brain that is moving so fast that the mouth can't keep up. The stammer is commonly found among university professors, characters in Woody Allen movies and public thinkers of the sort that might appear on C-SPAN but not CNN. If you're a member or a fan of that subset, chances are the president's stammer doesn't bother you; in fact, you might even love him for it (he sounds just like your grad school roommate, especially when he drank too much Scotch and attempted to expound on the Hegelian dialectic!)."
Meghan Daum explains it in the LA Times. And, righties, quit mocking:
[T]he godfather of the intellectual stammer is arguably none other than the paterfamilias of the conservative movement, William F. Buckley Jr.... In fact, if the people critiquing Obama's meandering speech patterns were to see an old "Firing Line" segment, I daresay they would think Buckley was drunk or otherwise impaired.
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164 comments:
Buckley's stammer was always entertaining. I miss him.
Speech impediments aside, none yet can explain his regular outbreaks of stupid.
You listen to Obama's mouth going and notice that there's no brain anywhere in sight, and if you're a certain sort of person you assume that it's because the brain's gone on ahead. Other explanations are possible.
The "intellectual stammer" meme would be more plausible if the words eventually coming out of Obama's mouth reflected any thought.
It's not the stammer per se, it's whether (or not) anything intelligent is sandwitched between stammers. Thet's the big difference between Buckley and Barry.
Wasn't Buckley's first language Spanish? Also, I got the impression from listening to him that his "stammer" was a result of searching for the choicest turn of phrase for what would seem a banal truism when plainly spoken.
But he could also use the stammer offensively, to take his interlocutor off guard, or defensively, to filibuster until he found the proper rejoinder.
I would say that Buckley was a great conversationalist. President Obama is occasionally a good talker.
Also a great conversationalist, whose stammer - admit he, he often uses one - is undoubtedly the result of too much Scotch? Hitchens.
She's saying that Obama is pretty much a dorm room bullshitter and that's supposed to be a compliment?
". . .the intellectual stammer signals a brain that is moving so fast that the mouth can't keep up."
Funny how we never heard all of these interesting psychological explanations (jet lag, momentary forgetness, tangle-tongue, intellectual stammering) whenever Dubya said "newkular" or "is our children learning" or any of a host of verbal tics that had the howler monkeys on the left flinging their feces.
"A brain moving so fast." It's amazing the delusions lefties will embrace to avoid facing the fact that they placed a dimwitted, third-rate ward heeler and flatulently oratorical yammermouth in the Oval Office
If Obama is that smart how come he wont release his school records?
Comparing Obama to Buckley. Jesus Christ on a stick.
Oh for crying out loud, Buckley is to Obama as Tchaikovsky is to Vanilla Ice.
Buckley used his pauses both to summon the precisely correct word and to allow the listener time to digest the last one. Obama is simply looking for a novel way to obfuscate without wandering too far from his whhelhouse. Buckley's speech was designed to convey ideas, Obama's is designed to create impressions.
Bibi's speech to Congress
Obama's speech to Parliament.
View and contrast.
One speaks clearly, with clarity of thought.
One constantly says "let me be clear" without thinking.
Sorry you can write all the excuses for this guy you want. He's an empty suit.
The right word is usually worth waiting for.
Meghan Daum pokes her thumb in our Augen.
wv = "glizean" An apt adjective describing televised season finales.
Obama can think of lies twice as fast as he can say them.
there's a 3000% chance that Obama's misunderstanding of liability insurance was caused by plate teutonics.
Comparing what eventually comes out of Obama's mouth and Buckley's mouth is like comparing what comes out of a horse's ass and an artesian well.
After all his hemming and hawing, you would expect something intelligent to squeeze out instead of the mindless, lefty sewage. Puh-leeze. Intelligent? My kids made more sense when they were eight.
I'm not sure I buy this line of argument at all. As an on-air personality, someone who makes a living by talking, you develope, within a few months of full-time work, the ability two operate on two completely different tracks. It's quite stunning when you actually realize you're doing it.
Your mouth is on semi-automatic while your brain is consciously thinking a completely different thought or thinking ahead on the topic you're already speaking about. The result is a smooth, uninterrupted flow of speech coming out of the noise hole.
Sure, DJ's of various stripes are less or more adept at this, but, for the most part, even a full-time jock in a shitty little burg has this down within a couple months of starting or they are shown the door.
Do you mean to tell me that some airhead classic rock dj in Pissant, USA has more on the ball mentally than a world class politician?
Doubtful. Sounds like ass-kissing to me with dubious stretching for external examples to back up said ass-kissery.
"It's not that Obama can't speak clearly."
I just read that again. Isn't that exactly what she IS saying?
Can we say that SHE can't speak clearly?
If Obama was that smart, he would presumably occasionally say something "smart" when speaking ad hoc without a teleprompter or rehearsed "talking points."
Instead, I am amazed at how banal and how dated his impromptu expressed sentiments generally are.
Nice to see the onjective media in full campaign mode.
The excuse making and explanations are underway. All criticism will be met with stern fact checking and righteous correction.
Oh to be Barry.
Obama doesn't stammer, he just suffers from occasional kinetic brain-fart actions.
Does this explain why he doesn't understand car insurance?
Obama is often tasked with speaking about things he knows very little about. Also, he must often defend the indefensible.
If you are bullshitting, you must sometimes pause to make sure you're getting your story straight.
Obama has a talent to do the acts from the liberal alternate reality while he mouths traditional wisdom that is 180 degrees opposite from what what he is doing. So far no one has the nerve to call him on it, except for that "racist" Joe Wilson's moment.
I understand this argument, and work with people who do this. The thing is, though, they are smart, as you can tell from wading through their stammering and looking at the contents of what they said. This is not the case with Obama.
@scottm
Do you mean to tell me that some airhead classic rock dj in Pissant, USA has more on the ball mentally than a world class politician?
Doubtful.
Don't sell yourself short. Very possible. If Obama were a world class politician, then absolutely. You sound like your certainly more on the ball than the third-rate con man.
If you are bullshitting, you must sometimes pause to make sure you're getting your story straight.
Have you seen the Geitner video on the Kahn-rape thing yet? Almost as painful to watch as the Queen/toast/orchestra flub.
you're, that is.
I think this is exactly the affectation. However, he clearly adopted it to allow his brain to catch up with his mouth. It is slightly different than the pause/stammer that rules at NPR which is an adaptation.
My favorite example of this kind of thing was a professor I had (who is now a good friend) who started out to explain something at the blackboard, paused for a moment, and then said "Let me take back what I was just going to say."
Ahh. OK.
Don't sell yourself short.
I appreciate that. For the record, though, I never worked in classic rock or in Pissant. For various reasons, dj's of all genres use classic rock djs as their "polish" for jokes and insults.
"A brain moving so fast."
That just reminds me of Bingley's reasoning on his awful letter writing in Pride and Prejudice and Darcy calling him out.
A stammer is ok so long as what you actually say is useful.
Barry = Buckely NO
Barry = Foghorn Leghorn YES
@scottm
I never worked in classic rock or in Pissant.
Can you do a Wolfman Jack impersonation?
Not a convincing one.
Scott M
Tried to look it up, not sure if I saw the exact bit you were referring to. When Geithner dissembles he doesn't do the stammer. He just turns red.
You know how news shows sometimes get handwriting experts and body language analysts for fluff pieces about politicians? I'd like to see some professional poker players on cable news analyzing politicians' tells.
There's another thing that's pretty familiar to people who have hung around academia long enough - Meghan Daum's argument. It's usually used in defense of a failed tenure candidate. "The candidate never published any papers because he had TOO MANY ideas rolling around in his head." We keep hearing all of these arguments about how brilliant BHO is, but we never see any concrete proof beyond a pedestrian autobiography.
I think Ace Of Spades has it up.
It's too bad, because if Daum had written this five years ago, she might have gotten away with the lie. Firing Line had been off the air for long enough that the vagaries of memory might have left the claim sounding plausible, and Youtube did not yet exist as a medium by which the claim might clearly be shown to be false. Unhappily for Daum, Youtube afford us the opportunity to see many old Firing Line segments, in none of which we find a Buckley who sounds drunk or, worse yet, Obama.
It's all a matter of timing.
". . .the intellectual stammer signals a brain that is moving so fast that the mouth can't keep up."
What's the mystery here? Isn't it well-known that an object's speed is inversely related to its mass?
I use the intellectual stammer as well, except instead of repeating a syllable I say the word "like".
@Lem
If Obama is that smart how come he wont release his school records?
He's admitted using, and dealing drugs during that time in his life, so I imagine his grades weren't that great.
I must say that in researching my comment above, Daum has done me the favor of providing an excuse for watching a number of Firing Line clips, which is always time well spent. Like Fred, I miss Buckley, but I miss shows like Firing Line even more, and while nothing short of the second coming will revive the former, any enterprising television network could spring the latter from the grave.
This is one of the silliest things I have ever heard the lapdog press try to push.
Well at least since they tried to tell us John Edwards was a real "family" man.
Nicholas Fehn. A brilliant brain going too fast.
So Elmer Fudd was a genius.
Obama's mouth is leading from behind.
I wouldn't want William F. Buckley as president.
I wouldn't want William F. Buckley as president.
Someone from the Boston telephone directory, perhaps?
This is what happens when you so tightly hitch your horse to the Obama wagon. You find yourself having to pen fellatio styled articles saying he's not really a dunce, but so smart even his mouth can't keep up.
Comedy gold
It cannot be that Daum is unaware of YouTube where her premise can be dismissed with just a few of several hundred videos. The children over there know better than what Daum would have her readers think.
"John Edwards was a real "family" man."
Edwards is such a family man that one wasn't enough.
Scott -- Indeed. The first few hundred.
I add here, lest anyone get the wrong idea, that I love Buckley.
How can you have an "intellectual stammer" when everything you say is a commonplace?
I see I'm not the only one here with that thought. Maybe there should be a poll.
Ms. Daum salutes Mr. Obama as an intellectual, a university man, a propounder of philosophy, yet I can't recall a single instance of him deftly explaining an idea or cutting to the core of a complex issue. Ah, his defenders will say, that's because he's so intellectual. He knows nothing is simple. The mealy-mouthed caveat is a sign of genius. Really? Let's turn to Ms. Daum as she unwittingly demolishes her own argument:
With his slouch, his glazed-eyed stare and a speaking style that suggested the entire Oxford English Dictionary was flipping through his mind while he searched for a word like "dithyramb," [William F. Buckley Jr.] makes Obama's extemporaneous speech seem canned — not to mention pedestrian — by comparison.
Isn't that exactly what his critics are saying? Everything he says is canned, pedestrian. Do you, Ms. Daum, really suggest that the great evidence of his giant brain is an ability to stammer through trivialities as he searches for cliches?
If you're going to make an argument like this, you need quotes. Quote me some Obama where his hemming and hawing actually delivers an idea worth contemplating.
Oddly, I thought the person Ms. Daum was going use to defend Obama was George Herbert Walker Bush. GHWB had a habit of speaking in non-sequiturs. Why? Because he was a genius, of course. He was processing ideas faster than his mouth could move. In between thought A and thought B a whole logical flow (and various articles and verbs) would be left out.
Prove that I'm wrong. Hint: You'll have to prove a negative.
I don't question Obama's smarts. He seems pretty bright to me. But being smart is not much of a virtue, all by itself.
One man applied his smarts, and we got the light bulb.
Another man applied his smarts, and we got the Holocaust and World War II.
A third man applied his smarts, and we got Beverly Hills, 90210.
Just another set piece in the media campaign to re-elect BO.
Oh, for crying out loud. Really? I don't see evidence of high intellect at all. Point me to the "intellectual" stuff, please? Or does intellectual mean something I possibly haven't fully grasped? OR! Let's just freaking assign it to him, I guess. Because of the way the man speaks.
Yeah, America did that. Showing suspect intellect.
But, hey, he got Bin Laden.
I love how, in trying to explain Obama, his supporters hurt him:
First, he never has to try very hard, because they'll cover for him. So he'll always be mediocre (or less) with their "assistance."
Second, as many have said, they just make his stupidity stand out by calling him smart. If he was actually smart, he'd say something intelligent sometimes - rather than something that merely sounds smart.
Third - Buckley? Buckley? Are you kidding? "Buckley is to Obama as Tchaikovsky is to Vanilla Ice" sums that up nicely.
Fourth - talk about making your supporters look stupid! Obama apparently does that just by existing. He stands there - anywhere - causing them to babble nonsense, and the rest of us to arch our eyebrows, and screw up our faces in the get-the-straight-jackets position.
It was scary during the election. Three years into his presidency, it's simply amazing. Not as amazing as the phenomena's lack of serious coverage (we our so under served by our media, and experts on psychology, currently) but amazing enough to make the rest of us spit our coffee out every once in a while.
Now, please excuse me, because I have to get something to wipe off my keyboard.
I wonder if destroying our computers is part of their plan,...
So, maybe it is true that O'bama confused the 50 states with the 57 varieties of Heinz ketchup. By the time he got mid-sentence, he was already on to selecting his choice for dinner.
Obama made friends with the right people. That is a demonstration of smarts.
That kind of smarts is the most valued kind in our society.
"That kind of smarts is the most valued kind in our society."
Until you get to be the top dog and actually have to, you know, do something.
One man applied his smarts, and we got the light bulb.
Who would that be?
Joseph Swan.
This ties nicely to the Professor's post on female dominance of psychiatry a few days ago.
All data will be interpreted according to the victim hierarchy.
Bush doesn't speak clearly. The interpretation is that he's an idiot leading a pack of idiots.
Obama doesn't speak clearly. The interpretation is that he's extraordinarily intelligent as are his followers, and those who notice the speaking errors are idiots.
But of course there's no bias. Only by pure coincidence does every analysis advance liberalism.
Chip,
I just fired my entire blog-comment-writing team. I hope you're happy...
Hoosier Daddy said...
"This is what happens when you so tightly hitch your horse to the Obama wagon. You find yourself having to pen fellatio styled articles saying he's not really a dunce, but so smart even his mouth can't keep up."
Unfortunately, the urge to lovingly fondle a higher-up infects people on both sides of the aisle. Yesterday evening, I was listening to conservative talk radio—surprise!—on the way home, and there was some woman sitting in for Mark Levin. And when she referred to him, she didn't say she was sitting in for Mark Levin, she said she was sitting in for "the great one, Mark Levin." This happened at least three times before I couldn't stand it any more and switched back to EWTN. Praising your boss is one thing, but "the great one"? Really? It sounded like something out of "The Office."
(Parenthetically, either Levin is humble enough to be mortified by such fawning nonsense, or, if he likes it, is too much of a douchnozzle for the label to be even close.)
@Marshal:
Now that was a brilliant take. :)
"...Unfortunately, the urge to lovingly fondle a higher-up infects people on both sides of the aisle..."
Yeah but my point was slapping on the kneepads to make some bullshit excuse for Obamas lack of intellect. The man has amply shown hes of average intelligence at best but the left will insist he's a genius.
I don't know Levin enough to say if he's great or not.
Was toasting the Queen when God SAVE THE QUEEN was playing an intellectual stammer?
Bush's "mis-speak" proves Bush was stupid, even though things happen afterwards prove him prescient. Obama can't utter a coherent thought without TOTUS proves him brilliant with an "intellectual stammer". We live in the world of ONION.
Simon:
Much like Rush uses the tag "with talent on loan from God", Mark Levin uses "the great one" as his tag, so that is what his sub was referring to.
A couple of years ago I had to do a presentation on Medicare Advantage at a conference. When my boss asked me why I didn't have any notes I told her I don't need them when I know what I'm talking about.
I didn't stutter or stammer once but that was because I hadn't started drinking yet.
@HoosierDaddy
Doesn't surprise me about you. Studly as ever. ;-)
Hey Darcy is back! That's a hot pic too. If Titus sees sees that he'd turn straight.
Hoosier Daddy said...
If Titus sees sees that he'd turn straight.
She does have a way of of making men stutter.
Thanks Darcy. I only use notes when discussing quantum physics or knitting.
That Obama required notes to make a short toast, which he still botched, pretty much sums up his intellect.
If Obama crapped his pants, his cheerleaders would say it's because he has an intellectual spastic colon.
When he stammers, it's because his brain moves too fast for his mouth.
When people think he's full of shit, it's because he has trouble articulating his brilliant thoughts into words dullards can understand.
When he looks incompetent and in over his head, it's because he's bored and the job of presidency doesn't challenge him enough.
Could these people please, just once, admit that his shortcomings are not evidence of his superiority?
ET gets the win with this:
If you are bullshitting, you must sometimes pause to make sure you're getting your story straight.
Or, you must couch your terms carefully for future plausible deniability.
You'd think we could quote him, free of the umms and uhs, and he's sound brilliant, if this was an accurate explanation.
You'd think he wouldn't rely on the teleprompter so much.
Some people really are blind.
Or, you must couch your terms carefully for future plausible deniability.
Now you're citing Der Slickmeister Willie. He was the king at this. I don't believe our President has mastered this skill.
You can't talk your way out of trillions of dollars of debt, no matter how articulate you are.
I'm ready to vote for a short, old, ugly candidate of average intelligence as long as he is honest, wise and has the right politics. I did vote for McCain in 2008, in the primary and general elections. He sure was short, old and ugly...
I knew that you all would find something else to slam Obama for. I am not a great Obama supporter but I believe what she is saying is true. Brain moves so fast that the words just can't come out. My grandson, at 7, has so much going on and so much to say that he can't get it all out.
Seen that before with some really smart people. And,sometimes, what comes out is not comprehensible because we are getting every 3rd or 4th word.
Understandable.
So what you are saying now is that Buckley, because he was a conservative intellectual could get away with the "stammer" but Obama, a liberal, cannot. Typical rightie speak.
Sometimes you Obamaphobia goes too far. I'd prefer him over the "great ideas" guy Gingrich.
Vicki from Pasadena
J -- Still waiting for you to tell us how felon John Edwards was going to eliminate poverty.
Why can't you tell us this awesome plan?
Funny. I (seriously) thought a similar thing about George Bush when a all the mocking mockers were mocking him as being dumb.
Some people's brains do get ahead of the physical effort used in speaking or writing, and words overlap.
And before you mocking mockers come up to the surface of your pool again, tell me what Barack's courses and grades were again?
Excuse me if I don't see the intellectual stammer thingy.
O'Bama needs to decide what he is going to say. Say it. And then stop rewriting the script over and over and over again.
"Let me be clear ..."
"As I said before ..."
Because he had an intellectual stammer that he can never quite perfect the correction to?
Puke and puke and puke.
My grandson, at 7, has so much going on and so much to say that he can't get it all out.
Obama in 2008: Messiah!
Obama in 2011: He's on the same level as a 7 year old.
No arguments from this corner.
@vicki -- No. What we are saying is that Buckley's "stammer" didn't stop him from saying intelligent things.
Meghan Daum's argument completely falls apart on this point. She writes:
With his slouch, his glazed-eyed stare and a speaking style that suggested the entire Oxford English Dictionary was flipping through his mind while he searched for a word like "dithyramb," he makes Obama's extemporaneous speech seem canned — not to mention pedestrian — by comparison.
Daum attempts to set up a parallel -- Buckley = Obama -- then admits that when you actually make that comparison, Obama comes off as canned and pedestrian.
Obama seems like a reasonably bright guy, but he's no Socrates. Attempting to prove that his very lack of impressiveness shows his smartness is laughable.
I have no fondness of the glibness=smart school that rules the politics and the media. But nothing prevents a slow talker from learning an issue, gathering insight and understanding, and expressing that intelligently.
It's not so much Obama we mock, but his apologists.
Apparently John Edwards was going to eliminate poverty by saving money on vowels.
J -- We still await this grand plan that would have eliminated poverty. Oh well.
In the mean time, good luck with the stalking.
Isn't it obvious? Edwards was going to send us all hundreds of thousands of dollars in "hush money" every year. But you 'wingers ruined it!
Is there anything that Barky has said that isn't boilerplate, separated, of course, by that intellectual stammer?
Sheesh.
Poor John Edwards. Here he was, an oily ambulance-chasing attorney of the worst kind who had parlayed his ambulance chasing into a Senate seat. And he was going to eliminate the hitherto perpetual human problem of poverty, too.
A low-down dirty shame that he will stand wrongfully accused of federal crimes in a matter of days. Who will walk about his 15,000 square foot house? Who will tend to his wife's grave? Truly a tragedy.
Im not here to tell you anything
You told us, Jolly, that Edwards had a workable plan to eliminate poverty and then failed to back it up with how that was going to work. At best, you're a seventh-grade insultbot.
Hal Duston said...
"Simon: Much like Rush uses the tag 'with talent on loan from God', Mark Levin uses 'the great one' as his tag, so that is what his sub was referring to."
If that is so, that makes it worse, not better.
Like a ball carrier running toward the wrong end zone, it's nice to at least complement him on his speed. He's fast, just like a conservative.
"It's not that Obama can't speak clearly. It's that he employs the intellectual stammer."
Translation: he's searching for a cogent thought.
Or, the prompter shit the bed.
J -- Our nerves are deeply touched by your anti-Semitism and odd, threatening demeanor, J.
But about this grand plan that John Edwards has to eliminate poverty...
Was it the intellectual stammer we heard when Netanyahu handed Little Zero his lunch last Friday?
Not to mention that the use of the word, "employs", implies it's intentional. Buckley might have had the occasional, "Mmm", but Zero strings together, "Uh"'s, as if he were doing beadwork.
J said...
Obama speaks well, certainly in comparison to the usual GOP yokel
Reading a teleprompter does not constitute speaking. Given his "corpseman" and "Teutonic shift" moments, he really doesn't do that well, either.
Off the cuff, I'd put any of the Republican hopefuls up against him in a heartbeat.
"...I knew that you all would find something else to slam Obama for...."
Well its not like he doesn't provide enough opportunities. Thinking Austrian is a language, or saying corpseman, or teutonic shift isn't evidence of a fast moving brain as much as a lack of one.
"...Obama seems like a reasonably bright guy, but he's no Socrates..."
He's barely in the same league as Norm from Cheers. And I'm being generous.
J -- Why won't you tell us about this awesome plan to eliminate poverty? Is it possible to implement from a 10x10 cell in a low-security prison? What if you have the help of your cellmate?
You're all idiots.
Edwards's plan for eliminating poverty is thus:
1) Install turnstyle at bottom of driveway.
2) Have an affair with everyone below the poverty line.
3) Not sue when they release their juicy tell-all book.
4) Royalties will assure they have a living wage for several years.
Excuse me for some heresy, here, but I never really believed that Obama was all that smart. He's certainly smart enough—and he can be articulate when paced by a teleprompter—but where is the evidence that he's a gifted thinker?
As for his so-called "intellectual stammer"… what a bunch of nonsense. I see no indication of his mouth trying to catch up with his brain, but rather the pretense of an actor trying to appear thoughtful. If that's not case, where are the words of wisdom we'd expect to hear once his mouth did catch up?
See, J. Coketown told us the plan. That was so easy. But you...you are too proud to stoop to such a level. You are too smart. It shows in your spelling and punctuation. And we all know anti-Semitic socialists are the smartest.
How goes the stalking?
@HD and chickelit:
Aww. You guys are sweet. :)
But back to the subject here, I'm just so tired of hearing how smart this President is. I'll admit, I thought he was pretty clever during his campaign. I feared (for good reason) his socialist bent.
Now, I am convinced that he's not particularly smart at all. Smug and arrogant, yes. He certainly thinks of himself as brilliant. An opinion which, sadly, America is paying the price for.
When Buckley stammered, it was because of his rich command of the English language, and his search for the precise word to convey his reasoned and defensible position. When Obama stammers, it is to cover up the paucity of his ill-thought and indefensible position with enough tissue-thin gobbledygook to fool the listener.
Imagine what his high school and college essays read like.
Zero is just another empty leftist suit with extremely wealthy backers/handlers.
Without them, at best he'd be another mayor of a crumbling rust belt city with numerous trips with the tin cup to DC for financial assistance.
J: Love the way your insults involve the working class. To call someone a transmission specialist or a chevy mechanic is the ultimate insult from a suburban hipster Mencken/Hegel-loving moron.
"He's barely in the same league as Norm from Cheers."
He reminds me more of Cliff.
I doubt J has a job at all. Or a college degree.
If he had either, perhaps he'd have the skill to tell us about this magnificent plan to eliminate poverty that John Edwards will, tragically, take with him to prison.
Meanwhile, the vile threats and insults continue.
(Keep in mind Miss A--you're responsible for any terrorist acts/threats which go down in yr comboxes)
I hope Althouse sees this threat.
Henry, i agree with you. However, they all pretty much sound canned. It's too bad that President Obama couldn't sound like candidate Obama did. I'd probably like him better. I never would mistake him for an intellectual giant, like (eventhough you all hate him) Bill Clinton, but he is a smart and educated man, and can be eloquent. It is a refreshing change from the faux "aw shucks" of a Bush or McCain or Romney. They, with the exception of McCain, never had less than a silver spoon in their mouth. In the case of Bush and Romney it would probably have been platinum. It is too bad that Romney didn't get the charisma that his dad had. He was a truly awesome man and so concerned for the welfare of the downtrodden that he devoted much of his life to providing housing for the less fortunate. A truly great man. if Mitt had 1/10th of his dad's empathy and charisma he would have been elected in 2008. Instead we got Mitt, gag.
There isn't a candidate around today that has anything new to say or anything constructive to say. If one of them would get off their arses and say something that actually mattered, I'd probably get behind them. But the evangelical right wing, take my rights away from me people like Palin, Gingrich, Bachman and the like give me the willies.
Still think most of the righties are suffering from Obamaphobia. It will get them in the end and win the election for the Democrats in 2012.
Vicki from Pasadena
Is there really any objective evidence that Obama is soooper smart?
Has he innovated any new ideas or devised uniqure plans or thoughts other than the same old same old? The stimulus was his first big thing as president and it was a dismal failure- he had three months to sketch it out but he handed that off to Pelosi & Reid. That was the dumbest thing anyone could have done.
You said Edwards had a plan. I just wanted to know what YOU thought that plan was. No amount of googling jollyrogerimachildxx@yahoo.com is going to tell me what YOU thought. Missing the barest of points by such a wide margin appears to be your strong suit. Insulting working class people seems to be be a close second, followed by completely baseless accusations.
Wasn't it you that said,And make baseless accusations too. wow they taught you good at Peoria transmission tech school?
Tell me, please. Since you're above baseless accusations, apparently, how do you come by information that puts me in the klan?
You're an intellectual molehill and a rhetorical punch line. Oh, and you can bench 400. So at least you can find some work carrying around the foppish bath house owners you tend to run with.
Good luck with that.
P.S. I loved Buckley, didn't espouse any of his beliefs but I loved him. Nothing sounds better or more comforting than an intellectual who talks like one. Elitism at its best.
Vicki
Vicky- have you ever voted for a Repub for president?
I decided to cut him slack for talking during the Brit anthem since the only anthem he is familiar with is The International.
Vicki never voted for a Republican for dog catcher. She thinks the free money train in exchange for nothing is going to go on forever, just like it has for her entire lifetime. Why wouldn't it?
As long as you have no inkling of an understanding of economics, it all makes perfect sense.
Yes I referred to Edwards' economic plans.
Which, in particular, did you support? Please be specific.
Actually vicki I am suffering from debtaphobia and defaultaphobia. Obamaphobia not so much. Maybe Obama will win in 2012 and we will be another 10 trillion in debt and bombing some other 3rd world dictator. But you'll have your Obama.
1: 33. why don't you learn to read, Miss Nachos?
Perhaps when you learn to write? The “yr” is particularly irritating.
J said:
Good luck ducking when the red laser hits yr forehead, you sad bag of human trash.
5/25/11 1:11 PM
Buckley spoke through his nose. He wrote better than he spoke.)
As to Obama, it's interesting to note he also spoke at the British Parliament. And, his speech was a bust. Since no one applauded. He got nothing to bounce off of.
And, yes. When you're a public speaker, or speaking in public, not only does a man have to be sure his fly is closed. And, a woman hasn't hooked the back of her skirt into her panty hose. But you need audience participation.
Not that I know how you'd speak to a bunch of deaf people. But words? It doesn't come off as the best way to do it.
And, nobody does "cold shoulders" quite like the British.
Meanwhile? Except that the bamster told Israel to go jump in the sea ... talking, here, Bibi talked to an enthusiastic chorus.
Of course, the Brits don't vote in our elections. Nor, should the dead, presumably.
Is Obama in trouble? To which side are you addressing this question?
Oh, yeah. Palin's been written off as dead. And, according to Drudge ... she's in the race! And, she's ahead of any other GOP mover & shaker.
The only question being if people will watch a two-hour documentary. We'll soon find out in Iowa!
So much about politics is not taught in schools. For instance, we've heard that Truman didn't seek a 2nd term. As well as having heard that he fired General Douglas MacArthur.
Gee. Was Truman's wounds, politically speaking, in 1952, self-inflicted?
Don't worry. My question is not a test question. But I have an opinion.
When he looks incompetent and in over his head, it's because he's bored and the job of presidency doesn't challenge him enough
That's what Valerie Jarrett said about him a few months ago. At least *she's* on his payroll.
@vicki -- I actually agree with you on Clinton. Outside of his personal life his presidency looks better and better every day.
(Keep in mind Miss A--you're responsible for any terrorist acts/threats which go down in yr comboxes)
What is a “combox”?
You just got DSL, or is it dialup.
Oooh, Burn! Heh.
Seven Machos said...
J said:
Good luck ducking when the red laser hits yr forehead, you sad bag of human trash
Seven, I do believe that's a felony (the threat).
Whether he's drunk or not.
Henry said...
@vicki -- I actually agree with you on Clinton. Outside of his personal life his presidency looks better and better every day.
That means nothing. We're getting to a point where we can say the same about Carter.
Stick to like your ebonics Mein Kampf or whatever you and your buttboys read out at the bunker.
Godwin's Law officially invoked. Folks, we have a winner. I repeat, we HAVE a winner.
But the evangelical right wing, take my rights away from me people like Palin,
What rights are those?
I think this deserves the, "William F. Buckley was a friend of mine. And you, sire, are no William F. Buckley."
Coketown said:
Could these people please, just once, admit that his shortcomings are not evidence of his superiority?
Ummmmm, no. Because the people who voted for Obama have been telling themselves all their lives that they're superior to everyone around them. So admitting that Obama isn't really as smart as they've said he is is an admission that THEY were never as smart as they thought they were.
Thus, the delusional, contorted explanations for why the rest of us are morons who can't possibly comprehend the brilliance of Teh Won continue...
@windbag
Agreed.
What is it about a basement futon, a microwave, and a pile of Hot Pockets wrappers that drives some to invoke the Nazi reference?
J?
Well at least since they tried to tell us John Edwards was a real "family" man.
He is. He's such a family man, that he needed at least two families.
Obama's mouth is leading from behind.
best explanation of Obama's speaking style by MayBee, 12:09 pm
Why am I thinking that 30 years from now there will be this Academy Award winning movie called:
"Obama's speech"
I wonder who play the Australian speech coach.
for your stuttering enjoyment
@Phil
Gotta love K-K-K-Ken....
It's not an "intellectual stammer," it's the Harvard Stammer, a well-recognized phenomenon in academia, especially in New England. I think it is an affectation that probably originally came from New England prep schools (which is perhaps why Buckley had it even though he was a Yalie).
The primary use of the Harvard Stammer is to send the signal that you went to Harvard, but it has a very effective secondary effect of convincing susceptible people that you are "thoughtful" and not too brash (which is why people often grow out of the stammer later in life).
I am just trying to imagine how completely shameless one would have to be to come up with a term like "intellectual stammer."
Despite all of the protestations to the contrary I have yet to find any evidence of this man's brilliance; or even his adequacy.
@Seeing Red
But the evangelical right wing, take my rights away from me people like Palin,
What rights are those?
Repeat. "What rights are those?"
Serious question.
@ Michael
Yale is in New England.
Michelle told a group of British school girls (a very diverse group of school girls, I might add), that her husband Barack O'Bama is "useful."
Just thought you ought to know.
The stammer's more Forrest Gump than WF Buckley.
Clear on the other end of the spectrum, NTTAWWT.
Like being tough, if you have to tell people how smart you are, you ain't.
"Let me be clear" is one of Obama's tells. That's the signal that what will come next is some intentional obfuscation or some weak, qualified statement. He's just trying to butch up the rhetoric to make a weak statement sound stronger.
Another one is "As I have always said..." That's the signal that he's about to throw someone under the bus.
I don't buy the "intellectual stammer' business. Buckley actually said something intellectual after the stammer.
I've noticed the professorial nature of his stammer before, and I think it's a purposeful affectation on his part, to make himself seem more thoughtful and professorial.
I remember seeing this quite a bit at university -- the innocent quirks of great professors would be mimicked by lesser professors.
I'm not surprised that liberals and academics (but I repeat myself) are taken in by the con. To a certain extent, I think, these artificial trappings of the academy helped win our hostess's vote. "Hey, he's like me," she thought. "He can't be that bad -- he can't be a full-blown socialist nincompoop."
By the way -- nice homophobic cesspool-filling at 6:15, J.
J talks dirty and uses techxt lingo. OMFG!
He ain't got no intellectual stammer. He's the real thing, a bona fide moron--no stuttering required.
Pogo at 5:08: "Like being tough, if you have to tell people how smart you are, you ain't."
I'm not sure if that was meant for you, J, but it fits.
'Capichay?' Douche-nozzle.
I voted for Arnold in California, twice.
Ha!!!
Oh so the hallmark of a soooper smart person is that they innovate and create new programs? Wow, that would make just about everyone in congress except Paul Ryan an idiot.
No
Vicki from Pasadena
I could buy that if the ultimate result weren't so inane and banal.
I think he just isn't that smart, regardless of what his acolytes believe.
No. Think back - Woody Allen and your drunken grad school roommate talked FAST - Obama doesn't. He's just mimicking cadences for effect- he has several depending on audience.
Employs is the operative word. He *employs* the stammer. Meghan is either a patsy or it's all she knows, coming from the land of actors.
I thought WFB was drunk or at least drank. Look at his bleary Bing Crosby eyes as well as the coloring and texture of his skin.
I missed WFB's prime time, but I remembering reading about his accent in the Preppie Handbook when I was in junior high. Wait...how old is Obama? He may have been just within range to read it too - in his early twenties maybe?
You've got to hand it to Joe Biden. There's never a stutter when he talks. Out of his mouth flow words, ideas. For example:
"Gird your loins!"
I'm sure he is intelligent. He's also a gangster, like ever politican who ever polluted this Earth. Jefferson and Obomber can both go burn in Hell with the Nazis and FDR.
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