That is awesome. I want to read more of both writers’ stuff.
Heh. That’s pretty neat, exactly the sort of skill a politician needs.
Actually, it’s my experience that nearly everyone can do it to an extent. I used to have a job which featured a lot of public speaking and I spoke in front of audiences from lots of different age groups and backgrounds. When I was preparing I constantly found myself using words and expressions typically exclusive to whichever demographic I was to address the next day. They’d just slip in there without my even realising it. I think most people have this facility and exercise it unconsciously in day to day life. If you have a friend who heavily favours a certain word or catchphrase, you’ll probably find yourself using it a lot more around him than around other people. That doesn’t mean you’re mimicking him. It’s just a natural function of your innate ability to build rapport with people.
Obama’s a great speaker, but great speakers possess an enormous variety of different communication skills. This is just one, and for my part I think it’s a rather insignificant one.
Also, Obama’s facility in this regard is not quite flawless. Anyone else remember his arugula gaffe?
He is half black, half white, and has lived in Hawaii, Indonesia, California, New York City, Boston, Chicago, and Washington, DC. Given his background and intelligence, it really should be no surprise.
Also this.
The Clinton talking points are very sticky, I see. It wasn’t a gaffe.
Who was he talking to? Iowa farmers.
Who GROWS arugula? Iowa farmers.
Do you really think he made a huge error and thought he was talking to toney university elites or something? The reference to Whole Foods and arugula wasn’t a gaffe at all. The farmers he was talking to aren’t some sort of bumpkin who’ve never heard of Whole Foods or those fancy salad greens. They GROW those fancy salad greens then SELL them to Whole Foods.
The whole “arugula gaffe” thing really busts my buttons. I find it hard to believe that so many people are so divorced from the production of their food that they’d believe crap like that.
This puzzles me:
Quoting Obama:
“We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states.”
From the article:
Georgia is a a red state. (I guess liberal states worship God too, huh?)
It is an interesting piece, but not surprising to me. Isn’t it fun to have an especially literate President?
The facts of the incident are simple. Some Iowa farmers grow arugula. The clear majority do not. The clear majority grow corn. Obama was speaking in Adel county, whose farmers generally adhere to this principle. At the time, there was not a single Whole Foods anywhere in Iowa.
Now, take a deep breath, pick up your buttons, and think for a minute about why you imagine it is that I brought up that particular example in this particular thread?
Zadie Smith, in the dreadfully pretentious essay referred to in the OP’s linked article, argues that Obama has a flawless ear for regional dialect and is uncannily perceptive to the sensibilities of his audience and the tone of the occasion. Ask yourself: If you were possessed of such astounding faculties, would you have spoken of corn prices at Hy-Vee, both of which are abundant in Iowa? Or, in a county which has neither, would you have spoken of arugula prices at Whole Foods?
I don’t think Obama made a huge error, but he certainly didn’t best showcase his ability to connect with diverse audiences. There are other examples which I shall refrain from repeating for fear of exciting you further. My point (and, yes, I did have one) was simply that Obama’s ability to speak to his audiences isn’t as impeccable as Zadie Smith is making it out to be, which rather undercuts her argument even if you do accept her premises.
Good piece. Obama, is, indeed, the anti-Nixon.
I’m sorry. He doesn’t speak *to *his audiences. He simply *speaks *them. That is, when he’s not *voicing *them.
It’s right there in the article. You can look it up.
Shouldn’t that be “Tongue Fu”?
Well, I guess that sounds like something else. Maybe we should just call him a cunning linguist.
No, that won’t wash either.