Was Churchill born in the US? Bush was born in New Haven CT.
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He didn’t go to boarding school at the end of high school–he went to Andover instead of going to high school. He lived in New England at Andover and Yale for eight years, ages 14-21 (in most cases anyway–I don’t know his precise age
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when he attended these schools). I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that at Andover and Yale he wasn’t laying on the Texas twang–much more than likely, he took some of the edges off it in attempt to fit in, and there weren’t that many edges on it to begin with, I’d wager. I’ll bet his nickname at Andover wasn’t “Tex” or “Cowboy” or “Mushmouth.”
“Probably more likely” huh? Well, he had parents and older siblings who spoke with no Texas accent at all when he was growing up, and he hung out with a pretty well-off country club crowd.
It’s always interesting to know what you think, of course, but odds are very high that he’s been WAY exaggerating his drawl from the moment in adulthood that he realized he could play that for an electoral advantage. He’s a phony, through and through.
I’m reminded of the scene in Urban Cowboy where Debra Winger skeptically asks John Travolta “Are you a REAL cowboy?” His answer was, “That depends what you think a real cowboy is.”
George W. Bush is as Texan as anybody- he’ll only SEEM like a phony if you assume that a macho, beer guzzling cowboy is the only “true” Texan.
Of course, people who are quick to label W. a phony are mighty forgiving of phoniness in other Texans. For example, Molly Ivins played the redneck, good ol’ gal to the hilt, but that image was even more fraudulent than W’s. She was a spoiled, mega-rich brat who went to elite prep schools and spent her summers in France. Not exactly the image she cultivated, is it?
Does that bother her fans? Not a whit- so, why should W’s admirers care any more than Molly’s fans?
One other thought: Barack Obama has learned to “speak Jive” just the way Barbara Billingsley did, in ***Airplane! ***In an all-black setting, he can talk a little trash and ACT like a guy who grew up on the South side of Chicago.
Now, did Obama grow up in the ghetto? No- he grew up in Hawaii and was raised by a white family. There’s a lot more Steve Urkel in Barack Obama than there is John Shaft, and if you asked him privately, he’d undoubtedly admit it.
To succeed in Chicago politics, he had to LEARN to act “black,” something he had never done before in his life. He’s learned to speak like a Harlem boy or a Harvard boy, depending on the setting. Heck, MOST successful politicians do that! Mario Cuomo can be an egghead or a Guido, depending on his audience.
Why is Bush any different or any worse for switching accents and personae, depending on the setting?
FTR I didn’t start the thread to say Bush is a “phony” in some sense–to be honest, I didn’t think he’d done anything to encourage the stereotypes, and that was part of why I was puzzled. I didn’t see any twinge of Serious Texan in him, phony or not.
About Obama: Is there footage of him somewhere “acting black”?
That’s fairly irrelevant, to be honest. He spent two years there as a baby then grew up in Texas. I know lots of people who didn’t move into Virginia until they were 4-5 and they have some degree of southern accent.
This is clearly misrepresenting me, I said “at the end of high school” not “after high school” meaning he went there for part of what would have been his ordinary high school years. He was at the Kinkaid School in Texas for grades 7, 8, 9, and attended Andover for 10, 11, 12 (most places high school starts at 9 with 9th grade being freshman, 10th sophomore etc.)
Did you know anyone growing up who came to your High School around grade 10 from a totally different region? Did they have an accent totally the same as yours by grade 12? I know in my experience people who came from somewhere far off and went to school with me for the last three years of High School didn’t sound like me and my friends.
A Texas country club crowd.
While it’s been awhile now since Bush was President, I find it amazing that even to this day his opponents adopt the stance of “biggest idiot ever” “except when calling him the smartest, craftiest liar ever capable of maintaining the most elaborate charades imaginable.” Bush hasn’t meaningfully changed his accent since he was elected President or after leaving office, I’ve heard him speak countless times on television as an ex-President, and even as Governor of Texas I don’t feel his accent was dramatically different (some people claim he sounded hugely different as Texas Governor, I’ve never heard it.)
The argument that “he doesn’t sound like any Texans I know!” is irrelevant. As someone who grew up in a place with its own regional accent, I find it laughable to suggest that accent sounds identical when coming out of the mouth of all of its speakers.
If anything the fact that Bush doesn’t sound exactly like you would expect makes it even more likely to me we hear his real accent. Most likely he’s pretty similar to someone like me, I spent most of my life in the south, went to school in New York, then have lived all over the world. As a cadet I actively disliked having a red neck, yokel accent and deliberately tried to change it. As I grew up I quit caring so much, but by the time I moved back to Virginia full time I’ve found that while most people will vaguely note my accent is somewhat familiar, they don’t think I’m a native anymore. Accents can change dramatically or slightly, over time, and without it being a ruse.
I’d say Bush’s accent is likely a fusion accent similar to mine, and that the parts of it that are evocative of a Texas drawl is probably a genuine result of the massive amount of his life and formative years spent in Texas. The reason it doesn’t sound like Rick Perry’s is because Bush has had an extensive life outside of Texas as well, for many of his younger years, too.