Obama code switches [Reader Post]

FLOPPING ACES
By: DrJohn
Friday, September 30th, 2011 at 10:19 am

Harry Reid once observed Barack Obama’s ability to shift between common English and what Reid called “Negro dialect.”

“He [Reid] was wowed by Obama’s oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama — a ‘light-skinned’ African American ‘with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,’ ” Halperin and Heilemann say.

Reid was right, but he was dunned into apologizing for it.

Over at HuffPo I have been informed that this is called “code switching.”

Barack Obama got into some serious code switching last week.

He evoked Martin Luther King. He even tried to sound like Martin Luther King.

“There is a frustrating and bewildering wilderness ahead.”

“We must face prodigious hilltops of opposition…and gigantic mountains of resistance.”

Cue the code switch.

“..we will press awn”

“Ahm gonna press on”

“ahm gonna press on for equality”

“Ahm gonna press AWN for the sake of all those families who are strugglin’ right now”

“Ah don’t have tahm to feel sorry for mahself”

It sounds so phony. It’s blatant pandering.

What ah wanna know is where did he learn to speak in this Southern drawl?

Was it in Southern Hawaii?

Southern Indonesia?

South Chicago?

South Boston?

South Bronx?

Obama tells blacks to ‘stop complainin’ and fight says the AP headline.

Fight who? March on whom?

Obama would have made a wonderful successor to Jeremiah Wright. Then he could have said what he really wants to say.

“God Damn America!”

COMMENT POSTED ON "FLOPPING ACES" RELATING TO THIS ARTICLE:

Nan G says:1

The media and a few commentators tried to hide Obama’s verbal affectations by calling it not PC.
Well, too bad.
Seems many are going along these same lines.
This is a new book out:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/OBAMA-GRAMMAR-Presidents-Bloopers-ebook/dp/B005PB1Q8O
OBAMA GRAMMAR: Using the President’s Bloopers to Improve Your English [Kindle Edition]
by William Proctor.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

President Barack Obama has consistently been extolled as a great writer and wordsmith, but is this praise justified?

To be sure, the president’s oratory has at times been highly effective.
Many cite his rousing speeches as a major factor in his election in 2008.
But the ability to speak motivationally on occasion does not necessarily imply the ability to use good English – or to be a consistently great orator.

A dissection of President Obama’s speeches and remarks leads to the counterintuitive conclusion that the First Wordsmith is, in fact, an occasional stem-winder who is grammatically challenged – a failing that may in the end limit his ability to communicate at the highest level and to establish an enduring legacy in the upper tier of great presidents.

In OBAMA GRAMMAR, William Proctor, a widely published author, editor and grammar consultant, has analyzed the grammar, usage and rhetoric in President Obama’s speeches and remarks over a one-year period.
These presentations, posted on the White House Web site, include approximately 3000 pages of written text.
….
….
….

Your video reminded me of Hillary Clinton’s ”Ahm no ways tarred,” speech.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaDQ1vIuvZI


and,
As for me, whenever I listen to Obama give speeches when visiting foreign lands, he reminds me of a chameleon!  Did anyone notice that he actually tried speaking with an Irish brogue when visiting Ireland?!  LOL  His attempt to be all things to all people is nothing more than another way of revealing his deceptive character.  BeeSting