Political Punch

Hearing Hillary's pathetic excuse for an accent is like hearing nails on a chalkboard. The reason people are pointing it out is not because it was some Drudge story, but because of her futile attempt to deliver a certain vocal characterization. Her sanctimonious sense of self-importance shines right through those badly spoken lines.

They are both slick politicos that say to me that there will be no change in America for at least the next four years after the disaster that is Bush, Corruption will continue to tear away the last vestiges of the economy, social problems will escalate, and no one responsible for the illegal murder/oil grab in Iraq will be brought to justice, the rich will get richer, and the poor will be further ground into the dirt...same ol' same ol'...

ahahaha - what is funny is the defenders of Hillary claiming a Matt Drudge conspiracy. Talk about talking points - geeze. Is this what the Daily Kos told you??? It works both ways, my sweets.

I first heard the Hillary "accent" on talk radio and it had nothing to do with Matt Drudge or Fox news - Puhleeze...

At first I was thinking - what the??? But then they explained, of course, it was her rendition of a famous hymn - but still.... I've listened to plenty of high school orators do a better job 100 times over. Hillary was shrill, condescending and arrogant. There was no passion in her voice, only shouting which anyone could do. I had no idea why she thought she could throw her voice - and this idea that she spent time in Arkansas has anything to do with it is a pathetic reach.

It was simply awful and I was embarrassed for her and all black people. I was comforted when a black woman called in and said exactly the same thing and she felt like it was a slap in the face to black people. She was quite upset and rightly so.

Oh my, if this woman gets into the white house, where can I hide? At least Bush's southern drawl is real and he usually minimizes it when he's in Wash, not the other way around. This was pandering to the black community and trying to be something she is not and not qualified for.

As a person from Birmingham, i had to laugh when I heard Hillary with her fake southern accent. Hollywood and most other people around the nation that have never visited this state still think we talk in this antebellum accent. Yes, we still have a southern draw but not this Scarlet, pull up the mule accent in which Hillary was trying to imitate. Thanks Hillary, but if i wanted a socialist government i would live in China.

Of the two, if any has the right to make any claim, it is Obama simply because he is of racially mixed parentage. Whether Obama was born in 1965 or 1961, it makes no difference.
Mrs. Clinton's drawl was a bit much.

Opportunists.

I would say the Hillary thing is worse. Obama's stunt may have been maladroit, but his point stands: thanks to the civil rights movement, all blacks in America, and not just descendants of slaves, were able to be part of the American Dream.

It seems the Clinton kool-aid drinkers can't take a little criticism. Face the facts, all politicians are slimeballs who would do anything to buy your vote. Mrs Clinton is no more from the south than she is from New York. She is an opportunist, just the rest of them.

It is time to fire your government. It is time to take the country back from the democravts and republicans. When you pull back the sheets, you can't tell the difference between the parties...

I lived in Arkansas for many years and never heard a drawl like that. In many ways, Arkansas is more Midwestern than Deep South, including linguistically.

At first I thought you were being unfair to Ms Clinton, since, it seems clear, she was quoting from text that was written in black dialect. However, I was floored when I actually viewed the clip. I couldn't help but cringe at the obsequious nature of her obvious pandering. I felt like I was watching Linda Blair's head twist around and spewing green vomit. There really is something very disquieting about this woman.

Tapper seems to have "curiously lapsed" into an
affected "Drudge drawl." It is you and your cohorts in the mainstream press that are following a careful script, namely that Clinton is scripted. Every one of the journalists who reported on Clinton in Alabama at first failed to mention the "accent" until it appeared in Drudge, then they reported it as proof Mrs. Clinton is "carefully scripted" apparently without knowing and/or reporting she was quoting a black hymn. This is jounalistic dishonesty and intellectual laziness.

sen. clinton did very well. sen. obama is a contender- where was the other party? Just remember 6 years of bush- they both look look better every day!

I agree. non-story. Please find something of importance to write about.

Be fair, Tapper. Hillary spent a number of years in Arkansas and being back in the south or around southerners for any time, always brings back MY accent...why accuse her of being pandering for something so human? Take issue with the issues, Jake. Save the the personal putdowns for the irresponsible journalists.

There was nothing phony about Hillary`s accent in her speech yesterday at Selma. Your trashing of her accent comes from that rightwing whack job Matt Drudge.
It is obvious that you get your talking points from Drudge which makes you a foot soldier of the radical right. You should go work for Fox News-where your rightwing bias would fit right in.

I'd cut Hillary some slack...I may be phillygirl, but my accent can change depending on who I am talking to or what I am saying...I had 2 co-workers from Baahston who came here YEARS ago...one had no discernable accent, and the other sounded like she just came down I95 for the day...I have a sister in Dallas and spent time in the South growing up, so my speech does drawl from time to time

Obama and Hillary are both frauds. Hillary's newfound dialect almost made me throw up, and Obama's new "black leader voice", one which I have never heard him use before, was hilarious. But Hillary's performance was truly disgusting. I will never vote for either of those clowns.

Jake, I admire you but this story is irresponsible, principally for the reason Ed has pointed out. Before the remark in question, Obama laid the groundwork for making "Selma" a metaphor for the whole Alabama civil rights struggle going back to Rosa Parks in 1955; it was that ongoing struggle that he was saying sent ripples across the world, and Selma was a piece of that struggle. Virtually every day, George W. Bush says something that, if parsed out of context in the way you've quoted Obama, is demonstrably false. Just check out Slate's ongoing collection of hundreds of "Bushims." With regard to may of these, Bush is obviously using a shorthand or imprecise language, such as "Our enemies think every day how to destroy this country, and so do I." And you in the press -- appropriately -- treat it as a nonstory, as long as Bush or his spokesman promptly clears up the misunderstanding, which Obama promptly did yesterday. Given the context and the quick explanation, this is a prime example of lazy "gotcha" journalism; and, what's worse, biased lazy "gotcha" journalism. This is a nonstory. Pull it down.

hey jake, is Ed right - did you take Obama's remarks out of context? That's not very nice.

It's nothing more than politicians playing to (and playing up to) their audience: Hillary in adopting a Southern drawl and Barack in crediting civil rights for his very existence. I wouldn't read too much into any of this unless Hillary starts reminiscing about the antebellum South and Barack starts organizing civil rights marches.

Now, don't put too much emphasis on the change in Hillary's accent. I have found that being around people from another part of the world can change how I speak, and that totally unconsciously. I spent a few hours with French Canadian musicians at a folk festival several years ago, and suddenly I was pronouncing "accordion" as "accordien," and "Canadian" as "Canadien." Just being around them, and conversing with them, caused me to "Frenchify" my speech.

Hillary is from the South (or at least spent a good deal of time there in Little Rock), Bill has a very southern speech pattern, and now she's plopped into the folks in and around Selma for this event, so it's not surprising that she should "go with the (linguistic) flow," you know?

That it helps her "fit in" and perhaps raises her approval among those voters is just a bonus.

Ed

Jake, C'mom! A scandal because Barack was born in '61 and the Selma march was in '65? Read the 3 paragraphs before Barack's reference to Selma and Barack is clearly talking about the civil rights movement as a whole. He mentions women deciding to not ride the bus (1955) and JFK (who died in 1963). He was clearly not crediting the actual '65 march in Selma with his parents union, but with the march toward justice beginning in Montgomery, AL in 1955 that changed the conscience of a nation. You've clearly missed the point. Here are the 3 paragraphs.

"Yet something happened back here in Selma, Alabama. Something happened in Birmingham that sent out what Bobby Kennedy called, “Ripples of hope all around the world.” Something happened when a bunch of women decided they were going to walk instead of ride the bus after a long day of doing somebody else's laundry, looking after somebody else's children. When men who had PhD's decided that's enough and we're going to stand up for our dignity.

That sent a shout across oceans so that my grandfather began to imagine something different for his son. His son, who grew up herding goats in a small village in Africa could suddenly set his sights a little higher and believe that maybe a black man in this world had a chance.

What happened in Selma, Alabama and Birmingham also stirred the conscience of the nation. It worried folks in the White House who said, “You know, we're battling Communism. How are we going to win hearts and minds all across the world? If right here in our own country, John, we're not observing the ideals set fort in our Constitution, we might be accused of being hypocrites.” So the Kennedy's decided we're going to do an air lift. We're going to go to Africa and start bringing young Africans over to this country and give them scholarships to study so they can learn what a wonderful country America is.

This young man named Barack Obama got one of those tickets and came over to this country. He met this woman whose great great-great-great-grandfather had owned slaves; but she had a good idea there was some craziness going on because they looked at each other and they decided that we know that the world as it has been it might not be possible for us to get together and have a child. There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama, because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born. So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don't tell me I'm not coming home to Selma, Alabama."

When I return to the south, where I lived for 10 years, I also revert to a curious accent. Most cannot help when their speech reflects what the ears hear.

Obama's comments were clear to me when I heard the speech (which if you have attended services in a black church)which displayed perfect pitch! Clinton's accent was bizarre except when she was clearly reading.Even then her condescending dialect was off-putting but what else is new.