Ah've come toooo fahhhr

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.