Gaffe-ology

Note: Headline was in all caps, so I posted it the same way.

how long have we heard and read about the gaffes by Bush and then Palin. For years at least.

Now a new book is coming out on obama's lack of command of the English language. This is interesting because so many once said (notice the past tense) that obama was America's smartest president ever.

Most know language isn't everything, but it does serve as a window into a person's intellect.

Here's some more information about this new book.

source

Strategery, misunderestimated, refudiate: former President George W. Bush and Sarah Palin have been chastised by journalists and academes for their inventive language and occasional grammatical gaffes for years. Now it is President Obama’s turn. Here comes “Obama Grammar: Using the President’s Bloopers to Improve Your English,” a new book that parses Mr. Obama’s command of the language, or lack thereof.

“The first wordsmith is, in fact, an occasional stem-winder who is grammatically challenged,” says author and Harvard-educated historian William Proctor, who pored over 3,000 pages of the president’s official speeches and remarks. He’s convinced that Americans — particularly students — can learn a little something from Mr. Obama.

and

“His speeches reveal that at this point, he is simply not in the same rhetorical-grammatical league as a Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy or Ronald Reagan,” Mr. Proctor says.

Well, that may knock obama down several pegs off the "smartest American president" pedestal some had tried to place him on shortly after his election.

Still wondering where the separation comes in from complaining about how much poor lil Sarah gets bashed to how many obama bashing threads you post.

I'm thinking that some on here dont know what a hypocrite is.

That being said, there is not a person on this earth that cannot be broken down on some level. EVERY SINGLE PERSON has short-comings. If you are hoping for a president that has none, well, hope in one hand and crap in the other...see which fills up first.

I do think it is hilarious though, that with all the legit things there are to use to criticize obama (assassinating a natural-born american, for example), you all still choose to pick at the things that simply DO NO MATTER, and have NO RELEVANCE.

reply to post by captaintyinknots


so i tale it palins " mistakes " dont matter either ?

Originally posted by ignorant_ape
reply to post by captaintyinknots

 

so i tale it palins " mistakes " dont matter either ?

Mistakes, as in errors in speech? No, they do not. Mistakes as is abandoning office in the middle of an elected term? Oh yeah they do.

Just like obama making a mistake in a photo, or in a speech, does not matter. His choosing to assassinate and american born? Yes, that does matter.

As i said before, you can nitpick anyone. There is not a perfect person on this earth. Everyone has shortcomings. Hows about we focus on the things that actually affect anything?

yeah well we have sit here and listened to 12 years of left bashing the rights intelligence

its only fair cant hang in the game dont start it.

and my typing skills isnt the greatest isnt the best constantly get blasted for it in numerous threads around here

not a perfectionist never claimed to be the smartest dude in the room never was put on a pedstal like the current potus and all those dumb little right wingers.

the thought never occurred to their detractors that they owe there freedom and their rights to a bunch of people who could neither read nor write.

too many people on here just cant seem to fathom that criticism is a two way street.

This exists for the same reason all the silly crap about Bush existed. Money.

A fool and his money are soon parted... and i'm willing top bet there are several fools just itching to pay for this.

But you know what? It's a free country and the billionaires of ATS and the Tea Party are free to spend their money however thy like. Why not order several copies?! One for each room!

Originally posted by centurion1211

“His speeches reveal that at this point, he is simply not in the same rhetorical-grammatical league as a Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy or Ronald Reagan,” Mr. Proctor says.

Well, that may knock obama down several pegs off the "smartest American president" pedestal some had tried to place him on shortly after his election.

You missed the next line...

“Even as we explore Mr. Obama’s errors, we should not lapse into smug, finger-pointing complacency. His mistakes should serve as a reminder to the rest of us that we, too, may need to clean up our technical language skills.”

Fact is, pubic speaking...with attendant gaffes...are no real measure of intelligence. Most folks would rather be gut-shot than have to speak in public, so hats off to anyone who has the gumption. Including Republicans. But making up words is a little rich.

I have also taken note that some of my best professors couldn't spell worth scata.

Toronto's tag-team mayors...Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dumber, come to mind as they talk of saving money by closing 'liberries'. Now that speaks for itself!
Just sayin...

Originally posted by neo96
yeah well we have sit here and listened to 12 years of left bashing the rights intelligence

its only fair cant hang in the game dont start it.

So, in other words, you think that its was unfair when 'liberals' did it, therefore it makes it okay when you do it?

Arent you just doing what you condemn the 'liberals' for doing?

Partisan are all the same, no matter what 'side' they claim.

reply to post by ARealandTrueAmerican


"so in other words" which means something i didnt say but hey feel free to take pot shots at other posters instead on comment on the subject matter of the op seems just have a knack for it

here there anywhere i comment hey feel free to continue doesnt mean i have to respond.

fyi partisan is not an insult which apparently it was suppose to be.

have better things to do with my time

reply to post by neo96


actually, i directly quoted you. You were saying you hate it when liberals do it, which then justifies you doing it.

Thats called 'hypocrisy'. People who arent hypocrites dont do what they condemn others for doing.

Carry on with your off-topic deflection and personal attacks.

here's a little bit about Obama's writing "skills" too.

a lot to be desired

Obama was prompted to write by an earlier letter from a Mr. Jim Chen that criticized Harvard Law Review's affirmative action policies. Specifically, Chen had argued that affirmative action stigmatized its presumed beneficiaries.

The response is classic Obama: patronizing, dishonest, syntactically muddled, and grammatically challenged. In the very first sentence Obama leads with his signature failing, one on full display in his earlier published work: his inability to make subject and predicate agree.

August 29, 2011 Early Obama Letter Confirms Inability to Write

"Since the merits of the Law Review's selection policy has been the subject of commentary for the last three issues," wrote Obama, "I'd like to take the time to clarify exactly how our selection process works."

If Obama were as smart as a fifth-grader, he would know, of course, that "merits ... have." Were there such a thing as a literary Darwin Award, Obama could have won it on this on one sentence alone. He had vindicated Chen in his first ten words.

grammer checker anyone ?

read the entire article .... it's good !

Originally posted by ARealandTrueAmerican

So, in other words, you think that its was unfair when 'liberals' did it, therefore it makes it okay when you do it?

This pretty much sums up the entire rational of the right with their attitude towards Obama since Nov 2008.

They feel Bush was treated unfairly and overly criticized, so they've made it their priority to dish it out twice as hard while ignoring Bush's actual track record (while hiding behind a "but i hate ALL government!" rational).

Thing is.... no one has the sack to actually come out and admit that it's all been out of spite.

Originally posted by xuenchen
here's a little bit about Obama's writing "skills" too.

a lot to be desired

Obama was prompted to write by an earlier letter from a Mr. Jim Chen that criticized Harvard Law Review's affirmative action policies. Specifically, Chen had argued that affirmative action stigmatized its presumed beneficiaries.

The response is classic Obama: patronizing, dishonest, syntactically muddled, and grammatically challenged. In the very first sentence Obama leads with his signature failing, one on full display in his earlier published work: his inability to make subject and predicate agree.

August 29, 2011 Early Obama Letter Confirms Inability to Write

"Since the merits of the Law Review's selection policy has been the subject of commentary for the last three issues," wrote Obama, "I'd like to take the time to clarify exactly how our selection process works."

If Obama were as smart as a fifth-grader, he would know, of course, that "merits ... have." Were there such a thing as a literary Darwin Award, Obama could have won it on this on one sentence alone. He had vindicated Chen in his first ten words.

grammer checker anyone ?

read the entire article .... it's good !

Uhhh..Your big zinger is...

Then student Obama wrote:
"Since the merits of the Law Review's selection policy has been the subject of commentary for the last three issues"

When he should have written:
"Since the merits of the Law Review's selection policy have been the subject of commentary for the last three issues,"

Jesus...really?? If that is your "gotcha" moment then you lost the battle with the first post.

The media rarely took Sarah Palin or President Bush to task for an " inability to make subject and predicate agree" they were taken to task on their knowledge of history or frankly comical statements

Content...not Grammatical syntax

If the new high standard is whether "subject and predicate" consistently agree, then I doubt you want to continue to compare Pres. Bush and the rest of the GOP field to the current President.

BTW - The only time I see the "smartest President in history" monikor tossed about is by the right wing. Right alongside "Messiah", yada yada.

IMO Teddy Roosevelt was the Smartest President in history. Devoured books, sometimes 3 a day. Photographic memory, spoke and read in six languages, wrote over 35 books on Science, Politics, the animal kingdom etc.

Originally posted by Indigo5

The media rarely took Sarah Palin or President Bush to task for an " inability to make subject and predicate agree" they were taken to task on their knowledge of history or frankly comical statements

You must have slipped into our universe from some parallel plane if you really believe that to be the truth.

The MSM was all over them for any and every slip - because the MSM wanted obama elected and showing his predecessor and the current VP candidate in a bad light was an easy way to help that happen.

But now you think it's bad if someone does the same thing to obama?

Oh, to understand the media bias towards obama, doesn't GE own MSNBC? The same GE whose CEO is also obama's "jobs czar". The same "jobs czar" that is sending thousands of GE jobs to china?

Originally posted by centurion1211

Originally posted by Indigo5

The media rarely took Sarah Palin or President Bush to task for an " inability to make subject and predicate agree" they were taken to task on their knowledge of history or frankly comical statements

The MSM was all over them for any and every slip - because the MSM wanted obama elected and showing his predecessor and the current VP candidate in a bad light was an easy way to help that happen.

Wow...Maybe you didn't notice that Pres. bush was putting his foot in his mouth consistantly long before anyone even knew who Pres. Obama was. But if you want to believe that Pres. Bush's Bushisms were some conspiracy to get President Obama elected...even though He wasn't running against President Obama, then I guess we are entitled to our delusions...

And speaking of...

Oh, to understand the media bias towards obama, doesn't GE own MSNBC? The same GE whose CEO is also obama's "jobs czar". The same "jobs czar" that is sending thousands of GE jobs to china?

Bushisms to Obama to MSNBC to GE to Jobs in China?...Glen Beck is that you? Got a white board next to your computer with lots of lines and connections?

reply to post by Indigo5


And so now the proof that obama does the same thing.

But where is the MSM and certain ATS members to also make fun of obama for it?

Care to continue the OP discussion on how "the smartest president" seems to not have the vocabulary to match that lofty title - even with the help of a travelling teleprompter?

Originally posted by centurion1211
reply to post by Indigo5

 

And so now the proof that obama does the same thing.

But where is the MSM and certain ATS members to also make fun of obama for it?

Well maybe it is because Pres. Bush Gaffes were hilarious...like this..

"Amigo! Amigo!" --George W. Bush, calling out to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Spanish at the G-8 Summit, Rusutsu, Japan, July 10, 2008

While President Obama? Who really gives a crap if the subject and predicate match in syntax? Really??

The idea that you think Bushisms and Sarah Palins ignorance of basic history is on the same scale as a grammatically misconstructed sentence...well it seems desperate and painfully so.

Either way, this thread is somehow both strange and boring and frankly a little sad. I'll leave you to it.

Originally posted by Indigo5

The idea that you think Bushisms and Sarah Palins ignorance of basic history is on the same scale as a grammatically misconstructed sentence...well it seems desperate and painfully so.

Ah, but you're conveniently forgetting obama's infamous "57 states" gaffe.

Don't know about others, but I would prefer a "goofy gaffe" to one showing that a person running for the highest office in the country doesn't even know (or remember) how many states make up the country. Goes towards, if obama doesn't even understand the country at a grade school level, imagine what else he doesn't understand at the far more complex levels required to actually run the country.

Well, the result of that lack of knowledge as expressed in obama's gaffe are now quite obvious for all to see - both here and in Europe.

reply to post by Indigo5


If the entire aticle is so trivial in your view,

why such a long and detailed response ?
(a response with little substance)

Obama did write it, or was it a "helper"?

If Obama did not write it, then he himself still missed the error.

must be an over reaction on your part to be so sensitive.

Nature has its' way of building defensive walls when illness is present !

Unaided, Obama tends to the awkward, passive, and verbose. The phrase "our concern in this area is most appropriately directed at any employer" would more profitably read, "we should focus on the employer." "Concern" is simply the wrong word.

Scarier than Obama's style, however, is his thinking. A neophyte race-hustler after his three years in Chicago, Obama is keen to browbeat those who would "even insinuate" that affirmative action rewards the undeserving, results in inappropriate job placements, or stigmatizes its presumed beneficiaries.

re-read the entire article for details....the record can spin both ways!

Like Duke Ellington says:

reply to post by xuenchen

Originally posted by Indigo5


Either way, this thread is somehow both strange and boring and frankly a little sad. I'll leave you to it.

edit on 4-10-2011 by Indigo5 because: (no reason given)

edit on 4-10-2011 by Indigo5 because: (no reason given)