In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.
Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on CBS's 60 Minutes on Sunday witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal tick, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth.
But Mr. Obama's decision to use complete sentences in his public pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last eight years many Americans may find his odd speaking style jarring.
According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota, some Americans might find it "alienating" to have a president who speaks English as if it were his first language.
"Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement," says Mr. Logsdon. "If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist."
The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete sentences in his speeches, the public may find itself saying, "Okay, subject, predicate, subject predicate -- we get it, stop showing off."
The president-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.
"Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she said.
Today's blog was inspired by the last three comments on yesterday's blog, which broke the news that Sarah Palin is getting $7M to prove she can read and write, or at least dictate to a ghost writer that can, as SemiSarcastic comments, translate "Palinese" into English.
Don't know how far along they are in settling a deal, but I did get my hands on the proposed table of contents for the tome. Take a gander below to find out what kind of horseshit you'll be able to buy at Barnes & Noble next Christmas:
116 comments:
LOLOLOLOLOL
Dr B, you have outdone yourself again
I met a woman last night, a lifelong Republican from Brooklyn, who said she waited until virtually the last moment before deciding on her vote for president - in the end, it was Sarah Palin who tilted her away from McCain, and toward her vote for Barack Obama.
Barack has more intelligence and intellectual curiosity in his little finger than Palin has, period. He also writes his own books - she would never, ever be able to write an interesting, compelling, intelligent book on her own, and probably not even with a ghostwriter.
Sarah Palin is ambitious and a very quick study. However, her
extremist ideals and ignorance are frightening. The fact that
some think she would be a good candidate is truly terrifying. Be afraid America...Be very afraid.
$7 million for a coloring book? Or will it be ghostwritten? She hasn't demonstrated any ability to string together a complete, coherent sentence. Got that right Doc.
Maybe she could write a new "Mad Libs" book?
$7 million will buy a lot of clothes at WalMart.
If there ever was a book that would HAVE to be ghost written, a book "by" Palin is it! I have been so pleased with the election of Obama for many reasons, not the least of which is...we actually have a president who can write his own books!
I don't think it is too much to ask that a candidate for the second-highest office in the land have more than a fifth grader's knowledge of geography and a six grader's knowledge of civics and English. Ms. Palin may be "smart" but she is woefully uninformed.
This will rank right up there with Monica Lewinski's, and the future Joe the Plumber books. No wonder the publishing industry is in trouble. Millions of dollars for books to be returned from the bookstores unsold. You could have had at least ten really good writers/books for the same investment,
I think it's just wonderful that someone will pay this creature $7 million for a whole SERIES of run-on nonsense sentences. How many 15-minute segments of fame does Mooselini deserve??
Say it isn't so Sarah !!!! Refuse all offers of a book deal.......aren't you just a regular hockey mom who happens to be a Governor???? I don't know many hockey mom's that can make millions writing a book. Why can't you just serve your country and stay away from the almighty dollar !!
So, this book will be fiction, I take it? Save your money.
If you want to know about Palin, read the Alaska newspapers online for free; Anchorage Daily News, Juneau Empire, etc.
People in the Lower 48 aren't paying attention to what she says. Don't you have to sell the books to make the money?
Sarah Palin is a nitwit and an embarrassment.
I refuse to spend one cent that will wind up in her pocket.
What she deserves is an IRS audit for ripping off the citizens of Alaska and GOP contributors.
I believe that under Alaska's ethics laws, she cannot profit like this while in office. This is worth looking up.
Will she be worth $7 mil. in 2 years?
Doesn't Alaska law prevent her from signing a book deal while she's Governor?
Sarah Palin??? Please!! Back woods, country bumpkin, thinking Africa was a country not a continent!
She is highly unqualified to lead this great nation! Anyone who thinks other wise has a comprehension issue.
Have you even listened to her jibberish? She's a joke that is looking for celebrity.
Use her book pages to wipe up in the outhouse.
save a little sympathy for the poor soul who will have to edit her "document".
But don't offer any sympathy for the publisher with 50,000 "remainders" taking up warehouse space.
Only in America is such an improbable story possible. You don't have to be intelligent; you don't have to admit you were found guilty of ethics violations when you were; you can incite racial hatred with impunity; you can use sarcasm over substance as your rhetoric tool and ... Bingo! You're a bestseller
Sarah Palin -- A supreme opportunist, but is not bright and knowledgeable, or truthful--qualities you would want to see in the leader of your country.
Maybe if she can explain the per diem stuff she claimed, family travel expenses charged to the state, and show receipts for building her house people might not be so bitter about her. She does need to learn how to talk but they teach that in grade school.
Sarah Palin is not ready to be a prime time player or president. I cannot believe people really want someone who recently said not once but in 3 different interviews: "me not being a dictator". Give Sarah a dictionary and ask her to study her grammar, give her a ghost writer to write the book. You betcha!
now jest hold on a dang minute. I said all along that she wood do a grate job. You all are just jealous. I wood shore go bear huntin with her. She's just a good old girl from the north slope so quit harpin about it. I hope she makes lotsa money so she can drill her own oil wells.
Palin is popular with the reactionary hard-core base of the GOP, a segment that is shrinking in numbers. Most Americans think she's an unqualified airhead who has trouble forming a coherent sentence, let alone writing a book.
I would love to see Palin write a book. She can't even put words in the right order in a simple sentence. Let her be what she is: tabloid and celebrity entertainment tv fodder. To compare Obama to her is insulting (not the way you did it doc, just that there's no comparison - he's articulate, she's incoherent).
Not once have i heard anyone claim she has more experience than Obama without putting the term "executive" in there. This is a woman who couldn't even fake an answer about which newspapers she reads. Her "experience" in dealing with, or understanding the issues necessary to be President is zero. Worse than Bush (never thought I'd say that about anybody!)
If you actually watched the speech she gave at the Republican Governors Association you'd know that she fell flat on her face. Her fellow Republicans do not like her much. And after it was over there was NOT ONE attendee that would endorse her as a party leader or 2012 nominee. It was real ugly.
Donald Trump and Hulk Hogan sell a lot of books. They'll never be President either.
America loves a trainwreck. Palin is a joke.
If Palin's writing style is anything like her speaking style, I hope someone else will write the book for her.
Palin uses so many coordinating conjunctions that any "content" is completely lost. Palin simply cannot put a sentence together.
She is ambitious, but I don't think she is very clever.
It really makes me wonder if people are listening to the answers Gov Palin gives in interviews when they say she is a smart intelligent woman. My 11 year old granddaughter can answer the same questions better. I think it is the news media who are obsessed with her and not the American people at all.
Palin is not nearly as intelligent as Obama. Palin went to four different colleges before earning a 4 year degree. Obama got his law degree from Harvard Law School (where he became the Harvard Law Review's president), graduating magna cum laude.
Self interest was always Mrs Palin's game. After all that's what republicanism is all about and why they lost the election.
Miss Congeniality vs Senator/Constitutional Attorney...
Sarah did not capture the Hillary vote, or the thinking women's vote. We like them honest, prepared, direct; however we do understand the Cougar Barbie attraction of Ms Palin.
Sarah Palin is for entertainment purposes only.
This all supports what I've thought for a while. Palin is too divisive a figure, even in her own party, for national office.
If she's smart (or more likely has smart advisers) she should make a career as a right wing media pundit.
The GOP will want her for 2012, as a distraction. Something for democrats to concentrate on, whilst the GOP sneaks someone else into the White House right under our noses. Be vigilant, people.
The American people deserve better than a candidate who inflames dualistic culture war ideology.
Promise: Whichever publisher puts out Palin's book will NEVER see another penny from me, a very strong book buyer.
I'm going to vote again - this time with my money.
the title will be “The Audacity of a Dope”.
LOL!!!!!
ROFLMAO!
For those that don't get the joke, Barack Obama wrote "The Audacity of Hope".
"The Audacity of a Dope"
Priceless! lol
Palin is a high-schooler trying to BULLSHIT her way through a book report.
George Bush is light years ahead of Palin intellectually.
Yes, I am saying that without sarcasm.
I can't stand either of them.
This is hard to accept, but, yes, you are correct. Relatively speaking, Bush is infinitely more intelligent than Sarah Palin. So is a turkey compared with a doorknob...
My experience with these types of people are that they can be really nice in person. They say Bush is a nice guy.
The problem is that they often have a not so well concealed mean/cynical streak. There is some issue, or set of issues, that they become completely irrational about. Whether it is race, homosexuality, other religions, whatever. As long as you don't threaten any of their "values," they're just as nice as can be. Certainly all people are like this to some degree, but I think people like Palin and Bush take it to an extreme.
My guess is that it comes down to a superficial understanding of things. Both when being nice and when being aggressive. The niceness is more a matter of politeness. It is entirely conditional on you not violating some sacred principles.
Palin is like a STUPID AND IGNORANT high school student trying to bullshit her way through an interview.
Damn right. I used to be a high-schooler that bullshitted his way through reports. I just had the sense enough to recognize the things I really NEEDED to know and the gist of the rest so I could BS the most likely middle.
Palin looks more like the dumbasses that tried to imitate my way of doing things without even cracking a book or bothering to read the cliff notes.
In one of my classes we had to write in-class book reports, kinda like a big essay test. One time I hadn't read the book (a Dickens novel), so that morning I got a brief plot description from a friend, and I ended up scoring higher than he did.
Yeah, just talk a lot about some arbitrary, generic symbolism and how it impacts feminism in the late 20th century.
Example: "Our feckless protagonist is an archetype of the everyman, a projection of the contest between status quo and man's innate anarchy, a struggle against Western patriarchal values which Gloria Steinem highlighted in her works."
Probably throw in some Campbell monomyth references, maybe some sorely misinformed Rousseau.
Ya lost me there with that elitist talk, wink wink, betcha.
At least a high-schooler will drop the charade and fess up at some point. It's amazing watching her blather and bluster her way through interviews. It's kind of like watching someone picking out china by hurling themselves into shelves full of delicate porcelain and saying, "Oh, look. This one is nice. Yes, I'd like some of those..." [smash] "...and a few of those..." [crash]
Bizarre and horrifying, but you can't look away.
If I bought her book, I'd do it online and hide it in the attic.
If she comes out with a book, I bet the Wasilla librarian retaliates and bans it.
Good one!
Why?
Gov. Sarah Palin, former mayor of the small town of Wasilla, Alaska, may have waited as little as eleven days after assuming office before precipitously firing Mary Ellen Emmons, Director of the Wasilla Public Library, over Ms. Emmon's steadfast refusal to ban books on a list Palin gave her.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Sarah-Palin-Small-Mind-In-by-Judy-Swindler-080904-485.html
Suggested title for Palin's book: "The Chronicles of Country First: The Maverick, The Witch, and The Wardrobe"
Sarah Palin writing a book? On what? Geography? How to talk to your kids about the birds and the bees? Or is it a picture book? "The Russian Coastline, as Seen From My Back Porch"
I can’t imagine what kind of book she’d write or who’d really want to read it.
I suppose it will all be targeted to the people who went to her rallies that liked her extreme right views.
She should just write about Jesus, anti-abortion, and hunting.
Maybe include a recipe for moose chili.
Sadly, this book will sell well thanks to bulk buying and selling them in the churches.
The funny thing is the book will HAVE to be ghostwritten. Unless of course, it’s a book for preschoolers.
That’s an insult to my grandkids - lol
Suggested titles for her book:
* Shoots at Wolves, the Sarah Palin Story
* Burn Witch Burn! The Religious Revelations of Sarah Palin.
* The Earth is Flatish, Don't Cha Know?
* How to Spend $150,000 on Clothes, and Still be a Hick.
* Hope Freezes
* To Build a Fire... to Burn Books on.
* How to Divide a Nation in Six Short Weeks.
* Fear and Loathing in Wasilla.
* A Few Good Men on Snowmachines.
* The Miseducation of Mrs. Palin
* How to Make Enemies and Influence People Not to Vote for You
I think that she should have to prove that she has read one before she gets to write one.
Ha, ha! Good idea!
But she probably only thinks that one 'Book' has been all she's needed to read.
And she undoubtedly hasn't even read THAT one all the way through. She certainly missed the part about "But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace."
She'll need a lot of crayons.
Maybe it'll be a Barbie pop-up book.
Some arm of the right wing compensation machine will suck this deal up - Regnery or some such crap outfit - to launder donations to her and compensate her for carrying the True Cross.
Same w/Bush - if no legit publisher picks up his "memmoiers," some front will dish out the cash he's owed by his friends in business for carrying water for them for eight years.
She might as well try to cash in on herself because there are at least three books on Palin out there already. I don't get it. I guess some writers write really fast these days, right? I mean, she's been around on the world/national scene for what - a mere two months - and there are already her bio sketch books? Based on her less than 300 days as a governor and two months of Neiman Marcus shopping as a VP nominee?
We are becoming the stupid giant of planet Earth: richer than Midas, mightier than Thor, dumber than rocks. Which makes us a danger to the planet — and to ourselves. This country cannot continue to prosper and to embrace stupidity. The two are fundamentally incompatible.
So do us all a favor: Annoy Sarah Palin. For goodness' sake, read some books, just not hers.
Links don't work on here, so I copied the article instead (be afraid, be very afraid):
Two EVANGELICAL PUBLISHERS are leading the race to capitalize on fascination with Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
Tyndale House Publishers of Carol Stream, Ill., has begun distributing a paperback edition of 'Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned the Alaska Political Establishment Upside Down', by Alaska freelance writer Kaylene Johnson.
Best known as publishers of the bestselling 'LEFT BEHIND' series, Tyndale is printing a whopping 250,000 copies of the book, which first came out in April from Epicenter Press.
Oct. 10, Zondervan of Grand Rapids, Mich., released Joe Hilley's 'Sarah Palin: A New Kind of Leader'. According to a statement from Zondervan, the author makes a case for Palin's leadership by touting her "maverick integrity, electrifying communication style, career agility, and perpetual education."
Both biographies highlight Palin's Christian faith as a formative force. "Sarah" examines her family life and the role religion played in her childhood. The Zondervan book explores how faith influences her leadership style.
Horrors! If these things are selling, imagine how HOT her very own book evangelically supported would be....
All the Red staters who can afford to give up a few weeks of jesusporn will buy it, and the wealthier republican neocon fundies racist freemarketers will get copies.....and add to those quite a few independents and democrats who want a good laugh or materiel for late night TV...
Churches and faith based organizations will eagerly front the $7K......and make millions in profit. I think I'm going to be sick.
Ye gads, NO. Want a CENSORSHIP advocate in any position of power or influence? Want someone who is anti-choice AND anti-gay, who wants to shove GLBT's back in the closet? Who supported jimmy dobdumb and his false "Love Won Out" garbage at her former church? Want someone who claims she can see Russia from Alaska (wonder what SHE's been puffing!)? Want someone who had to ASK what the VP does?
Not me, buster. She's MAYBE qualified for dog catcher, if that. As a VP, she would have been a total disaster, even worse than deadeye dick has been. We dodged a fatal bullet there my friends!
If she authors a book (oh, of course others will do the work), she can be made to sound articulate and coherent, and molded into a persona that might go toe-to-toe with Obama's 'Dreams from my Father' & 'The Audacity of Hope'.
She is so inarticulate and ignorant and a true narcissist... this is predictable but geez, what an awful person....
I feel bad for that editor. I can only imagine her grammar. She'll mostly dictate the book.
It will start off talking about religion, hunting, religion, hunting, religion, hunting, Tod/Todd, religion, college, another college, another college, another college, how God helped her in college, kids, kids, kids, kids, kids, hockey, religion, hunting, mayor, governor, VP, Bill Ayers, gotcha journalism, and about how God, not our knowledge, open doors for us.
Palin's story, in large print, would occupy about 7 pages. If some publishing outfit has $7 million
to throw around for that dead ender, can we be assured that they will also have a minimum of $7 million to contribute towards school lunch and after school programs for the areas struggling hardest to give their
children a hand up?
That's a lot to pay for a picture book! Now maybe she can buy her own designer clothes and maybe since she will be so rich, she make make the ethical choice to stop charging Alaskans per diem for her choice to live in her own home instead of the Governor's mansion.
"My Pet Moose"??
There's already a great book out called:
"The Complete Book of the Collected WISDOM of Sarah Palin."
It's completely blank.
Just saw it on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
a3R3eWJgnCo
Will this woman ever go AWAY!!!??? Is there not a moose that needs to be hunted or a polar bear that needs to be caught anything at all to get rid of her???!!!!!
$6.9 million of it will be for editing to make her ideas seem comprehensible.
Are the crayons to be sold separately?
AHAHA!
Goodee !
Another sequel to "My Pet Goat" !
Reporter: Governer Palin, now that the election is over, what are you going to do?
Palin: I will finally finish my first book.
Reporter: We didn't realize you had already begun writing the book.
Palin: I haven't; I am reading one.
The good thing, is that apparently according to Alaska law, she cannot take cash for a book and remain the Governor. If she does take the deal, then she may be forced to leave her office and would show herself to be a true sell-out and someone who would happily trade political clout for fame and money.
Once upon a time someone like her would go back and quietly either resume work or resign. NOW, when they are proven liars, spineless, mob inciters, corrupt officials who abuse their power and all around losers THEY GET MILLION DOLLAR BOOK DEALS, TV INTERVIEWS and are treated like the top rated celebrities with all the perks.
We truly have lost our way.
It is going to be a colorforms book. It will come with all these outfits from Neiman Marcus and Saks and you can stick them to the Wasilla figures inside. Dead wolves, shot guns and rape kits all sold seperately.
The book will be called "How to spend 150k plus on clothing and still have wingnuts believe you are a Wal-Mart mom"!
Good grief! All I can say is I pity the poor editor who gets saddled with this too-confident-for-her-own-good dimwit.
Come to think of it, I also feel sorry for the editor's assistant and fact-checker.
Between the three of them, they will be run off their feet trying to grapple with mangled syntax; find synonyms for "gotcha", "you betcha", "gosh darn it", "say it ain't so Joe", etc.; look for all the missing "g's" in word endings; and, last but not least, determine what is fact and what is fiction.
This is a woman who's only apology (at least that I know of) has been "If I caused John McCain to lose one vote, I am sorry". One. Vote. She is, to put it mildly, seriously delusional.
let them eat yellow snow
Will the book come with crayons or do you have to purchase those separately?
Will she put in about her college days and hopping from school to school?
How about recipes for moose stew?
Will there be photos of her slaughtering wolves from a helicopter?
Will it include her beauty pageant days?
WEdding day pics, pregnany pics and baby pics?
How about her suing the government for protecting endangered species? Who cares about beluga whales and polar bears...we have to drill, drill, drill baby!
Will she explain how she made deals with Japan, already, to sell all that natural gas in her state?
Will there be never before seen pictures of her and joe the plumber?
Or her being able to conduct an interviewing while she is cooking...ohhhh me how talented she is!
Will there be an substance in this book?
Gee....I just can't wait....sounds like historical literature!
She got what she wanted though.......$$$$$$$
She is a JOKE, that just keeps giving! An embarrassment to WOMEN who have real substance, who do work for people other than themselves, who care about real women's issues! Women who can answer a question, coherantly, with intelligence and knowledge of the ISSUES.
The publisher is gonna lose money on this one!!
Maybe this money and the book tour will satisfy her greed and narcicissism. She probably wouldn't even have to see Trig for a year.
But why would anyone buy it? It is guaranteed to be a pack of LIES. LIES about Trooper Wooten and Walt Monegan. LIES about her affair. LIES about her own shotgun marriage. LIES about Bristol and Trig. Lies about the custody battle issues that even the judge scolded them for. LIES about the campaign trail. LIES about the $150,000 wardrobe.
That's pretty good, $7 million for a pack of lies. Bad people always profit in America.
She should give Walt Monegan $5 million and Trooper Wooten $1 million.The rest she should use to get Trig some 24/7 care by some stranger who will do a better job.
Will it have pictures or coupons, or possibly some of those really cool pop ups?
This woman can't string a single, coherent sentence together, and she's being offered tons of money to write a book??? Why, oh why do we continue to encourage, celebrate and reward the stupid in this country? WHY?!?!
Will her "book" include the dirt on her affair with Todd's business partner? That's sure to secure massive sales to the "christian" right.
I am just waiting for that to come out at any time now...........more laughs are on their way!!!
Hmmmm. "The Audacity of......."
"....Moose."
Actually Sarah's book will be a comic book...complete with a bikini pull-out
The book is going to be called "How to make babies and kill a moose...and make moose hot-dogs"
Have them print it on a roll --- I`m running short of toilet paper.
A hahahahahahahahaha! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
Possible titles include:
"The Audacity of...um, what's 'audacity?'"
Chapter 1: How a witch doctor from Kenya helped me win Governorship and why he's the only black man you'll ever see in Alaska.
Chapter 2: Highly Functioning morons are people too.
Chapter 3: Why victims should pay for their own rape kits! After all, we didn't rape them!
Chapter 4: Why God wants you to vote for me in 2012
Chapter 5: My husband is a girl.
Chapter 6: Joe the plumber's favorite position.
Chapter 7: No, I won't go away.
The problem with this book deal is that she will make millions for outright lying. So, the book will have to be considered fiction.....because it will all be lies.
I am totally speechless, except to remark that: this is the peak of obscenity. This is living proof of how dumbed down our nation has become.
I think this lady is qualified to do absolutely nothing, and how she even got elected to Governor in Alaska connotes to me that Alaska is even dumber than the rest of the USA! Sorry, folks: those six decades of soap operas and sitcoms have taken their toll on the collective IQ!
"It was, ya know, a night, bein' dark and, also, stormy, too, and I was privileged, as we are in the land of ours, of bein' in Wasilla, in the great state of Alaska for hockey moms and freedom and other fighters, also, on the front line of Russian aggression, by the grace of God to plow through all of them magazines, too, and also, tap, such as in the knowledge of our leaders and heroes like, you know, John McCain. Such as."
I believe the book will be you know one long run on sentence filled with all 2,147 words in her vocabulary repeated over and over in a jumbled fashion with the words maverick and terrorist and reformer and hockey mom interspersed interspersed is a big word throughout the sentence that just keeps going on and on and so on because America needs patriotism of the kind of regular person who makes moose chili for the children and Todd and too for the people of Alaska who are like the people of the United States of America where I am the governor of Alaska also.
You didn't put enough 'there's in there.
15-14-13-12.....if only her 15 minutes were coming to an end. No such luck.
HONK IF YOU LOVE SARA PALIN
(Crickets chirping)
LOL - I love it. Dear commenters, you have outdone yourselves today. Come back tomorrow for more fun and games.
Dr. B.
cya after midnight, doc.
OK, Dr., but first you gotta hear the latest news:
Word is Sarah Palin got a $7 million book deal through a guy named Joe the Publisher.
ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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