That purveyor of truth, one Miss Mary
Poppins, liked to sing her wisdom as she did so loquaciously in the song
“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!”
When trying to express oneself, it's frankly quite absurd, to leaf
through lengthy lexicons to find the perfect word. A little spontaneity
keeps conversation keen, You need to find a way to say, precisely what
you mean...
Tell that to politicians who have
mastered the art of saying nothing.
Um-diddle-diddle-um-diddleye, Um-diddle-diddle-um-diddleye.
Wondering what I’m talking about?
Check out this John
Edwards
interview on NPR. When asked if he would accept an offer to be VP, after
being told that it’s an “open secret” that he’s on the short list,
Edwards answered:
“I’m glad to hear that’s an open
secret, ‘cause I didn’t know it,” he said. “My answer to that is: I’ve
run for vice president. I’ve run for president twice. I would do
anything that I felt that I could do to serve this country. But I think
it’s a huge presumption for me or anybody else to suggest what Senator
Obama may decide. To answer your question directly, I don’t expect to be
asked. Have no expectation about it at all. I will -- anything that
Senator Obama asks me to do, including this, including campaigning for
him, I intend to do because what I am going to do, I intend to take
seriously. Because what I intend to do is use anything in my power to
make sure that he’s the next president.” Asked again if he’d accept VP
or a Cabinet post, he says: “I’m prepared to seriously consider
anything, anything he asks me to do for our country.”
Um-diddle-diddle-um-diddleye, Um-diddle-diddle-um-diddleye.
There is no better equivocator than
the man who calls himself “a new kind of politician,” Barack Obama.
Obama has brought the art of saying nothing to new heights. In prepared
speeches his words are eloquent almost poetic. But soaring rhetoric is
oftentimes a cloak of deception, an attempt to varnish truth.
In impromptu news conferences Obama
is often strained in his performances, his speech slow, painfully
deliberative and annoyingly peppered with “ums” and “ahs,” a tactic
long-used to allow a speaker time to think before he speaks.
In trying to blur distinction,
politicians often find themselves in trouble. Obama found that out just
last week in
a
speech in Fargo, N.D. when he promised to make a “thorough assessment”
of his Iraq policy in his coming visit there and “continue to gather
information” to “make sure that our troops are safe, and that Iraq is
stable,” before he commits to a policy.
Apparently, Obama didn’t hem and haw
enough. Soon, he found himself pounced upon by the press and the left
wing bloggers, the bloggers prepared to keep Obama out of the Oval
Office if he doesn’t stand firm on his stated position on the Iraq War:
to pull his troops out of Iraq within 16 months of his taking the oath
of office.
Now fighting being labeled a
flip-flopper on his Iraq position, Obama, a few days later, said all the
“confusion” over his Iraq statement was not his fault but rather the
media's.
The "media's?"
“I was surprised by how finely
calibrated every single word was measured,” Obama said. “I was a little
puzzled by the frenzy I set off.”
Mary Poppins: When Stone Age men were chatting, merely grunting would
suffice.
Obama was hoisted by his own petard.
Up until now equivocation has been his friend. But it appears that we’ve
progressed a little since the Stone Age – that Age of Primary when the
media was so taken by Barack Obama they apparently weren’t listening to
a thing he said.
Today men are required to issue more
than grunts, and politicians are being asked to communicate exactly what
they mean and mean precisely what they say. The mainstream media is
finally starting to make demands of the candidates, listen to what they
have to say, and hold them accountable.
Here we go!
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Even though the sound of it is
something quite atrocious! If you say it loud enough, you'll always
sound precocious, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Or said backwards:
Suoicodilaipxecitsiligarfilacrepus!
According to politician-speak, is
there really any difference?
Um-diddle-diddle-um-diddleye, Um-diddle-diddle-um-diddley!
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