The "I's" Have It

[RoyGBiv]

Don't ever fool yourself into thinking Republicans and their mouthpieces are stupid. Spontaneous outpourings of frustration that conclude with referring them all as idiots, or highlighting the behavior of the lowest intellects among them is fine. But, don't let yourself believe such things are descriptive of those who control the narrative. They're very smart, and they know they're very smart. They also know they have just as many genuinely stupid people on our side as they do on "theirs ... and they exploit it.

Fox News seems to have adopted a new policy of counting the number of times Obama uses the pronoun "I" when he gives a speech. I'll just let linguist Mark Liberman's critique of the phenomenon speak for itself:

It's no longer just imperial pontificators like George F. Will and Stanley Fish. The Obama-is-a-narcissist-and-his-use-of-I-proves-it meme has spread like kudzu, wrapping itself around the brainstem of every Fox News sub-editor and provincial pundit in the land. You couldn't kill it with a blowtorch.

Fox News, specifically, has decided to count first-person pronouns in every speech Obama gives. Thus "The I's Have It: Obama Hits 34 I's in Washington D.C.", FOXNews.com, 2/7/2010:

Much attention has been given to President Obama's persistent use of "I" when giving speeches to sell his administration's agenda. Is he taking responsibility — or, as his critics say, is he still in campaign mode? FoxNews.com is tracking the president's speeches all this month and will report back after each to see whether The "I's" Have It.

Combine this then with the recent deliberate mis-characterization of Obama's remarks on corporate bonuses, Tea Partiers portrayed as the "common" man, and a revival of nostalgia for George Bush's "folksy" style and Ronald Reagan's "plain speech" that speaks to the average person, and you have a theme that doesn't just dominate a few news cycles but becomes the underlying foundation of criticism that will be used perpetually through the upcoming election seasons. "Obama Out of Touch" If a headline hasn't already been published that says exactly that, it will be soon. Indeed, we've already seen these theme pressed hard on this very website.


http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2113

[Fire1]

1. Never underestimate the stupid. n/t

[quiet.american]

2. I've come to the conclusion that if voters really want to "Scott Brown" the whole country --

-- there's nothing that can stop that kind of sadomasochism. I'll do my part to promote Democrats and our policies, but if in the end, a majority of Americans really wish this country to rot by way of "teh stupid," they deserve what they get. I don't relish the idea of becoming an ex-pat, but there may no longer be a reason to stay.

[Fire1]

4. I hear ya! n/t

[gratefultobelib]

5. I understand completely. Feel the same way myself. I still remember the headline

from a British tabloid when bush was reelected "How can 59,123,456 people be so stupid?" Something to that effect.

[HopeOverFear]

9. Amen. nm

[Cha]

3. Good..I'm glad the "I"s have it..President Obama is a great

Leader and he cares about this country and its people. I'm so grateful that it's Obama standing up there refering to himself or anything other intelligent thing he wants to talk about.

fauxsn00ze is the cesspool of the Planet's mediaWHORES. They have created a toxic wasteland and need to be declared a disaster area. The only ones who listen to them are those who feel the need to be brainwashed and aren't capable of thinking for themselves.

President Obama is so in touch with the pulse of the Nation and the World that the republicons look like spineless jellyfish when he debates them.

[TicketyBoo]

6. My response is

that it certainly beats the royal "We," doesn't it?

Or the not-so-royal "We" that GWB may have used when referring to an administration nominally headed by him, when, in actuality, the "We" was a rarely-used truism in that administration.

[RoyGBiv]

7. No shit ...

The thought of this intruded into my brain at various times all day today.

Had I any confidence at all in the American public to see through the mask of utter bullshit, this whole thing would make me happy.

This? This is what you got? How many number of times he uses "I" in a speech?

Really?

But the people that do this aren't stupid because they know that a large portion of us are.

[Number23]

8. Oh my God. This is an ACTUAL meme that Fox news is running with?

Counting the number of times the man says "I" during a speech?? Seriously??

For real??????

(Although I am now wondering which dumb as a box of Twinkies DUer will be the first to run with this. You know it's coming...)

[RoyGBiv]

11. Pathetic, isn't it?

More pathetic is that people fall for it.

I just stumbled across the Language Log post that inspired my commenting on this, but it brought together a lot of things I had noticed here and there about the narrative the media is writing about Obama.

At its base, this is just another way of furthering the idea that Obama is "not one of us" that teabaggers and closet racists eat up so readily.

[HopeOverFear]

10. I've said it many times before, and it bears repeating...

this country does not deserve Obama. Between the racist teabaggers and the closeted-racist whiny self-defeating childish so-called progressives, we deserve Sarah Palin.