In Obama's speeches, one favorite phrase: 'Let me be clear'

[spiritual_gunfighter]

By Alec MacGillis and Paul Farhi
Sunday, January 17, 2010

Whether President Obama's upcoming State of the Union address focuses on jobs, health care, foreign policy or something else entirely, there is one thing we can count on: Obama will make himself absolutely clear.

All politicians have their verbal tics -- say, John McCain's "my friends" -- but few resort to their crutches as often as Obama relies on his "let me be clear" set-up. He deploys it in formal speeches as well as in impromptu remarks, meaning that the White House speechmakers have keyed in on the boss's security blanket.

"Let me be clear," Obama said when he introduced himself to the country at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. "We have real enemies in the world. These enemies must be found. They must be pursued. And they must be defeated."

Talking about health care in July: "Let me just be absolutely clear: Medicare is in place and as long as I'm there . . . Medicare will continue to be in place."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/14/AR2010011403872.html?wpisrc=nl_politics

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. Bush wasn't very clear

[goclark]

2. Bush not clear ever nt

[riverdale]

8. Bush's thing was, "Make no mistake."

[Rosa Luxemburg]

13. yes

[lunatica]

3. Correction. All PEOPLE have their specific phrases

From "you know...." to "Uh..." and even to their favorite expletive. I use fuck a lot. And when I'm really pissy I try to use it as many times as possible in a sentence. Like "What the fuck is this fucking crap about the fucking economy making my fucking life so fucking fucked?!"

[Jennicut]

4. Way less annoying then "my friends".

[spiritual_gunfighter]

6. Agreed much less annoying than "my friends"

but "let me be perfectly clear" is annoying nonetheless.

[zipplewrath]

5. Look

He also begins the answer to alot of questions with "look". It is akin to what Rumsfeld used to do by rephrasing questions and asking them, then answering the question he asked, not the one the interviewer did. Starting a sentence with "Look..." is a way of restating a question to be more in line with what you want to say. Because a sentence that starts with "Look..." frequently moves onto a "...but...".

[spiritual_gunfighter]

7. "Look" is a favorite of everybody in Washington

Chuck Todd and Eugene Robinson say it almost every time they are making a point. It is annoying as well.

[LisaM]

9. I hate Look!!

It sounds so condescending. Actually, all of these verbal tics are condescending.

[treestar]

10. I like it better than "Listen."

They aren't condescending. they show the person is human. No one can speak perfectly. That's fine.

[bvar22]

11. You betcha!

"Let me be perfectly clear" was a Nixon trademark.

[IndianaGreen]

12. 1972 Nixon 'Let Me Make This Perfectly Clear'

"Let me make this perfectly clear, I am the President." This was followed by "I am not a crook."