Bush has a fake accent - Kevin Phillips,auhor and former Nixon strategist

[Eric J in MN]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42831-2004Aug28_3.html

Even the president's Texas twang grates on Phillips, whose own accent is clipped and clear and, we must note, a tad patrician. "Listen to them! Assemble the very best panel of linguists you could find and have them listen to brothers Jeb and G.W. -- they wouldn't even guess they're in the same family," Phillips says. "G.W. talks like a cowboy and he's no more a backwoods Texan than I am."

[NewHampshireDem]

1. Huh, I always thought that was an Andover accent ... my bad

:shrug:

[Postman]

2. That stands to reason....We've had a fake President for the last 4 yrs

Everything about this administration is a false facade.

[LoZoccolo]

3. Sadly, I think that's a significant part of why people see him as...

...being tough on terror.

Wake up people! The terrorists don't even know what kind of accent that's supposed to be or what it's supposed to mean! The Texas accent brings us no advantage in the war on terror!

[clydefrand]

4. I agree. It's a pretentious twang!

I noticed the difference recently when I heard Jeb talking about Hurricane Charley. Let's give him credit for being able to learn something even if it's a Texas twang.

[donco6]

5. Knowing lots of Texans

you can spot his fake accent a mile away. His sounds like a bad western. Real Texas accents are more interesting.

[priller]

6. Phillips says -- Bush is a zero.

So what's an Nixon-Eisenhower Republican to do when he steps inside a voting booth in November 2004? Phillips shrugs. As it stands, Kerry has his vote, although the text of Phillips's endorsement probably won't appear in any Democratic ads. "I'm hoping that Kerry's a seven on a scale of 10, but I'm afraid maybe he's just a five," Phillips says. "But Kerry's running against a zero. So my choice is clear."

[enough]

7. Kevin's got ALL the goods on the Bush family.

His book AMERICAN DYNASTY is so devastating it can only be read in small doses if you value your blood pressure and your equanimity.

[Dogmudgeon]

8. It's very practiced

I can pick up accents and dialects pretty quickly (even with failing hearing) and Bush's accent isn't even a casual acquisition. You can tell he seriously practiced it in several "chunks" over the last decade or so.

The "tell" is that as his accent gets more intense, his vocal patterns and muscle tension changes. The pauses between groups of words become artificially long, and his movements become more mechanical, betraying difficult practice.

Bill Clinton also practiced his speech patterns, probably to reduce the Arkansas accent. He does it a lot better. Richard Nixon, whatever you may think of him, retained his "California" accent, but spoke as easily as anyone I can think of in politics.

Texas accents? Lyle Lovett has what I consider to be an authentic Texas "cowboy" accent. Bruce Sterling (the S-F writer) has a very clear, archetypal Austin-egghead accent. And Larry Hagman got the urban Texas accent pretty well when he played J.R. Ewing in the old prime-time soap opera Dallas.

--bkl

[progressivebydesign]

10. In that clip from F9/11, about "I call you my base",

he hardly has one.

[Fridays Child]

23. What?

[progressivebydesign]

11. In that clip from F9/11, about "I call you my base",

he hardly has one.

[Fridays Child]

24. Sorry. Can't hear you.

[progressivebydesign]

12. In that clip from F9/11, about "I call you my base",

he hardly has one.

[Fridays Child]

25. Would someone PLEASE turn down the TV?

[progressivebydesign]

13. In that clip from F9/11, about "I call you my base",

he hardly has one.

[Fridays Child]

28. Oh, yeah. I agree.

A vaporous lie can have no base.

[Fridays Child]

9. He tried to channel John Wayne. Sadly, he got...

...Howdy Doody, instead.

[Snow]

19. And even John Wayne was from central Iowa.......n/t

[bread_and_roses]

20. Oh my good goddess ROFLMAO n/t

[drdigi420]

14. Bush is a phony wimp

say it with me

BUSH IS A WIMP!

[tXr]

15. I've lived in Houston for 30 years

and it's embarrassing to hear * speak with such a phony, exaggerated accent.

[Catherine Vincent]

21. Welcome to DU, fellow Houstonian!

:headbang: :bounce: :headbang:

[Zan_of_Texas]

43. Hey, it's a Houston gaggle!

Me too.

I have noticed that native Houstonians don't have a real thick accent -- it's pretty subdued. (Or, maybe I've just been here too long!!!!)

But * landed in oil country, Midland right? after Connecticut.

[DemBones DemBones]

16. Last night, I saw clips of Dubya from way back when

he was working on his daddy's campaign. They showed him with the Texas delegation, making a little speech casting Texas's votes for Poppy, and they showed him talking on a tv news show. He had no noticeable accent, not Texas, not New England, more like Jeb, like anyone who's moved around and not kept one accent.

The "Texas accent" (that Texans laugh at!) is a bone thrown to Southerners.

[kittykitty]

35. I saw a clip this morning, too, from back then, and not only

did he not have a fake accent, but, as I noted in an earlier post this AM, he spoke fluently and articulately in long sentences, instead of the brain dead phrases he uses now.

Did you notice that?

[DemBones DemBones]

45. Yes. Of course, the pauses and lack of eloquence

may well be due to too much boozing and other substance abuse when he was "young and irresponsible," a phase that lasted until he was 40. But I'm not discounting the possibility that he fakes a lot of his "common man" inanity the same way he fakes the accent.

[ComerPerro]

17. Everything about Bush is fake

Except for his stupidity.

He talks slow because he is a moron.

[VOX]

18. My dad was a Texan, born and raised, so I know a Texan when I hear one...

And * ain't no Texan. Everything about that dress-up, two-bit bozo is a lie.

[montieg]

22. You're damn' Skippy, rezmutt.

You hit it square on the head. I was born in West Texas in 1947 and outside my time with Uncle Sam and a year building bridges in New Orleans I've been here the whole time. Us DemoTexans have been trying to get the whole world (it seems like) to see that * "ain't no Texan". He was born in Maine, went to a private prep school for a few years in Houston--which I ain't sure qualifies for time in Texas-- then to be a cheerleader at Andover Academy and on to Yale. Now he comes here ever' time he gets a chance so he can play 'ranch'. Sure don't sound like a Texan to me. Leastwise, none from around here.

[Swamp Rat]

26. I'm from New Orleans and I can tell you he has a fake Texas accent.

I have family in every Western state from California to Louisiana and even on to Georgia, and I spent a number of summers in Texas (I have family there- Dallas, Houston, El Paso). My mom's family are ranchers in New Mexico, and I worked on a ranch many summers as a boy. One thing I can say for sure: Bush is not a Texan nor is he a rancher - he's the antithesis. His whole life is a fraud and only the willfully uninformed don't see it.

Bush = worst pResident in history.

[Eric J in MN]

27. George W. Bush was born in New Haven, Connecticut (nt)

nt

[captainjack]

29. I thought everyone knew this...

David Brancaccio (from NOW with Bill Moyers) was interviewing the guy responsible for crafting "liberal language" about this and noted that Bush has never spend a significant part of his youth in Texas, yet tries to sound Southern - to define himself as a good ole' American boy rather than the elite snob that he actually is.

It;s so disgusting - the guy is all talk, and not even genuine talk at that.

[wellstone_democrat]

36. I move between Midland and Lubbock regularly

with my job. I'm waiting to hear anything remotely like that accent. I've heard every west Texas and high plains accent and that one is nothing like it.

Not to mention, it comes and goes...

[VOX]

37. My dad was from El Paso. I still have relatives there.

You're spot-on right, WD -- not one of my relatives **ever** spoke a syllable that's even remotely like any of the fake mush that comes out of *'s mouth.

And, yes, I too have heard *'s fake accent fade in and out; he really cranks it up when he's doing the "just plain folks" routine.

Makes me sick.

[VOX]

39. Welcome to DU, montieg...

My dad was born in Hubbard (birthplace of baseball great Tris Speaker); his family moved to El Paso when he was a kid. My grandfather owned a grocery store there.

Hang in there, we'll toss out that damned carpetbagging SOB yet. :toast:

[tibbir]

30. I can't see how Jeb, who was born in Midland,

doesn't have a Texas 'twang' while *shrub* has this Texas affectation. I was born in Texas and have lived here most of my life. I have relatives from all different parts of Texas and he sounds like none of them. I've heard people from the Midland Odessa area speak and he doesn't sound like them.

In fact, there's a tape that has gone around in which he sounds like he's been hitting the sauce, I can't hear that he has any accent at all in that.

He's been a play cowboy ever since he decided he would get more votes that way. Just like he was a play combat pilot with the "Mission Accomplished."

[VOX]

38. "Play cowboy"

You got it, tibbir!

Welcome to DU -- :toast:

[antigone382]

31. I've noticed a lot of conservatives with fake accents

Mike Savage with that overblown Brooklyn wannabe accent? The guy lives in San Francisco.

Definitely another proud participant in the George W. Bush Adopt-an-Accent Program.

[Eric J in MN]

33. Michael Savage was born in the Bronx, NY (nt)

nt

[antigone382]

40. Damn, you've spoiled my theory!

I don't care, I still think he overdoes it, just for the effect.

[elperromagico]

32. I still believe Bush talks like Thurston Howell off-camera.

And he calls Laura "Lovey."

[young_at_heart]

34. He really poured it on today in Wheeling

It was pronounced. I bet he loses it at the convention.

[Bluebear]

41. Oy, the Wheeling reruns today, WHOO DOGGY!

Bush sounds like he is trying to figger out how to get out of the holler with that phony accent.

[Lisa]

42. two professional actors also noted this

Timothy Bottoms and Brent Mendenhall, both of whom have had theatrical training and have played Bush on TV, have said that Bush's "accent" is elusive and not really based on known regional dialects. (Mendenhall is from Missouri -- he says that Bush's sound is really just poor enunciation, not a true accent.) Bottoms says that if you listen to Bush's performances, he is definitely calculating when to do his cowboy act. He plays up his mannerisms in front of audiences who are likely to be sympathetic (Republicans in red states, for example).

A linguist friend suggested that a person's true accent is most likely to emerge when s/he is emotional, tired, or surprised. Like everything else about him, Bush is inconsistent. The "accent" is there when he has time to think about doing it -- and seems to disappear at other times. This is the opposite of what people with real accents show.

I wonder if some of his hesitation during interviews is caused by his having to decide how to speak, because he hasn't gotten his "Dubya" character down yet?

[Zan_of_Texas]

44. At least Reagan was a trained actor.

Bush is a trained cheerleader.

And his pom-poms are getting mighty frayed.