Problems with Obama presidency

[Lawrence Bryan]

 From Andy Borowitz via Huffington Post:

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 and  
Tito the Builder can't really do there, I think needing to do that  
isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she said.

Lawrence

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