Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Date:         Tue, 15 Sep 1992 08:42:28 -0400
Reply-To:     Marty Rosen <crosen@andy.bgsu.edu>
From:         Marty Rosen <crosen@ANDY.BGSU.EDU>
Subject:      Ivins on the Republican Convention

Greetings,

I thought I'd try out the "pine" mailer by posting some excerpts from Molly
Ivins's article "Another Country" in the 9-14 Nation:

On Pat Buchanan's speech: "Many people did not care for Pat Buchanan's
speech; it probably sounded better in the original German."

On Reagan's invocation of Thomas Jefferson: "I loved Ronald Reagan's
speech (apparently he, not Peggy Noonan, actually wrote it)--especially
the line about Thomas Jefferson.  Unitl it occurred to me to wonder what
would have happened if Jefferson, surely the finest intellect this soil
has ever produced, actually did meet Reagan.  Imagine the conversation:
'Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth
who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.'  [Reagan:
'Well, Make my day.'"

On Bush's speech: "Listening to George Bush, toward the end of his speech,
read the poetry written by Ray PRice with the gestures scripted by speech
coach Roger Ailes, I was struck anew by the elaborate charade of emperor's
clothing in which the American press is so supinely complicit.  Bush has
no more sense of poetry than he does of grammar.  After the speech there
was much division in the pundit corps over whether Bush had just "hit it
out of the park" (both sports and war metaphors wre much in vogue) or
whether we had just heard a load of nasty drivel without a single
redeeming idea.  But all hads were solemnly pretending we had just heard
George Bush, the nations most incoherent speaker, stand up and make a
fifty-eight minute political address.

"George Bush without a teleprompter can scarcely produce an intelligible
sentence.  I've been listening to him since 1966 and must confess to a
secret fondness for his verbal dyslexia.  Hearing him has the charm and
suspense of those old adventure-movie serials:  Will this man ever fight
his way out of this sentence alive?  As he flops from one syntactical
Waterloo to the next, ever in verbless mode, in search of the long lost
predicate, or even a subject, you find yourself struggling with him,
rooting for him.  What is this man actually trying to say?  What could he
possibly mean?  Hold it, I think I see it!

"Imagine, for a mad moment, George Bush in the British Parliament, where
the members are not only fluent in English, but are expected to think on
their feet as well.  I am told that public policy is often hammered out in
the exchange of thought there.  How could anyone ever figure out what Bush
thinks?  This is not a matter of grammar: ANyone who has ever heard some
canny country legislator fracture the language while making his point
knows clarity is not synonymous with syntax.  The fact is that unless
someone else writes a speech for him, the President of the United States
sounds like a borderline moron.  But the media sit around pretending that
he can actually talk--can convince, inspire, and lead us."

Yo, Steve, Welcome back!  I think it's my move; I'll take a look at the
position.

Marty
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