linguistics politics region north america society

The campaigns and the war of witty words

By John Hockenberry, Adaora Udoji, Leo Duran

Wednesday, October 8 2008

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In last night’s political debate, did McCain or Obama put lipstick on another barnyard animal? The Takeaway talks with linguist James Geary about political aphorisms, and which candidate won the war of witty words.

Guest: James Geary, linguist, journalist, and author of “"Geary's guide to the World's Great Aphorists"
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RE: The campaigns and the war of witty words This struck me as slanted. Were there no zingers available from wits on the Dem's side? We hear from Palin, McCain and Huckabee (all of whom get actual recorded sound bites), and Teddy Roosevelt. JFK gets one earnest bit. We do hear from Harry Truman, a stated favorite of your guest James Geary, but he links Truman's folksy style to Sarah Palin's. Geary also criticizes Barack Obama's compaign slogan as meaningless (how it's any more so than "Country First," I'm not sure). He then tells us that Teddy Roosevelt's famous aphorism is a "concise statement of what McCain's foreign policy would be." Really? Who is James Geary again, and why did he ruin my breakfast?

Posted by Christine B., 3:08 p.m. Wednesday, October 8 2008 Permalink

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