Overall, I enjoyed the debate and was charmed by both candidates. Palin certainly made up for her awkward interviews with Katie Couric, and Biden was clear and concise in expressing his positions. I appreciated that neither of them were shy in defining their positions. The same-sex marriage issue was particularly interesting, as both of them spoke with honest candor.
My issue is with the coverage of the debates. Let me elaborate....
I am an American, born and raised. My parents are the same way, and their parents before them, and their parents before them. In fact, I've always said the only thing more American than me is a Native American! My family doesn't have close ties to our European roots because
1) they're so mixed that it's pointless to try and break it down into percentages (English, German, Scottish, Irish, Scots-Irish, Dutch, French, etc...), and
2) Centuries and generations have passed since the majority of my ancestors left their respective lands and came over to America, losing or blending their languages and cultures into a rural, northern/Great American culture.
I lay down my credentials as a bread and butter American to ask the following. Where did I miss the turn? Where did my fellow Americans become unrecognizable to me? Or better yet, when did I become unrecognizable to my fellow Americans?
After the debate last night, television and print media took Sarah Palin to task for how she spoke. Is this normal? Has this become accepted and I missed the memo? Sure, comedy pieces have been written about the Kennedy's New England accent, or a deep south politician's drawl, but a serious news piece about speech behavior? I pulled some lines from an AP article for an example: "You became 'ya,' change was 'comin' and a class of third-graders even got a 'shout-out' from the Alaska governor."
Is there anything inherently wrong with that? I know a lot of people who speak like that, and I sometimes speak like that myself. A news commentator on CBS last night noticed with disdain how she "began to drop her G's at the ends of words" and how she was appealing to the folksy element of the American population. Also, for effect:
"I found her folksy talk insulting and inappropriate for someone running for the vice presidency," added an Obama supporter. That is nothing more than an elitist attitude of superiority based solely on the fact that he was raised somewhere where she wasn't, which is logic built on a house of cards. Now, I know accent superiority exists in this country and others, but I honestly thought we had moved forward. If you want to report on Palin (or McCain, or Biden, or Obama), report on their policies, not the way they talk. Leave that to Tina Fey.
Is there anything inherently wrong with that? I know a lot of people who speak like that, and I sometimes speak like that myself. A news commentator on CBS last night noticed with disdain how she "began to drop her G's at the ends of words" and how she was appealing to the folksy element of the American population. Also, for effect:
