I was talking to a 19-year-old about her, and he admitted that what he hated about her was her voice, her folksy accent, and agreed that it made her sound stupid.
While I think America can handle a President with ANY regional accent, maybe a little vocal coaching can modulate her accent and those high notes she gets into. Remember that Rush Limbaugh modulated his accent away -- listen to his brother speak for how he probably started -- and it hasn't hurt him any. She doesn't have to talk like a Los Angeles voice over artist, but she could modulate a tad.
“I was talking to a 19-year-old about her, and he admitted that what he hated about her was her voice, her folksy accent, and agreed that it made her sound stupid.
While I think America can handle a President with ANY regional accent, maybe a little vocal coaching can modulate her accent and those high notes she gets into. Remember that Rush Limbaugh modulated his accent away — listen to his brother speak for how he probably started — and it hasn’t hurt him any. She doesn’t have to talk like a Los Angeles voice over artist, but she could modulate a tad.”
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I have heard the same thing occasionally as well. I am not sure how widespead it is. I wuold be willing to bet that any hostility to her accent is to be found principally on the Northeastern and West Coasts (where it won’t matter, becasue those states are voting for Obama anyway) and in the South (where it won’t matter because those states are not voting for Obama, accent or not). In the Midwest, I think her accent can be a net plus for her as opposed to George Bush’s drawl.
I think what is more significant is that we live in the television age. Everything is visual. Obama’s one advantage, if he has one, is that he has a good voice, a deep baritone (as he reads the teleprompter). When he gets away from the teleprompter, he tends to stutter and to mispronounce, but his voice is perhaps his only asset.
In 1960, those who listened to the Kennedy Nixon debates on the radio overwhelmingly thought Nixon, with his rich baritone voice won the debates over the much more highly pitched and heavily Massachusetts-accented Kennedy. Those who watched on television saw a cool customer in Kennedy whose looks of bemusement at Nixon and youthful good looks made whatever Nixon was saying seem silly. The more people heard of Kennedy’s accent the more it grew on them (although I believe I read he tried to deepen his voice as well). I think with familiarity with Palin’s accent, people will grow accustomed to it and even like it. Her serious tone at the Reagen Ranch shows she is able to modulate when the occasion call for it.
Palin has the same advantage over Obama. She is much quicker on her feet (Remember her lipstick on a pit bull improvisation when her teleprompter failed at the RNC convention) and she is a very adept performer before the camera. I would have to say the edge as a communicator goes to Palin based upon her adroitness in give and take and her edge in telegenics.