Posted on 04/27/2007 11:17:26 AM PDT by West Coast Conservative
Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday she sees her sometimes Southern accent as a virtue.
"I think America is ready for a multilingual president," Clinton said during a campaign stop at a charter school in Greenville, S.C.
The New York senator—who said she's been thinking about critics who've suggested that she tried to put on a fake Southern accent in Selma, Ala.—noted that she's split her life between Arkansas, Illinois and the East Coast.
Clinton added a Southern lilt to her voice last week when addressing a civil rights group in New York City headed by the Rev. Al Sharpton. On Monday, dealing with a microphone glitch at a fundraiser for young donors, she quoted former slave and underground railroad leader Harriet Tubman.
The two episodes prompted some ribbing in the media and hatched more than a few humorous YouTube video clips.
Clinton is a linguistic polyglot—a Chicago native turned New York resident who works in Washington and spent two decades living in Arkansas when her husband, Bill Clinton, was governor.
But observers have long noted her tendency to speak Southern primarily in front of black audiences, as she did with Sharpton last week and at a civil rights commemoration in Selma in March.
All the Democrats are vying for the support of black voters—a crucial constituency especially in the early voting state of South Carolina. In 2004, black voters comprised nearly 50 percent of the state's Democratic primary turnout.
No, she isn't it. Get a dictionary.
since when does effecting regional dialects constitute being bilingual?
Well now. That must be how you say "pandering phony" in journalism these days.
Uh, she’s from Chicago folks. She’s putting on a performance based on which audience she is in front of. How simple minded are those she has bamboozled?
Well, we had enough of a cunnilingual president already with her HINO.
Our current President is at least partially bilingual in that he can mangle both English and Spanish somewhat effectively.
‘Lilt’??? I’d say more like SCREECH!
Hillary is a cunning linguist!
I hear she is a cunning linguist.
Maybe, but not a "cunnilingual" president!
You beat me by 14 seconds.
That’s what I get for reading the thread first.
Didn’t you know, talking Southern is a whole other language, lol!
Did you all not know that sourthern was a totally different language.
you two are so predictable it’s scary... ; )
“”I think America is ready for a multilingual president,” “
An insult to the South. What an elitist snob.
Typical Clinton, when caught being dishonest make up some stupid story to explain it away.
This has to be one of the best quotes I've heard yet to roast her on.
Since when is a regional dialect of English a "second language"?
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