Folk Ways (Fred in South Carolina)

The Washington Post ^ | December 12, 2007 | Dana Milbank

[2ndDivisionVet]

Tell us, Fred Thompson, about your national security policy.

"The good guys win and the bad guys lose -- how 'bout that?"

Profound. And your economic policy?

"Free people, free markets, doin' free things together."

Well said. Do you worry that tax cuts might cause lost revenue?

"It ain't lost, it's in my pocket."

As for how he came to hold certain views on health care, he has this answer for his audience in Anderson, S.C.: "I had a conversation with my little mama back in Franklin, Tennessee."

His 87-year-old mother's advice also persuades him to reject the new National Intelligence Estimate reporting that Iran has suspended its nuclear program. "Remember whatcha mama told ya," the former senator from Tennessee recommends. "If somethin' appears to be too good to be true, it probably is."

Is it possible to be too folksy? Thompson seems determined to find out. The big man with all those Hollywood roles is trying to slow-drawl his way to the GOP nomination. To the extent that Thompson has a pitch, it's that he doesn't change his views like, say, Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani. "Where I stand does not depend on where I'm standing or what political office I happen to be running for," he asserts.

Mostly, though, he's recommending himself to voters as a good ol' boy.

"Y'all know where a man can get a decent meal in this town?" he asks the crowd at Mama Penn's Real Southern Cooking, next door to the "$5 Christian Bookstore" and a few blocks from the Baptist church with the drive-through Nativity scene. "I'm a Tennessee boy. I consider this my neck of the woods and I hope South Carolinians think this is my neck of the woods, too." The last part he pronounces "mah neck-uh-da woods."

[trisham]

Fred’s the real deal. I suppose that’s a bit mystifying to some.

[FlashBack]

I still get a good chuckle out of that Hilleryism!!!
Fred....I consider Iowa a part of your neck-o-the-woods as well.

[sweet_diane]

Hey! Washington Post! Ya got a problem with mah neck uh da woods?

What cracks me up about northern elistist is how at least 80% of their senior citizen population can't get to the south fast enough come winter time! lol

There are two kinds of snowbirds...the kind who can't stop telling us how 'charming' our accents and hospitality are. The other kind can't stop telling us how much better they do things up nawrth. I tell the latter that the roads operate both ways and they are free to leave.(but, I dew declare...they nevah dew!)

[Fairview]

Wallace, I was privileged to be close to an elderly cousin of mine, who was born in 1903 and lived to be 97 (and was mentally clear as a bell and tough as nails to the very end). She was an educated lady who came from a good family in Virginia; if you are at all a student of the War you would recognize the family name instantly. She had been raised by her grandfather, who was a captain in the Eighth Virginia and survived Pickett’s Charge. Listening to her and to her older brother, I got a clear sense of the way people in NVA talked 150 years ago. It’s not very different at all from the way my surviving kin and I talk today. It’s not the rich Magnolia Mouth accent those from the Deep South have, though; more a question of rhythmicity, pacing, and a few different pronunciations.

[Wallace T.]

The Southern language is varied, but it is more distinct from the speech of the Greater North than the latter is from Canadian English. It is easier to distinguish between a Michigander and a Southerner than a Michigander and a Canadian. If language were the standard of nationality, the South deserves independence more than Canada!

Actors vary widely in their ability to mimic accents, and generally speaking, British, Irish, and Australian actors do far better jobs at getting the nuances of American speech right than native born Americans do when they try to sound like people from other U.S. regions. In "Cold Mountain", the least Southern accent was that of Renee Zellweger, a native of suburban Houston but a first generation American. In "Gangs of New York", Daniel Day Lewis, a Brit, did a far more convincing New York accent than Leonardo DiCaprio or Cameron Diaz did with their Irish accents.