Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Linguist Nunberg pegs Narcissist George Will

Listening to Fresh Air this afternoon on my way to the grocery store, I had to laugh in my car.
"Shall gets a bad wrap":
Health care bill "shall" = bad, even when it is restraining what government can do, or will do.
Bill of Rights "shall" = Very Good! "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom speech", "The right to bear arms shall not be infringed".

Then, crazed for counting first person pronoun use by the President are Frank Rich, George Will ("Obama is inordinately fond of the first person pronouns"), Stanley Fish, Peggy Noonan, and other pundits. BUT, wwhen you compare the actual transcripts of Obama speeches to those of Bush, Clinton, and Bush Sr, Obama's three predecessors used first person pronouns 50 to 70% more often than Obama does in his speeches. But yeah, it's Obama who is the narcissist.

Nunberg said poignantly: "When you're a narcissist, every door knob looks like a mirror" (Quote of the day)

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