Lets face it. The adopted accent fit the theme of the talk - the poor people (who happen to be mostly black) in Naw leans were abandoned by an evil government. The adopted accent was to make himself one of those people - a southern black abandoned by the Bush administration. He did not drop in and out of the dialect he maintained it all the way through. That in itself is an impressive feat. Anyone of us can Arnold Schwarzenegger's California accent or do a Jawsey Shore or a Boston/RI accent (drop all the r's) for a few sentences. But he held that dialect the whole speech. I pick it up a southern Georgia variety. Hawaii+Indonesia+Chicago = southern Georgia? Not hardly. He was in LA, the land with NO accent by hardly any race. He was not trying to be 'one of them'. He was creating a picture of poor Southern blacks being mistreated by the administration.

 

So the dialect matches the content and the content include warm accolades for Rev. Wright - before he went under the bus. Wright is/was known for his hostile teachings and thus his name was part of the segment who got a big shout out.

 

So either Obama got off a plane in LA after spending a week with some native Georgians or he was simply using the dialect as a prop to fit the speech contents. It should be obvious which it was.

 

Its just too bad this technique was used to solidify the base. I have said before - this is not a group whose goal is bring about post-racial America as many thought in 2008. To the contrary, the core of this group has its roots or its upbringing based with those who (mostly properly so) feel wronged by this country and many of the establishments and had deep scars from the 50's and 60's racial fights. Jesse Jackson (Michelle Obama), Frank Marshall Davis (Obama mentor in Hawaii), and Robert Taylor (Valerie Jarret's grandfather and champion of the failed attempt to integrate Chicago public housing). The color-blind society of MLK is still not here. This type of speech does not help get us to post-racial America, regardless of the audience.

 

Do people pick up new dialects - of course. But I have a good friend who still sounds like he is in Queens though he has lived in Kentucky for 30 years. And those from Boston, RI or east Connecticut do not pick up those 'r's too well after living here for years!

OK, so I am a person who adapts my manner of speaking to the "audience".

 

If I go home to Leitchfield, I have the perfect Kentucky Redneck Drawl.

At work I often am told I don't sound like I'm from Kentucky.

I have a friend who is black. When I first met her (at a job), she always spoke very professionally, in tone and language. Over the course of time, we became close friends, and her way of speaking when we discussed things became decidedly more "black", for lack of a better word. Another friend was my roommate for 3 years (she's black), and displayed the same trait. The funniest thing....I find myself speaking just like them when I'm around them. They're the source of some of my best comebacks, cutdowns and expressions of outrage. I love my homegirls Rana and Shalonda!

Hmmmm....interesting. It seems that President Obama's nose might start to grow if he continues his fibbing. LINK:Does 2007 tape catch then|Sen. Obama in a lie? | Shownotes