Can Americans Tolerate a Bush-Obama Transition—To Better English, That Is.

My English diction is far from perfect, and sometimes I rationalize for this weakness.

Nevertheless, I would expect a little better from our politicians and national leaders.

George W. Bush’s malapropisms and other abuses of the English language are both embarrassing and legendary.

Sen. Joe Biden “immortalized” Rudy Giuliani’s political sentence structure as “a noun and a verb and 9/11.”

Suddenly, we have a politician and a leader—our President-elect—who in fact uses complete sentences, and this phenomenon is creating quite a stir, says Andy Borowitz.

For example, according to Borowitz, Gov. Sarah Palin (the same governor who pardoned one turkey while viewers watched horrified as other turkeys were being “prepared” for the Thanksgiving dinner) criticized Obama’s use of the English language as follows:

Talkin’ with complete sentences there and also too talkin’ in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can’t really do there, I think needin’ to do that isn’t tappin’ into what Americans are needin’ also’.”

Read more about this debate in “Obama’s Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy.”

For more delightful examples of “the grammar of politics” such as the aforementioned one about Rudy Giuliani, and about both Democrats (Mass nouns + active verb + climate change +White House + dangling modifier = Al Gore for President) and Republicans (Expletive + expletive + expletive +….= Donald Rumsfeld), please go here.