I, who pride myself on overlooking the superficial when making decisions about affairs of state, have a shameful admission to make.
I loathe George “Young Master Smirk” Bush because of his voice.
More specifically, it’s that his tone of voice so perfectly encapsulates everything despicable about his policies and his background: the smugness, the affected sibilance, the brazen absence of even a micron of intellectual discipline.
Bush’s portions of the Russert interview were like listening to a singer trilling off-key, and they grated on my nerves, as does every formal speech of his I’ve had the misfortune to hear.
I had a similar “nails on the chalkboard” reaction to Reagan, along with that breathy announcer that NBC idiotically employs to record their promos.
(Thank heaven that the program “Ed” was cancelled. Every time I heard the self-indulgent, slobbering “EHHHHDHHHH”, I wanted to take a hammer to the television set.)
It isn’t just Bush’s deliberate mispronounciation of words – Jimmy Carter’s “nuculear” was endearing, because it reflected his persona as an intrinsically noble son of the South.
It isn’t Bush’s supposedly conservative political philosophy, either. Fox’s Tim O’Reilly is a fabulous speaker, and I used to enjoy listening to Laura Ingraham before I moved to the Cape and, thus, beyond my battered car radio’s limited range.
Bush’s voice reflects whining rather than conviction, and privilege rather than the mental toughness earned through overcoming hardship.
Compare his voice to that of Tiger Woods, Colin Powell, Bill Clinton or even the public’s current “It Boy”, Donald Trump. These are people who have a demonstrated never-give-up attitude, and it’s reflected in the way they speak.
Their self-confidence has been earned, not bestowed, and while it may not give them our complete credulity, it does persuade us to give them, most of the time at least, the benefit of the doubt.
Ralph Nader is one of the best public speakers on the scene today, and it’ll be interesting to see if his progressive hellfire and brimstone catches on with the voters.
Personally, I doubt that will happen, not so much because of the public’s memory of the last big-ticket independent, Ross Perot, but because so many were more recently turned off by Howard Dean’s undignified musk-ox-in-heat bellowing.
A Kerry/Bush debate would be a waste of time, the faithful would keep their convictions and the undecided would skip it, but I’d buy a ringside seat for Edwards/Cheney or even better, Edwards/Giuliani.
Let the games begin.