Comments on: A Francophone President in the White House?

By: Jeremy Leader

Jeremy Leader — Tue, 27 Apr 2004 13:39:51 +0000

I wonder if part of the motivation for a politician’s not using a foreign language (especially in a country with a lot of monolingual voters, like the US) is a matter of control. If Kerry responds to a question in French, then any reporting of his response in the US will probably translate it for the readeers/listeners/viewers. It’s not just a matter of the politician doubting his ability to convey subtleties in a foreign language, but doubting the home press corp’s ability to translate them accurately (and with the desired spin) back to the mother tongue.

There’s also the concern of exciting the distrust of paranoid monolinguists: “How do I know what he *really* said?” A half-clever politician might try to exploit the press corp’s laziness by answering in a foreign language, then issuing his own translation to the press corp, saving them the work, but actually slanting the translation differently than the original answer so it plays better at home. However, getting caught doing that would hand the opponent a big fistful of dirt.

By: vaara

vaara — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 23:17:37 +0000

A Google™ search yields 2,370 hits for “john kerry” + “french-looking”.

Hit #1 is from Spinsanity.

By: Sebastian Holsclaw

Sebastian Holsclaw — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 22:55:20 +0000

I honestly try to do my own research, but I haven’t been able to find any specific articles with the ‘charge’ of Frenchness. I see people on the left talk about the ridiculousness of the approach, but it seems like an urban legend that conservatives care about how French Kerry may or may not look (or talk). I can think of dozens of reasons to dislike Kerry, but his looks aren’t a big deal. So, what articles are you specifically thinking about?

By: vaara

vaara — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 21:19:20 +0000

Maybe some of you Brits can answer this question: does Tony Blair ever catch any flak for his ability to speak quite good (if heavily accented) French?

After all, les Rosbifs have hated the Frogs for far longer than Americans have.

By: Zizka

Zizka — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 20:42:45 +0000

The Republicans have a lot of trashy surrogates who manage to get the word out about Kerry’s Frenchness. Sebastian is a finer sort of conservative who doesn’t care to know what some of his friends are doing.

Two of the worst publications for retailing shallow digs at Democratic candidates are the supposedly liberal Washington Post and especially the New York Times. Bob Somerby (www.dailyhowler.com ) documents it day-by-day. It would be very interesting to see a non-partisan outsider examine the New York Times issue in detail; the story is a strange one.

By: Sebastian Holsclaw

Sebastian Holsclaw — Thu, 22 Apr 2004 14:38:00 +0000

I note that I read lots of conservative papers, and I have yet to see the one that call attention to Kerry’s ‘Frenchness’ or any such thing. Maybe it exists, but it certainly isn’t any sort of common charge on the right.

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 22:51:25 +0000

“It’s the language that Kerry speaks, not that he speaks another language, that is the issue in this context.”

To finally expunge any remote taint of a French connection in America, can we take that the Republicans propose expelling from the United States all the territories acquired from France in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 at the instigation of President Jefferson?

Without wishing to stir things unduly, I feel obliged to remark that polls across most of Europe were against national participation in the Iraq war, including in Spain and Poland notwithstanding the positions taken by the governments of those countries. In Britain, the majority in a recent poll was against the war. From recent reports, the Australian media has been taking an increasingly critical outlook on the conduct of the war.

The Bush administration is doing grave damage to America’s international relations and its standing in popular sentiment, even among countries naturally friendly to America and Americans. Why not send Rumsfeld on another international tour to abuse friends and alienate more people? I’ve a long political memory going back through WW2 and the present US administration has become the most widely reviled in Europe that I can recall.

By: des

des — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 22:36:28 +0000

Baltic blog: Evidence much?

Bush did study Spanish in high school and in college and honed it in the oil fields of Texas, but probably couldn’t communicate at all in a debate completely in Spanish. The Spanish newswire EFE has reported that Bush speaks Spanish “poorly” but with great confidence. And Texas columnist Molly Ivins, no fan of Bush, has quipped that Bush is not bilingual/bicultural, but rather bi-ignorant.

He can read a script, badly, and not much more. (And in Spanish, also.)

By: Baltic Blog

Baltic Blog — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 21:44:37 +0000

Bob,
Before you look down your nose any more, Bush speaks Spanish.
It’s the language that Kerry speaks, not that he speaks another language, that is the issue in this context.

By: Abiola Lapite

Abiola Lapite — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 21:00:34 +0000

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“Chirac doesn’t use his excellent English in public as a calculated act of support for le francophonie, and defiance of the looming anglophone hegemony in international affairs.”

In short, he uses it for political advantage with the home crowd – just like John Kerry.
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