Let me be clear

Usually, when any politician feels the need to say "Let me be clear" it immediately tells me they are going to be anything BUT clear. Same thing with "clearly," which signals that the waters are about to be really muddied. "To be perfectly honest" is another which sets off my bs metre. Whenever I hear that phrase from a politician, I know that DIShonesty is about to be the theme. It has proved to be infallible for me, and I have to work hard at not chuckling, or screaming in outrage. "Let me be frank" is one of my personal favourites. That one became the mainstay introduction of an ongoing British funny gag which, to this day, I can almost never resist whenever someone says "let me be frank."

Anyone paying attention must know by now, BO has elevated the spewing of bs to a not so fine art form. The repetition of "uh...um...errrrrr, ..." usually coupled with the ubiquitous "let me be clear," always raises the red flag of the bs alert to me. Of course, we have all also come to know that whenever BO opens his mouth, there is an over-abundance of the personal pronouns. "I, " "me," "mine" are now the overwhelming constant in every speech, or off the cuff remark, for BO. It IS all about him, after all.

This tendancy of the narcissistic Language-Mangler-in-Chief has not gone un-noticed by other observers around the globe.

From the UK Telegraph comes this:

Barack Obama: 'Oh, did I mention I won the Nobel prize?'

By Toby Harnden

The conventional wisdom is that President Barack Obama was embarrassed by the patently ludicrous award to him of the Nobel Peace Prize. And to be fair it did seem so when he accepted the honour (a term I use loosely) last Friday, quoting his daughter Malia as saying: “Daddy, you won the Nobel Peace Prize, and it is Bo’s birthday!” (call me a cynic but that’s a fabricated quote if ever I heard one).

Since then, however, it’s become abundantly clear that Obama isn’t even faintly sheepish about the award. Yeah, there’s all the usual guff about him being humbled, it’s about us not him blah blah blah. But this can’t mask the fact that he’s as pleased as punch about landing the prize. He’s lapping it up and seems to view it – sadly and mistakenly – as a major validation.

Apart from the clue that he’s going to skip over to Oslo to pick up the gong personally (great opportunity for a wonderful speech), consider the emails his White House is sending out. No opportunity to shoehorn in a mention of the Nobel prize is being missed.

Yesterday, it was: “Earlier today, President Obama spoke with President Felipe Calderon of Mexico, President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, and President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia. In addition to thanking each for their respective calls regarding the Nobel Peace Prize, the President…”

Read the rest of this here.

[BO to MO: "Honey, they're playing my song." With my apologies to the Beatles]

I know how hard it must be for BO. Really, I do! All the awards for his mere intentions and his so-called mastery of oratory! However, with all his so-called eloquence - you know "errrrr, um, aaaaah" is always so articulate - there is also a cliche that BO should, perhaps, start paying attention to. I know, I know that cliches are hackneyed by their very nature, but they are not called 'truisms' for nothing.

"Talk is cheap..." BO has - kinda, sorta - proved he can 'talk the talk.' Let ME be clear: NOW is the time for him to 'walk the walk," and actually DO something constructive.

Not holding my breath.