I KID YOU NOT:Republicans attacking Obama's pronunciation of "Pakistan": They say it's too "foreign"

[darius15]

Barack Obama pronounces "Pakistan" correctly, with a soft "a," just like a lot of people who know what they're talking about, including Gen. David Petraeus. Apparently, having completely run out of compelling policy arguments to make, some high-profile conservatives have decided to make this their latest campaign hobbyhorse.

The National Review's Mark Stein, for example, said that Obama prefers the "exotic pronunciation." He added, "ne thing I like about Sarah Palin is the way she says 'Eye-raq'."

This came after the National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez posted an email that argued, "o one in flyover country says Pock-i-stahn. It's annoying."

The inanity of what the right decides to whine about never ceases to amaze me. That Obama's pronunciation is accurate is irrelevant. Mispronunciation apparently makes some conservatives feel better about themselves, and raises doubts about candidates who care to get this right. "Elites" care about country names; real Americans don't.

My friend Adam Serwer's take was spot-on:

To pronounce something correctly is to be "ostentatiously exotic," while pronouncing something incorrectly is raised to the level of something like a presidential qualification. Meanwhile, there are thousands of Americans of Pakistani descent who are themselves "ostentatiously exotic" by virtue of their names (and it would be elitist of them to expect anyone to pronounce them correctly) and ancestry.

Keep in mind that these are the same people who insist that a culture of ignorance that hold black people back while lauding Sarah Palin's vast ignorance of public policy as some kind of tremendous virtue. They demand merit from others and only mediocrity from themselves, because said mediocrity is touted as proof of authenticity.

The right's anti-intellectualism seems to be getting worse, doesn't it?

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_10/015092.php

[MadBadger]

1. I love the way he says it.

[ErinBerin84]

2. as opposed to Eye-rack?

[hedgehog]

8. These people used to talk about that there exotic Eye-tal-in food!

[stray cat]

3. Speaking a country or person's name correctly is soo elitist!

[anonymous171]

4. This is what David Brooks was talking about.

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

5. NevAda, NeVahDa.... yawn.

[msallied]

6. Clearly Obama doesn't know how to speak Amurrican.

Enough of his elitist rhetoric and some folks'll go nukular!

[elkston]

7. Are you f-cking kidding me? They truly are grabbing at straws here. /nt

[OneGrassRoot]

9. Sonofabitch, my boyfriend called it....

After the first debate he said to watch out for it, that they'll use it to imply he's foreign...and a terrorist.

Unfuckingbelievable.

[RagAss]

10. The fucktards are drowning in their own wet shit !

[HughMoran]

11. Republicans are pretty damned desperate, let me tell you!

:freak:

[TornadoTN]

12. Funny. McCain decided to pronounce Pakistan and Taliban just like Obama last night

This after he pronounced it entirely differently during the first debate.

I hate to say it, but I'm getting immense pleasure watching the right-wing crazies and Freepers in their death throws.

[MorningGlow]

13. Pock-i-stan bad...

Nuk-u-lur good...

OOooooookay....and what about McCain's saying "Tahl-ee-bahn" last night? Which side of this inanity does that fall?

[whosinpower]

14. Pronouncing it correctly

Is not ostentatious - it shows respect for that nation. There is nothing elitist about showing respect - it is good manners.

And showing respect does not equate into agreeing with everything that nation did - or any sublime acceptance of wrongdoing on the international stage.

[TeamJordan23]

15. As someone from South Asia, I've always appreciated that Obama has pronounced it correctly

And this has always been the case.

[trof]

16. Paris or Pahr-EE? My-lan (Milan) or Mee-LAH-noh?

Should you pronounce the names the way the natives do?
Or the way they 'look' to 'Muricans/Brits?
I believe the natives prefer their own pronunciation.
And that's what I prefer.

[WinkyDink]

17. The National Review? Wm. F. "Most Affected Speech EVER" Buckley's NR?!

[budkin]

18. It's going to be so sweet grinding freepers faces in this victory!

[anigbrowl]

19. And if Obama ever says anything like 'You feel me?' they'll be screaming 'Ebonics!!!!'

I am so sick of al this talk about a nukular Eyeran etc. etc. When I was a kid I was proud of America's intellectual heritage - I enjoyed reruns of the Beverly Hillbillies, but there was a feeling of keeping things in proportion. Now the pubs seem to think that if you care enough to study hard in school and speak well, it shows you're an elitist. Aaaargh.

[Eric J in MN]

20. Pronouncing the name of a country correctly is bad, but...

...referring to people like me as living in "flyover country" (as Kathryn Jean Lopez does) is supposedly charming.

[HockeyMom]

21. I used to work with a Pakistani woman

That is exactly how she pronounced it.

[Virginia Dare]

22. Sounds like a great discussion for the bread line freeps...n/t

[Jennicut]

23. The correct spelling is "exotic". complete utter morons.

[SoonerPride]

24. We make fun of them when they misponounce things, like NUKEYOULAR

Why does it bug them if someone pronounces things correctly?

Is it elitist to say ti right?

[Deny and Shred]

25. The sub-text is that REAL Americans care only about America

To even try to show respect to a foreign culture is to Kow-Tow. To deny that is to live in fantasy-land.

Hot Dogs, Beer, Apple Pie, Hunting, Power Tools ... these things are American. America won the culture war, so Love It or Leave It!

Caring how 'lesser' cultures pronounce things, or caring how they feel about it, is elitist and defeatist. Either they become American vassals, or get bombed back the Stone Age. To think there is middle ground makes you an ineffectual hippie who'd join hands with our sworn enemy and sing Cumbaya.

[slampoet]

26. Sound's like the Freeps who called the French stupid 'cause they spelled the country "IRAK"

[johnnydrama]

27. Jesus F'ng Christ

I learned how to pronounce Pakistan from Seinfeld