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Re: [xmca] A magic moment: swearing-in gaffe
Steve,
Now we can tell our friends exactly what happened. We can always rely on
you, as you well know.
Carol
2009/1/21 Steve Gabosch <stevegabosch@me.com>
> I listened to the videos of the inauguration speech and the swearing in
> tonight. Language gaffes can be fun to analyze. I agree with Ageliki, the
> gaffe during the swearing-in was the justice's. At, first, it does appear
> as Carol observed that Obama forgot his line, and secondly, as Ageliki
> observers, that the problem was the order of the word "faithfully." It
> happens very fast. But I don't think either of those are quite what
> happened, on closer examination. A few looks at the short video seems to
> reveal what the precise problem was.
>
> My sense (after running the short video a few times) is that Obama stopped
> because he was trying to help Chief Justice Roberts correct an error so
> Obama could say a line correctly. The error appears to be Roberts saying
> "the office of the President **to** the United States" instead of "the
> office of the President **of** the United States."
>
> Obama's leadership skills and acute awareness of himself and others can be
> a delight to watch, and this appears to be another example. Despite the
> justice, Obama wound up saying his lines perfectly, while never losing
> either his composure, awareness of the words in play, sense of humor, or
> connection with the justice.
>
> Here is my take on this little language-based gaffe:
>
> R: Are you prepared to take the oath, Senator?
> O: I am.
>
> R: I, Barack Hussein Obama ... (pauses)
> O: I, Barack ...
>
> R: (interrupts) "... do solemnly swear... "
> O: (starts over) I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear ...
>
> R: ... that I will execute the office of President **to** the United
> States faithfully ...
> O: that I will execute ... (stops, frowns, drops his head and looks at
> Roberts with a hard look that I interpret as saying "say your line
> correctly, pal," patiently waiting, apparently unwilling to say the
> incorrect President "to" the United States but also unwilling to say the
> line correctly without Roberts saying it first).
>
> R: (stuttering over his words) the off ... faithfully the pres ... office
> of the President of the United States ...
> O: (grinning in a friendly way while looking at Roberts ... Obama then
> proceeds as soon as he hears Roberts say the phrase "office of the President
> **of** the United States," putting it all together and speaking rapidly) ...
> the office of the President of the United States faithfully ...
>
> R: (back on track) and will, to the best of my ability ...
> Etc. The rest went as planned.
>
> I used the video of the swearing-in in the "Latest Video" box in today
> (Wednesday's) LA Times page at
> http://www.latimes.com/
>
> So my theory is that a wrong preposition was the culprit. Other takes on
> what happened?
>
> - Steve
>
>
>
> On Jan 21, 2009, at 5:19 AM, Ageliki Nicolopoulou wrote:
>
> A slight correction about the "endearing moment." It was actually the
>> child of justice who made a mistake and gave Obama the words in the wrong
>> order. So Obama stopped at the word previously omitted (or put later on),
>> smiled (what seemed to most people that he could not remember), then the
>> chief of justice gave the words in the right order! --Ageliki
>>
>> Carol Macdonald wrote:
>>
>> Carol Macdonald says:
>>>
>>> What I found interesting was the poetic nature of his speech--"not
>>> this...
>>> but this" and no sign of any notes. It was most endearing when the chief
>>> justice gave him chunks that were too large in his oath and he got a bit
>>> lost. For heaven's sake, when you get married they give you bite size
>>> chunks
>>> to follow!! A guy at church last night wondered why we are only able to
>>> raise up black leaders in the last two decades. Well I think they had to
>>> fight from the bottom up, and have the dignity not to berate us for our
>>> despicable behaviour in the past. Instead they give *us* dignity... .
>>>
>>>
>>> 2009/1/21 Mary van der Riet <VanDerRiet@ukzn.ac.za>
>>>
>>>
>>> Indeed - the whole world is/was watching
>>>> Nelson Mandela referred to him as: new hope for the world
>>>>
>>>> Mary
>>>>
>>>> Mary van der Riet; School of Psychology; University of KwaZulu-Natal
>>>> Private Bag X01, Scottsville, 3209
>>>>
>>>> email: vanderriet@ukzn.ac.za
>>>> tel: 033 260 6163; fax: 033 2605809
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> 2009/01/20 12:07 PM >>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Likewise in Australia. There is an Obama Party being held in
>>>> our street as I write and the TV covergae goes all night
>>>> tonight. Everyone seems to have projected their own hopes
>>>> and aspirations on to this guy, worldwide.
>>>>
>>>> Andy
>>>>
>>>> Beatrice Ligorio wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Mike I just want to add that this event was a great emotion for Europe
>>>>>
>>>>> too.
>>>>
>>>> We are all watching America as a new hope for global change. So much
>>>>> expectations are coming from this new American president and his new
>>>>> way
>>>>> of leading a powerful country, so influencial on the rest of the world.
>>>>> The wave got till the old continent :-)
>>>>>
>>>>> Bea
>>>>>
>>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Duvall, Emily" <emily@uidaho.edu>
>>>>> To: <mcole@weber.ucsd.edu>; "eXtended Mind, Culture,Activity"
>>>>> <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
>>>>> Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 2:11 AM
>>>>> Subject: RE: [xmca] A magic moment
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Thank you Mike.
>>>>> Good luck to us all.
>>>>> ~em
>>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu]
>>>>> On Behalf Of Mike Cole
>>>>> Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 6:01 PM
>>>>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>>>>> Cc: communication@ucsd.edu; Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition
>>>>> Internal List
>>>>> Subject: [xmca] A magic moment
>>>>>
>>>>> Dear Xmca-ers--
>>>>>
>>>>> Tonight is a magic moment. In the Los Angeles Times this morning there
>>>>> was
>>>>> an
>>>>> editorial "cartoon" that had a picture of the Calendar with Martin
>>>>> Luther
>>>>> King, on
>>>>> January 19th, pointing to the future-- of January 20th, when, Humanity
>>>>> willing, when
>>>>> an African-American will become president of the United States.
>>>>>
>>>>> I feel unbelievably luck to be alive, present, and, in my small
>>>>> peripheral
>>>>> way, a participant
>>>>> in such an event. The site of Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen singing
>>>>> Arlo
>>>>> Guthrie's hymn
>>>>> to the promise of this troubled country with its checkered history in
>>>>> front
>>>>> of Lincoln's statue
>>>>> yesterday was a sight I NEVER expected to live to see. When I was a
>>>>> child,
>>>>> my family's anti-
>>>>> racism and belief in social justice produced some very hard times. When
>>>>> I
>>>>> went to graduate
>>>>> school in Indiana and picketed Woolworth's literally dogged by the
>>>>> police,
>>>>> my New York liberal
>>>>> friends thought it was so obvious and unnecessary they couldn't be
>>>>> bothered.
>>>>> When I returned
>>>>> from the USSR in 1963 and did not know enough to turn south from New
>>>>> York to
>>>>> be present in
>>>>> Washington for MLK's speech at the Lincoln memorial, but had to hear it
>>>>> while driving west on the
>>>>> Pennsylvania turnpike, we felt the lost opportunity sorely.
>>>>>
>>>>> All events, long past.
>>>>>
>>>>> LCHC holds this truth to be self evident: All persons are created
>>>>> equal.
>>>>> We
>>>>> are rendered unequal
>>>>> by the environment into which we are born, an environment that, in the
>>>>> general ideological-theoretical
>>>>> assumptions of xmca, is not forced upon human beings locked into an
>>>>> iron
>>>>> cage, but is, with proper
>>>>> respect and humility, constructed and (may our grand children hope)
>>>>> preserved by the actions we take
>>>>> now. today. tomorrow. and the days following.
>>>>>
>>>>> Gotta turn off the TV. The trivia level is almost more than I can bear.
>>>>> Better to turn to friends coming to
>>>>> celebrate and pray for the future, and to listen to Pete Seeger leading
>>>>> the
>>>>> nation in us thought that,
>>>>> just maybe, we can overcome.
>>>>>
>>>>> Bon nuit
>>>>> bueno noche
>>>>> spokoini nochi
>>>>> and lots of good luck. We all need it.
>>>>> mike
>>>>>
>>>>> (the 50's guy)
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> xmca mailing list
>>>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>>>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
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>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Andy Blunden http://home.mira.net/~andy/<http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/><
>>>> http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/>+61 3 9380 9435
>>>> Skype andy.blunden
>>>> Hegel's Logic with a Foreword by Andy Blunden:
>>>> http://www.marxists.org/admin/books/index.htm
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> --
>> **********************************************
>> Ageliki Nicolopoulou
>> Associate Professor
>> Department of Psychology, Lehigh University
>> 17 Memorial Drive East
>> Bethlehem, PA 18015-3068
>>
>> Personal Webpage: http://www.lehigh.edu/~agn3/index.htm<http://www.lehigh.edu/%7Eagn3/index.htm>
>> Departmental Webpage: http://www.lehigh.edu/~inpsy/nicolopoulou.html<http://www.lehigh.edu/%7Einpsy/nicolopoulou.html>
>> **********************************************
>>
>>
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>
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