You're right John

After the debate my wife was trying to visualize the junior senator from Illinois sitting face to face with some world leader. It opened an interesting conversation. She could see the young fellow sitting across the table from Queen Elizabeth, saying “So how are things in the kingdom Lizzy?” Of course he would be on first name terms with Mahmoud – Mahmoud would even understand the meaning of Obama’s name. (Yes, I know Ahmadinejad’s native language isn’t Arab, but Pharsee, but any good Muslim knows enough Arab to understand Obama’s name.)
I have acted as interpreter for some people who don’t speak English – it isn’t easy. I’d hate to try to interpret for someone who uses “you know” for a semicolon and uses lots of semicolons. I always deducted points from students who used “you know” and “like” in their sentences. Yes, I realize they were using these phrases because they needed extra time to think about what they were about to say, it’s just that I expected them to come into class prepared to speak directly on the subject.
So, back to the neophyte phenom from the Chicago political machine. Will he sit across the table from Putin, Chavez, Castro, et. al. and say, “uh, ya know, Vlad, uh, we don’t actually approve of, uh, what, you know, uh, your troops, uh, are, uh, doing, you know, in Georgia?”
Now there is something Obama has said that I agree with, although I don’t see its pertinency in a political speech. I agree that Americans are woefully behind the rest of the world in their command of world languages. On the other hand, I’d like to hear Obama speak his own language with a bit more fluency. After all, he studied law at Harvard. Surely they taught him forensics. How would he do in a courtroom? “Uh, Sam (that’s the judge), you know, uh, I object, uh, to, uh, my learned, you know, opponent, uh, saying, uh, his client, uh, is innocent.”
My advice to Obama – stick to the script and get good scriptwriters, when you’re on your own you sound like a freshman.