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September 27, 2007
Blair
Been a while since I watched Blair at any length, but he's on this morning's opening panel at the Clinton Global Initiative, and it's almost impossible to overstate how damn charming the guy is. It helps that I don't really disagree with anything he's said, but the power of an English accent, a roguish grin, and a quick wit are really rather impressive. I'm terrified by how neutralized I'd be if he said something I did disagree with. For instance: What if, in his English accent, he advocated conservative health care policies? His lilt crashing into my collectivism would be like the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object. I'd probably pop out of existence.
September 27, 2007 | Permalink
Comments
How 'bout a Spanish accent?
"Luke at me when I spic to you. You find me attractive, no?"
Posted by: El Viajero | Sep 27, 2007 10:05:31 AM
I work with people who have English accents, and I can tell you that the charm wears off. Stupid lies in an English accent may sound intelligent at first but after a while you realize that they're still stupid lies.
Posted by: Bloix | Sep 27, 2007 10:10:08 AM
"For instance: What if, in his English accent, he advocated conservative health care policies? "
By British standards, he does. He oversaw a semi-privatisation of the NHS far more radical than anything the Tories did in that area.
Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Sep 27, 2007 10:15:54 AM
I'm terrified by how neutralized I'd be if he said something I did disagree with.
Such as, perhaps, that we should invade Iraq?
Posted by: Tyro | Sep 27, 2007 10:22:22 AM
Recognizing that your tongue is planted firmly in-cheek here, is this the first in a continuing series of posts entitled "David Brooks' Internal Monologue"?
Posted by: Daniel Munz | Sep 27, 2007 10:28:58 AM
I wish the English-accent-as-power thing were true. But as the blog says, Sadly, No.
Otherwise there would not only be world peace courtesy of the Home Counties-flavored demands of Yours Truly, but also a surfeit of Ferraris and ponies all over my back garden, scattered among the heirloom roses and other proper flowers that, for the less Britishly intoned, normally refuse to grow in Florida.
Posted by: litbrit | Sep 27, 2007 10:42:14 AM
So, Bush would be good if he could just speak an English sentence and actually, you know, pronounce proper names?
j/k
Posted by: JimPortlandOR | Sep 27, 2007 11:00:43 AM
My unwarranted positive feelings about Blair result perhaps partly from what you say but mainly from my being in England during the week of 9/11, so that I experienced Blair on TV being a leader while Our Leader was still cowering incommunicado wherever the hell he was. I've never understood how Bush managed to rewrite the history of that day so it became symbolic of his strong leadership.
Posted by: KCinDC | Sep 27, 2007 11:12:37 AM
As charming as Blair might be, he'll still go down in history as Bush's poodle. How he allowed himself to get sucked in like that, I'll never know. Thank goodness the British electorate is smarter than us.
Posted by: Joe Klein's conscience | Sep 27, 2007 11:16:56 AM
Yeah, Blair is a true believer in many ways, and we'd all be much worse off if he were in charge of selling the Global War Against Islamofascism instead of the utterly inarticulate guy we do have in charge.
Posted by: Steve | Sep 27, 2007 11:37:04 AM
I am not sure about why this is a hypothetical. Watching all Blair's charm become something loathsome already happened with the Iraq war. It was admittedly quite disconcerting at first, but before too long it felt quite natural to consider him a scumbag. Wit and cool accents really aren't that big a barrier to recognizing evil in the end.
Posted by: greg | Sep 27, 2007 11:54:24 AM
Good God don't you people have English friends anywhere? This fawning over a run of the mill norf london accent is embarrassing.
Posted by: Bill | Sep 27, 2007 11:58:34 AM
When my English friends complain about what a jerk he is, I always offer to trade them Blair for Bush, even-steven. No takers yet.
Posted by: Fruity Bev | Sep 27, 2007 3:49:22 PM
Nah, you'd just assume he didn't really say anything you disagreed with. That's how it works.
Posted by: Anthony Damiani | Sep 28, 2007 6:17:19 AM
"His lilt crashing into my collectivism would be like the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object. I'd probably pop out of existence."
You mean there is actually a use for him?
"How he allowed himself to get sucked in like that, I'll never know. Thank goodness the British electorate is smarter than us."
Blair had ten years in power and resigned : He didn't lose an election and he won three. Bush gets 8 years max in power and won two elections. That makes theBrits smarter?
Posted by: Tim Worstall | Sep 28, 2007 8:25:33 AM
Bill, do you have any English friends?
I doubt it, because if you did you'd know that it's Sarf Londoners who stereotypically say "Sarf" and "Norf," and you'd know that Blair doesn't have a strong accent particular to any part of England.
Posted by: Bill | Sep 28, 2007 8:33:04 AM
Blair doesn't have a strong accent particular to any part of England
Blair speaks Received Pronunciation, like BBC announcers and the Queen. But it's true that RP doesn't belong to any one region of England.
As far as Blair's "charm" goes, how has this not worn off for American liberals by now? The spastic eyes, the stiff arms, the shit-eating grimace - the man is a walking disaster. Yes, Americans typically only see Blair when he's standing next to George Bush, and even Elmer Fudd would look suave next to that, but the tendency on the part of American liberals - particularly American liberals who supported the war - to retroactively cast Tony Blair as some sort of British sex god who wooed them into ill-advised foreign wars with his oh-so-silver tongue seems self-serving in the extreme.
Posted by: Christmas | Sep 28, 2007 9:39:54 AM
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