Barack Obama wants to know, “Are you smarter than a ninth-grader?”

[Dennis Baron]

There's a new post on the Web of Language:

Barack Obama wants to know, “Are you smarter than a ninth-grader?”

Presidents come in for a lot of criticism, particularly from late- 
night comics and the party that's out of office. But Republicans,  
Democrats, and even Socialists should be outraged at the audacity of  
critics who blame Pres. Barack Obama for pitching his recent speech on  
the BP oil spill to Americans whose verbal comprehension level is that  
of a tenth-grader.After all, most Americans who are old enough to do  
so have already completed tenth grade.

Want to know more? Read the rest of this post on the Web of Language: http://bit.ly/weblan
____________________
Dennis Baron
Professor of English and Linguistics
Department of English
University of Illinois
608 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801

office: 217-244-0568
fax: 217-333-4321

http://www.illinois.edu/goto/debaron

read the Web of Language:
http://www.illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage

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