There’s a terrifying article in today’s NY Times about John McCain’s near-hopeless efforts to improve his speaking style.

“Terrifying?”

Yeah. Terrifying because sooner or later the McCain camp is simply going to give up trying to compete with Obama in the “communicating a message” arena, and then they’ll begin the noble work of crapping on the very concept of trying to communicate a message.  It’s effete!  And elite!   And here the son of an admiral who himself was the son of an admiral is going to become a real son of a bitch.

It’s happened before. You gotta admit.

The talk of “authenticity” will redouble, and people will be led to forget that if you’re NOT the son of an admiral or the son of a president, you may have to go that extra mile and get yourself some “polish” and “speaking skills” and “book-learnin’” and whatnot. Otherwise, you’ll never get in the door. Once inside, however, the guys who were born in there can make fun of you for talkin’ so fancy. ‘Cuz they never had to learn to talk like that. They were headed for Yale or the Naval Academy and they grew up with the easy knowledge that they were people of quality and didn’t have to go to any great lengths to prove it.

Which is fine, right up until the moment when you start calling the poor kid an elitist for talking so fancy. Then it becomes something else.

But hey, that’s just something I’m sort of saying, you know? I’m just typin’ here, not really thinking. Because I’m a plainspoken guy, and thinking out your writin’ before you type it, well, that’s for fancy people, and that sort of thing isn’t for regular people like you and me, right? I don’t think I’m better than you, not like some of those writers who plot and plan what they’re gonna say, thinking it through, manipulating how they want to come across… why, by the time you read it, those writers have been working on their stuff for so long that they know exactly what they’re saying and how they want you to interpret it! How can you trust that?

Not me. Maybe I’m not a “good” “writer,” maybe I don’t “communicate” my “thoughts,” maybe I can’t “get my point across” or “have a clear idea of how to say stuff.” But I’m writing to you from the heart. You can see that I mean what I’m saying, even if you don’t know what it is, and the fact that you don’t know what it is means that I’m not trying to manipulate you, or at least I’m not succeeding, which proves that I don’t think I’m better than you, which means that I’m just like you, see? And, like, if I was running for something, I think you can clearly see why I’d deserve your vote… for that… thing. Right. I’m not the type who’s going to look back at what I just wrote and fix it up. No no no, I won’t insult your intelligence by exhibiting any. Thank you is what I’ll say - thank you, and God bless America.