The Wizard of “Uh”s

I admit it, I am easily amused.

Once I discovered the Wordle tool, I haven’t been able to stop playing with it. And when my husband suggested that I try it on a transcript of an Obama speech when he’s not on the TelePrompter (and no, this doesn’t count), I simply couldn’t resist.

You may recall that President Obama held a press conference last month, during which he spoke both with and without the aid of his trusty TelePromtper. His on-prompter performance was, as usual, nearly flawless. Once he abandoned it to answer actual live questions from the press, however, the real Uh-Meister came to the fore.

I took the transcript provided by the Washington Post, played the video of the conference, and added back in all the “Uh”s the the Post so kindly left out. Since the presser was a long, drawn-out affair, I only used Obama’s answers to the first three questions, but that was plenty. And the Wordle that was created speaks volumes. In this case, the picture is worth a thousand words: Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh…

Obama’s language, like his politics, is still coming from the Land of “Uh”s.

Stoutcat

P.S. don’t believe me? Here’s the text, uh’s and all, with link to the WaPo transcript and video. Go to Wordle.net and try it for yourself.