♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> hello, i'm llewellyn king, the host of "white house chronicle" which is coming right up, but first a few thoughts of my own. i am one of many journalists at the white house who are puzzled by president obama. we listen to him. we say he is very smart. he is very articulate. he handles himself well. and when he has left the room and we leave the room after a press briefing, we wonder what did he say? we start looking at our notes. what did he say? my feeling is that the president

has achieved something unique. his presidency reminds me of somebody who gives a party and then comes as one of the guests, not as the host. there is some sort of disconnect. i think many of the problems come from bad advice. he intends to get enthusiasm and then to undermine his own enthusiasm for something. i will give you two examples, just two, but there are many. they are both in the energy field. one is the keystone pipeline. why did he do what he did with it to get the enmity of the oil industry but to provide an enormous cadrel for the republicans of the oil industry to beat him with. canada is going to produce that oil. we need that oil. it's security. the canadians will build another pipeline to the west coast over the rockies and sell it to china if we don't have it.

why did he after two years say it needed study? why didn't they study it in the two years? well, of course they did. it was a done deal until he undid the deal. likewise when he was running for president, he said he was for nuclear power except the first thing he did was to undermine the nuclear waste repository yaka mountain to please we assume harry reid from nevada who doesn't like it, who is the majority leader in the senate. so the result is that obama succeeds somehow in turning right, veering left, putting a left turn signal on and going the other way. the result is he doesn't please the base. it provides ammunition for his critics. and it somehow undermines his own intelligence and sense of purpose as president. i think it's very sad.

i think that he thinks about things as a lawyer and that you will find the details in the fine print, mr. president. we, the american public, do not read the fine print. we only read the big letters and we see left and we see right and we see flip and we see flop. i have a very unique program coming up for you today in which we're going to talk about words, the use of words in politics and sometimes just the use of words for the pure joy of it. we'll be right back. >> many have spoken out on the need to transition to a clean energy future. at epsilon, we are acting. by 2020, we are committed to reducing, offsetting, or displacing more than 15 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions by greening our operations, helping reduce emissions and offering more low

carbon electricity in the marketplace. we are taking action and we are seeing results. >> "white house chronicle" produced in collaboration with whut, howard university television. and now the program host, nationally syndicated columnist llewellyn king and co-host linda gasparello. >> hello, thank you for coming along. we're back, of course, and i am back with linda gasparello of this program and what a nifty hat you have today, linda. >> a fidura. >> i have asked you this before, but i have forgotten. is it a bad hair day or do you like hats? >> i like hats. >> i like hats, too, it's very nice. i'm very glad to have on the board aaron, one of the great journalists of washington and

one of the great word smiths of washington, now a frequent critic of the "wall street journal," a former editor of "american speaker magazine," and if you ever need an emcee for anything, get him. we have done a few, sadly, memorial services together and we look at each other and wonder who is going to be left to bury the other one. >> the race is on. [laughter] >> and i'm very glad to have on this broadcast the founder of "fair observer," a brand-new web-based publication for decisionmakers globally in a very rough way, if you want to know where it fits, if you read "the economist," you would probably enjoy this publication or if you read any of those magazines of opinion, it is gaining strength, gaining readers around the globe. "fair observer" check it out on the web. words, words, words, words,

words, how does that go in "my fair lady" lady? >> ask him, he knows all of the words to anything. >> no, no, no. >> not musicals. >> i sometimes wonder those of us involved in words are not too involved in words. it does produce, aaron, when i once read and i thought was very telling a creature called the articulate incompetent. i have always been a sucker for hiring the articulate incompetent. if someone talks well, i tend to think they work well. it doesn't always follow, does it? >> no, it's like the disillusion that tends the first recording of reading the own works. some of them can't even speak well. but, no, someone whose glib conversation, put them in front a type writer, in the old days a type writer, now a keyboard. they freeze. it comes out differently. they lose their articulation.

they are the people who are stiff as a board and they sit down, like someone sitting down at a piano. >> completely fluent. >> you touched on something very important which is don't meet your productive heroes. if you are moved, i used to write about the theater. i learned this lesson the hard way, the brutal way. if you love a performance, don't go backstage and meet this airhead that has just reduced you to tears. it's a good separation between the audience and the artist, leave it that way. >> occasionally on public television, they'll have a behind-the-scenes scene where they interview an actor who is very convincing as a romantic lead. you're waiting for him to put his lipstick on when he is speaking as himself, you are always glad after the show rather than during the intermission because it will be hard to believe a love scene. >> are they much older and you see the fellows sitting there in

a wheelchair and suddenly he is bouncing around the stage breaking hearts. tell us a little bit about yourself as you are new to this broadcast, but i hope it's not the only time. >> well, i am an indian who has done a few things and i am trained in many languages to begin with which is why words are important. i grew up multilingual. now i am in the u.s. and the u.k. it is a little curious to come here and see the oral arts often missing because the wit and the banter and just the feel for words that exists in the old world is something you miss in this part of the world. >> i think -- >> do we miss it, or is it not available? is it happening out of sight where it's more public on television, etc., in britain, for example? >> i would say you miss it in

daily life. i don't own a television. i never see tv. so those of you watching tv, my dear apologies if you have to suffer a lot on tv. but for me, when we were debating in the oxford union, even offstage, there would be conversations, there would be endless conversations, there would be word play, there would be quotes going around. there would be a discussion of meaning while in the u.s. it is less of a conversational culture and more of let's do something. i will never forget my first time in california, that's part of the attraction of the u.s. and i'm headed to california. i got up in the morning and my closest friend, the great ben fuller. >> we have a lot of viewers in california, they'll be waiting for you. careful what you say. they already explained as inarticulate, they are waiting with a rope or a pitch fork or some other welcoming. >> angry looking people who smile and say hello.

>> have a nice day as they string you up. >> exactly. >> let's get to this. he got up in the morning and the first thing he said it's a great day, what shall we do? and i wondered which one of my indian friends or english friends or german friends, the first thing i got them in the morning, what shall we do today? so i think there is a little bit of a difference. i also think that you don't have such a long-standing literaryy tradition and scholastic training. that has an important ability to language. >> i don't know the answers. linda, you understand this better than i because you're italian, but it's not something that is in the genes. music, particularly, classical music is in the italian genes. i used to have a barber in washington who sang opera. he was italian, of course. and the welch are very musical,

doesn't matter whether, i have a friend who lives in richmond, virginia, but is of welch descendant has the characteristics of the welch in being very musical. i wonder if this facility of words may not be particularly an english thing. >> yes, but then again, our roots, originally were english here. one of the big things is people came here to do something, and the whole you tilltarian approach to education has cost us a lot in conversation. people here who go to university tend to specialize early and i don't think you really see that many people with what would have been in the old days considered a liberal education that is well lettered conversationally. making a toast, the first thing realized when she got over there and was mixing with lawyers from various countries, the best toasts came from the english attorneys and the worst toasts came from the american attorneys. and it was because they couldn't draw on the classics. they didn't have that same sort of liberal education to begin

with. >> i'll throw out a few american thinkers who are very articulate. the senator -- >> he was an old tradition and immersed in the classics. >> add lay steven -- adalai stevenson. >> william f buckley. >> a highly well-read man who also had some of his education in england. >> we're going to pose for identification here, particularly, for the benefit of our listeners on sirius x.m. radio channel 124. you are listening to "white house chronicle" from washington, d.c. with myself, llewellyn king, linda gasparello of this program, aaron, a writer and critic and atal who is the founder of "fair observer," a new publication, a high level education on the internet. this program can be heard around the world on the english language stations of voice of

america and also on about 200 local stations in the u.s. back to the subject, give me, you were a debater at oxford, right? >> yes. >> being debaters tend to do well in britain, arianna huffington was at cambridge. she has done well. are you going to do as well as her? >> maybe better, hopefully better. >> what is the row of actions, she is from greek origin. does it make a difference when you get to these great british universities with the wits? >> i think initially it does because -- >> favorable or unfavorable. >> unfaveable to begin with. in england, if you have a foreign accent to begin with, it's unfavorable, less so than earlier times. now people don't make that effort to adopt the english

accent. but what happens is over time because there have been so many singaporeans, australians, canadians. >> americans. >> americans as well who have blazed a trail of glory, if you distinguish yourself, over time you are seen as the exotic foreigner who can thrive on the english scene and to the credit of both oxford and cambridge and england as a whole, argument and rigor in argument is a prized trait, less so than before perhaps, but still a prized trait. >> have you been to ireland, rigor and argument is often reinforced by some argumentive juice? >> they carry their alcohol in the debating chamber and i debated in trinity, dublin. that has been the finest experience of my life. >> the irish parliament, i have

had the good fortune to be, i was drinking with a senator one day because if you're there, you're drinking and he said mind my drink, i got to go and vote. and this, they were all doing that and rushing to vote, but he was part of the operation as it was in the house of commons. >> still is. >> to a lesser extent since the television and cameras came in. >> but they drink on the terrace now. >> let's get back to america. >> one place where you really see the rigors of debate is the indian parliament. the level of argument, i think, is wonderful and where everyone -- the length of argument, we're treated to it on radio every once in a while, we get this and that of this. it's wonderful. that tradition is also alive in the british parliament. >> who do you think, linda, are the great americans wits and

obviously we have those from history like mark twain who was superb. nowadays, we have calvin -- >> nowadays? >> nowadays, who is towering wit in our society? >> i think you just got your answer. it was a stunned silence. >> not totally. >> where are the algonquins. >> who is in it? but where? >> they were also the historians of this wit. they had an opportunity to brash it up a little bit before they told the world about it. >> here is the thing. when i look at american television, which i do so very infrequently or over the internet, i don't find anyone, anyone who compares with jeremy paxman. you may not think he is witty.

>> i watch him, too, when i worked at the bbc so i have some interest in it. no, i think we have very good television interviewers. remember, you got to be very careful about this crossing the atlantic and think what works there will work there. it doesn't. every british journalist who came to work in america, i came in 1963 think they're doing fleet street here, it doesn't work here. i tried and lost a lot of money doing it. it doesn't work here. now i have no money and trying to learn the trade belatedly or the american trade belatedly. i'm thinking about some of the coming journalists, dana milbank of the "washington post." >> i would say he is about as good as it gets in the current thought. >> i had run into him the other day and he had lost a lot of weight. dana, how did you lose that weight? whenever i want to eat, i think of newt gingrich. [laughter] >> i realized who newt gingrich

reminds me of. he is the pills bury dough boy's evil twin. >> that's terrible. >> he is the closest in this campaign that we have come to wit. oddly, it was a different kind of wit. it wasn't the wit of oxford and cambridge and ha and harvard and debating societies. george w bush was facial quick. it wasn't someone is said locker room humor, but i was in a lot of press conferences with him. he was very quick. >> part of it is being at ease, having a certain amount of self-assurance and not being gnawed by inner doubts. he did have an actual sense of humor. >> he was a quick wit. >> from the public platform, this gentleman here is no meaning fellow. >> i try not to be mean. >> no, you're very good on the platform as you know. don't screw the compliment up now, because there is not another one coming. >> we have exhausted our supply.

>> now, i want some famous quotations that just entertain. linda, give me one maybe. >> that are entertaining? >> i don't know. what do the arabs say. what do they say? >> the arabs revere writing and -- >> and invehicle it. >> even something like handwriting and there isn't an expression that says a bad hen is an unruly undutiful son. that is neat. that means terrible handwriting, all doctors should know about that is really an undutiful child. >> why do doctors have bad handwriting? >> if you sue them, that wasn't what they prescribed. >> i had them on a radio program and he kept writing notes and things he wanted to say and i

couldn't read one word of what he had written. >> i'll give you another arab proverb. this one applies to marriage. it's good to use in a toast at a wedding. it depress everybody. it is marriage, the institution of marriage is like a besieged citadel. everyone who is inside it wants to get out and everybody who is outside wants to get in. >> very good. very good. >> how about an indian one? >> the former prime minister, atal bihari vajpayee -- >> would you say that again? >> atal bihari vajpayee was a phenomenal orator in hindi. pertaining to marriage, he was fond of squash as well, probably still is. >> we're talking about the ball game played in a small court. we just need to make these distinctions. he said something which doesn't quite translate as easily. he was asked why did he end up

as a bachelor, he became a prime minister, he was a bachelor. he said why would i go buy a cow when i can get milk in the market. it translates better in hindu. >> it does sound a little selfish and crude. i'll give you something and something i like particularly like george who was the prime minister during the first world war in england who said general, can you use this in any speech. it works fabulous. you can have it all for yourself. it is dangerous to leap a chasm in two bounds. i like what one of the great actors in the theater howard said and he was lucky because he enjoyed his work. he said work is no fun than fun which if you like work, it's true. if you're putting wheels on an automobile in a factory line, i don't think that's true.

and, of course, there was shaw and wilde. how about twain? i like mark twain. if you tell people you're an early riser, you can sleep till noon. >> right. >> that has worked very well for me, by the way. >> the reports of my death are largely exaggerated by w.c. fields. >> keep going. >> w.c. fields came up with a lot of great ones including ones that sounded perfectly all right until you looked at them and they got past the censor. , og ogleby, sounds like a bubble in a bathtub. when you think about where the bubbles come through in the bathtub, it slipped through. and there comes a time in the affairs of men my dear blubber when we must take the bull by the tail and face the situation. >> i like the one they said,

somebody said of huey long. huey, he is the south end of a northbound horse. i'm holding up here a book by our friend who is on this program, paul dickson, which is 2,700 and some words of being drunk. of all of the programs we have done here this is probably the most popular, all about euphemisms for drinking and being drunk. paul couldn't be here today or he would be. he is a collector of aphorisms. >> why couldn't he make it? was he doing field work equal to the book? >> no good reason, a medical bob within his family. i also would commend people interested in this to get matthew paris, the english journalist, former politician, his book "complete and utter scorn." in fact, he has several books, collections of scorn.

i have here the oxford book of aphorisms. as we have decided, you and myself, the quality of the books of quotations has clind. >> in particular, the one that was supposed to be the standard. >> politically correct. >> the one that was supposed to be the gold standard, bartlett's, gets worse with each succeeding new edition. they get rid of a lot of timeless really classic quotes. they look for politically correct new ones. also they put in a lot of trivia now, stuff that will be meaningless in a few years. >> and also people who withstand the test of time. you don't have the montesquieu and -- >> and that's -- and that hits the heart of the matter. if you are going to have something memorable, it will play on an immediate mode of reaction. that's why you remember it. look at churchill, a lot of his

words were very, very, very pointed and could be construed as offensive like the one he made about indians. the indians are, you know, men of straw and once they get independence, they won't be able to fight. they have never been able to fight and you're have an army of germans. if you read the quote, it's beautiful. you may not agree with it, but to do away with the quote is folly. similarly -- >> did him in this country where kipling, rudyard kipling just a few sentences did him in. he is a much more complex writer. he has a wonderful little poem which is i thank god for the two sides of my head when people don't know about that. they just think of the perm which brought him into. >> they did in him, actually. and some of his best writing is

about india where he is describing, not from an empire point of view, but just describing. >> he had an american wife. >> where the best is like the worse and there ain't no 10 commandments and a man can raise a thirst. >> a man can raise a thirst, there is the book. we have a few minutes left. how about some more. what about the once that everyone attributes to everyone. napoleon said are with indispensable men and charles degall picked it up. >> nothing succeeds like success. >> who first really said the americans and the british are the same people divided by a common language. >> by a common language. >> it's sometimes attributed to shaw. i'm not sure if he was the source. >> it sounds very shady . the quotes were quite long. they weren't terse. >> one of them was, if you don't

beat your own drum, no one else will. sometimes he could be. >> he practiced what he preached in that one, i'll say. i mean, he just never let it go. wouldn't want to live in a house where the drum was beating 24 hours a day. all of his plays. >> we got to go. we got to go, but who was it that said orson welles, but for the grace of god, there goes god. that's our show for today. we're so glad you joined us for this unusual discussion of words. we will do it again. please come back next week for our regular programming. cheers! ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> many have spoken out on the

need to transition to a clean energy future. at exilon we are acting. by 2020 we are committed to reducing, offsetting or displacing more than 15 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions immediately by greening our operations, helping our customers in their communities reduce their emissions and offering more low carbon electricity in the marketplace. we are taking action and seeing results. >> "white house chronicle" produced in collaboration with whut, howard university television. from washington, d.c., this has been "white house chronicle," a weekly analysis of the news with insight and a sense of humor featuring llewellyn king, linda gasparello, and guests. this program may be seen on pbs stations and cable access channel. to view the program online, visit us at to view the program online, visit us at whitehousechronicle.com.