Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times has a piece today about former Minnesota governor and likely GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty. The premise of the story is a tad thin–Pawlenty seems to be trying to appeal to multiple cohorts of Republican primary voters–but it contains this puzzling nugget:
The political blog of Radio Iowa heard it too and noted, “Pawlenty seems to be adopting a Southern accent as he talks about his record as governor.” As he spoke of the country’s challenges, he dropped the letter G, saying: “It ain’t gonna be easy. This is about plowin’ ahead and gettin’ the job done.”
Dan Amira at New York magazine wonders if the Times is hearing things that aren’t there, providing a video evidence that Pawlenty clearly pronounced the “g” in “getting.”
I object that there’s any trace of a “Southern accent” at all in Pawlenty’s speech. As a native of Georgia myself, I can tell you that most Southerners would probably think Pawlenty was from somewhere in the midwest. Pawlenty is most certainly amping up the folksiness like anyone running for president, but saying he’s using a Southern accent ignores the fact that people drop their g’s all over the United States, including in our nothernmost state of Alaska.
Besides, if we want to talk about shamelessly taking on a Southern accent, no one beats Hillary Clinton in 2008.
