Bless His Heart

Willard Mitt Romney has gone too far this time. The American Thinker tells the story.
“Speaking at LeClaire Manufacturing in Bettendorf, Iowa yesterday, Governor Romney delivered the ultimate Southernese insult to his opponent. (Video link here.) “It is free men and women that drive our economy. Freedom is what makes America work. And President Obama, bless his heart, has tried to substitute government for free people-and it has not worked, and it will never work.”
American Thinker is impressed by the use of BHH by WMR. It is probably written by a clueless yankee. Which is what WMR is, in addition to being an amoral chameleon. For a yankee politician to say bless his heart is simply not appropriate.
The sad truth is that so many southerners despise BHO that it will get little attention. This election is going to be dirty, dirty, dirty. When it comes to gutter politics, there is nothing like a republican. WMR has shown that he will say absolutely anything to get elected. Still, if you are going to use an unfamiliar phrase, you should do it properly.
Bless his heart is derived from bless her heart. It is a genteel expression. The proper use is to refer to the target, say BHH, and then make an unflattering comment about this person. This is best done in a civilized conversation. An example would be “Aunt Martha, bless her heart, thinks she is losing weight, but is still big as a cow”. The spoken commas are important.
By contrast, WMR was making an arm waving stump speech. He spit out the words as though they were rotten meat. This is how a yankee politician uses a genteel southern expression.
Southerners are used to it. It is like people who use y’all in the singular form. As any southerner knows, y’all is the only acceptable second person plural in the english language. It is superior to youse guys, or whatever abomination they employ in New Jersey.
Since he was in Iowa, it is unlikely that WMR had the southern vote in mind when he made that speech. Indeed, the south is solidly red state, as well as red neck. WMR is assured of the electoral votes in Georgia. The electoral college has stolen the vote from the people of Georgia again.
Politicians have been pandering to voters since the photo op was invented. If poorly done, it can have a devastating effect. Here is one story.
A story from McGovern’s campaign for presidency: in an effort to attract Jewish vote in a part of NY city with a large percentage of observant Jews among the “registered voters”, he apparently went to a kosher eatery where, in presence of a crowd of regular patrons, reporters & photographers (don’t know whether there were TV cameras or not) he asked for a “kosher hot-dog and a glass of milk”. His handlers probably told him that observant Jews eat kosher meat; I am sure that he was hoping to impress the target audience with his “wholesome” habits. Unfortunately, little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
This was a comment to another story. “I’m sort of staring at the meat display, lots of salamis and sausages, and then various hams. And the hams’ price signs have all been tagged with festive PERFECT FOR CHANUKAH banners.”
Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.