Let the G's Fall: Mitt's Southern Strategy

What does it take to win over southerners? Politico reports on Romney's efforts in the linguistic realm in advance of the Mississippi and Alabama primaries.

Meet the new Mitt Romney — the grit eatin’, critter stompin’, country music lovin’, y’all sayin’ presidential candidate.

Apparently it means dropping your final g's and saying "y'all" quite a bit.

There have been tons of posts on politicians dropping their g's to try to achieve down-home, authentic, southern, folksy appeal. Language Log has been at the forefront, chronicling this phenomenon in Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty, and generally.

Obama has been cited for dropping his g's when talking to the black community. (See here). And there was some controversy when Obama called on the African American community to "stop complaining" in a September 2011 speech and the AP chose to transcribe the gerund in that sentence without its final G.

According to Politco, Romney has been traveling quite a bit with campaign aide and 2009 Ole Miss grad Garrett Jackson.

“He’s now turning me into an, I don’t know, an unofficial Southerner,” Romney said in front of several giant oil-drilling rig platforms sitting at the port. “I’m learning to say ‘y’all.’ I like grits. Things are, strange things, are happening to me.”

Romney's linguistic transformations seem not to come naturally to this northerner-to-the-bone. In fact, moving around the state of Mississippi and meeting with the governor, it seemed that Romney couldn't stop calling attention to how odd it felt:

“The governor said I had to say it right: Mornin’ y’all. Good to be with you,” Romney bantered.

Politico's unofficial polling of some individuals at Mitt's campaign stops yielded some mixed reactions to the newly acquired southernisms.

Jimmy Carlson, a Birmingham salesman said, “We know he’s not a Southerner. But at least he’s trying to seem that way.”http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

But Martin Perkins, a lawyer from Jackson, wasn't so convinced:

“That might be perceived as disingenuous,” Perkins said. “Maybe he should probably just be Mitt and let the chips fall where they may to some extent.

Let the chips fall, but not the g's.

Update: See Charles M. Blow's commentary on Mitt's southern strategy: "Dabbling in dialectic speech won’t quench people’s thirst for straight talk. Being called warm and comfortable doesn’t remove the gut feeling that you are cold and rigid. There is something missing from the core of the man, and people can see straight through him."