Brown
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2001
- Messages
- 12,984
KCCI quotes the President saying the following in little town near the capital of Iowa, Iowa being one of the "battleground" states in the coming election:
The state's Republican senator, of course, thinks the remark is just peachy.
Geez, there seems to be a concerted effort to do anything to avoid deciding an election based upon merit.
It is true that "hinterlands" means removed from big cities. Des Moines isn't as big as some cities, but it isn't a small town, either. One connotation of "hinterlands," however, expresses a notion of being removed from cities not only geographically, but also culturally. So folks living in the "hinterlands" are a little backward or behind the times.
So could Iowans take offense? Maybe. But I don't remember any Iowans taking offense when the "South Park" episode about the unfrozen ice man was aired. The punch line of the show was that the boys decided to send him to Des Moines because Des Moines was two years behind everybody else (and the iceman had only been frozen for two years).
Still, contrary to widely held East Coast belief, Iowa is not backward. Iowa consistently ranks among the top states in terms of education of young people. A lot of folks think that Iowans are hayseeds, but most of them are not. (Unfortunately, Iowa's Republican senator, Chuck Grassley, is a pretty nice guy and a decent senator, but he sounds rather like a hayseed. Chances are he'll be referring to his home state as "the hinterlands" for awhile, to show that the word is really some sort of compliment.)
And when all is said and done, this whole bit just looks like another Bush slip of the tongue. He probably meant to say "heartland," misspoke, and then corrected himself.
It's not as though Bush called Iowa "Ohio" (as President Ford did, during a speech in Ames).
Well, guess what. The head of the Iowa Democratic Party has said that referring to Des Moines as the hinterlands is insulting, and he demands an apology.
The state's Republican senator, of course, thinks the remark is just peachy.
Geez, there seems to be a concerted effort to do anything to avoid deciding an election based upon merit.
It is true that "hinterlands" means removed from big cities. Des Moines isn't as big as some cities, but it isn't a small town, either. One connotation of "hinterlands," however, expresses a notion of being removed from cities not only geographically, but also culturally. So folks living in the "hinterlands" are a little backward or behind the times.
So could Iowans take offense? Maybe. But I don't remember any Iowans taking offense when the "South Park" episode about the unfrozen ice man was aired. The punch line of the show was that the boys decided to send him to Des Moines because Des Moines was two years behind everybody else (and the iceman had only been frozen for two years).
Still, contrary to widely held East Coast belief, Iowa is not backward. Iowa consistently ranks among the top states in terms of education of young people. A lot of folks think that Iowans are hayseeds, but most of them are not. (Unfortunately, Iowa's Republican senator, Chuck Grassley, is a pretty nice guy and a decent senator, but he sounds rather like a hayseed. Chances are he'll be referring to his home state as "the hinterlands" for awhile, to show that the word is really some sort of compliment.)
And when all is said and done, this whole bit just looks like another Bush slip of the tongue. He probably meant to say "heartland," misspoke, and then corrected himself.
It's not as though Bush called Iowa "Ohio" (as President Ford did, during a speech in Ames).
