George Stephanopoulos makes regular time on Thursdays to chat up Jack Diamond’s morning-zoo crew at ABC-owned WRQX-FM (Mix 107) in DC. This morning, it grew a tiny bit uncomfortable for George when one of Diamond’s sidekicks tiptoed into the subject of whether he’s noticed “Hillary Clinton has a Southern accent that comes and goes.” He said of course he noticed, “there’s a story about it every day.” He quickly began with “In her defense…she lived in Arkansas for 18 years.” Then he said that from his brief experience as a Northerner living in the South, “something about it takes hold of you,” and if you didn’t buy that, he was also ready with the follow-up (when Diamond suggested it’s just a bit of pandering to voters) that “I don’t know a politician who doesn’t do it.”
By the way, a Nexis search for “Hillary and accent” shows no news story on her two accent outbreaks in front of black audiences (not to mention a “story every day”) on ABC News this year.