Obama's record-setting run-on sentence that reminisces about campaign travels and dumb polls and small towns (not bitter ones) and ups and downs and the American Dream and grandkids and tough times and back to, of course, healthcare like this

It must be a record for something -- the week, if the not the year or -- who knows? -- perhaps the entire Obama presidency.

Some people were thinking the liberal Democrat was spending a lot of money. But in Boston Thursday night at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser definitely not inside any pole-dancing place,  President Obama accomplished an amazing feat of loquacity, uttering one single sentence containing 304 words.

An extremely long sentence, even if he wasn't a recovering professor. And a smoker.

The ex-state senator made his initial national political reputation, as you will recall, as a Real Good Talker at the ill-fated 2004 Democratic National Convention in that very same city.

He still is an RGT, even if it's not always all about healthcare. And, let's be candid, now that this guy is getting the hang of being treated like a president with everyone listening to every word, honestly, who's gonna interrupt The Boss once he really gets going?

This very long, ear-numbing sentence came Thursday night at the end of a very long day.

And because it is the run-on sentence against which all presidential run-on sentences will likely be judged for the foreseeable future, we had to share it with you straight from the White House transcript.

It comes in response to one of his own favorite straw-man questions. And his answer would sure seem to belie the claim of calmness.

Anyway, take a deep breath:

A lot of people have asked, why is it you seem so calm? 

And what I’ve tried to say often -- and a lot of times this gets discounted in the press -- is that the experience of having traveled throughout this country; having learned the stories of ordinary folks who are doing extraordinary things in their communities, in their neighborhoods; having met all the people who put so much energy and effort into our campaign; having seen the ups and downs and having seen how Washington was always the last to get what was going on, always the last to get the news -- what that told me was that if we were willing to not do what was expedient, and not do what was convenient, and not try to govern based on the polls today or tomorrow or the next day, but rather based on a vision for how we can rebuild this country in a way that works for everybody -- if we are focused on making sure that there are ladders of opportunity for people to continue to strive and achieve the American Dream and that that’s accessible to all, not just some -- if we kept our eye on what sort of future do we want for our kids and our grandkids so that 20 years from now and 30 years from now people look back on this generation the way we look back on the Greatest Generation and say to ourselves, boy, they made some tough decisions, they got through some tough times, but, look, we now have a clean energy economy; look, our schools are revitalized; look, our health care system works for every single American -- imagine how tough that was and how much resistance they met from the special interests, but they were still willing to do it -- if that was how we governed, then I figure that the politics would take care of itself.

Now, take two aspirin and check back here later.

Related item:

You've read the excerpt; Now see the whole thing here

-- Andrew Malcolm

Quick, before he starts talking again. Click here for Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot.  Our Facebook fan page is over here.

Photo: Associated Press (Obama talking more in Boston).

Comments

[Reasoner]

Oh, the possibilities:
Scrambled words from scrambled minds?
Speechwriter experimenting with Faustian style?
More words = more fun than a barrel of monkeys? (Is it always raaaacist when the allusion to monkeys is used within 100 miles of Obama?)
Inflation (in words) is hitting the Prez earlier than the rest of us?

(............)

[Words of wisdom]

Just 2 kwick observations. 1) Biden is one loquacious fellow and it must be quite hard for him to keep his mouth shut and listen to Obama when they meet.In any case Biden should be dumped at
the first occasion after having put his foot in his mouth just about every time he's made a public utterance.2)Obama himself is afflicted with accute verbal diarhea and
should take massive doses of immodium.

[Janelle]

words of wisdom, if he took an ex-lax, his head would cave in. No amount of immodium would help.

[Lloyd Revalee]

I ran out of breath before I finished trying sto read that sentence without stopping. Even after reading it, I knew little of what I had read. Of course it was mainly about Obabama himself, which is what seems to be the most important thing to him. I do not believe he has any respect at all for our countgry, our Constitution, our laws, our religion, or anythng else. I do believe he wants to make our government a commustic government, with him as the sole power.

Re post by by Words of Wisdom, April 02, 2010
Loperamide, for those of you not failiar with imodium. Even if one didn't know what the word was, you would have an idea that it had soething to do with diarhrea of the mouth. The trouble with Biden is that he tries to engage his mouth without using the clutch.

[Concerned]

I think Mr. Obama was not reading from his famous teleprompter, but was instead responding to, but not answering, a simple question. This makes one question his inability to put together a comprehensible sentence on his own. This isn't the first time I've been unable to grasp the meaning of his answers or even discern whether there was actually an answer in his rhetoric. Or perhaps he was making some kind of point that I didn't get. Just what was he trying to tell us? How great he is?

[Bob Columbus]

It is not a run on sentence if it is properly organized and clear to follow and obeys the rules of grammar. This is short compared to some of the greats of the past like Coleridge who could carry on for pages.

[Geepa]

"and in 20 years or 30 years, when our children and grandchildren look back on this generation, they'll say 'what the heck were THEY thinking?' They borrowed so much money from the Chinese and Japanese they went broke and we're still paying off their debts. Thanks Obama."

[Mr. Mojo Risin]

The "Professor Irwin Corey" should be proud. Obama is at the center of his universe and coinciding with rotational units that have their basis of thought emblazoned most thoughtfully somewhere the sun doesn't shine, oh yeah, he's that chosen one who feels that strange pull of dichotomous retrofit of socks worn on opposite feet, you've all experienced that pleasure, the melodious equivocation he's soooo known for, his whoa-baby I'm a human anointed in liquid gold, I'm special, I dance from the tree-tops, I be immaculate and you can trust me I'm tell'n ya the truth, oh don't confuse his love of the Israelis for hate, He's slick, you'll never know, of course those Palestinians, those peace loving, wonderful people who have been falsely accused of, well there you have it, he's still being contrary, with no one to blame but Bush...

[Charles]

Bob, the sentence is not grammatically correct, and has several significant problems with parallel structure.

I don't know why this is a big deal in the first place, though, inasmuch as it was a conversational response to a question, and conversational English is generally not bound by grammatical rules quite so rigidly as the written word is.