The Readers' Digest 1-Minute Condensed Version of Senator Joe Biden's Stammering

My post title is intentionally long to make up for the interminable brevity (one minute) of Radioblogger's latest tour de force. He has strung together little clips of Senator Joe Biden's stammering during the Judge Roberts confirmation hearing this past week. If you missed the world premier of this little gem on the Hugh Hewitt show yesterday you can listen to it by clicking here.

I must confess that it makes the senior (Democratic) Senator from the state of Delaware sound like a complete idiot. That was, of course, the whole point. But the flip side of the story is that it could be done to anyone.

Back in my high school Speech & Debate class we all held a coin in our hands whenever someone would make a class presentation. If we said, "uh" or "um" or "you know" or stammered everyone would start tapping the coins on the desk. People are genuinely surprised when the coins started clicking. Why? Because we honestly do not realize our poor speech habits unless someone else points them out to us.

I learned a great deal from that class. Apparently Joe Biden never had the opportunity to take one like it.

C-Span would be far more interesting and our Congressional orations would certainly be far more interesting if we could issue coins to everyone sitting in the Capitol's public galleries (including public seating in the hearing rooms) and let them start clicking.