Uneasy Rhetoric

Language Log has an excellent post about the Governator’s English. I’d like to quote a key part of the post:

The fact is that virtually no English-speaking Americans ever learn to speak a foreign language as well as Schwarzenegger speaks Standard American English. I would strangle a kitten to be able to give a speech in any foreign language with the fluency and clarity that Schwarzenegger has in my language.

Me too. Okay, I wouldn’t actually strangle a kitten, but let’s face it, after four years of high school French and four years of college French, including studying stylistics and literature in French, could I have given a speech in French, even a scripted one like the state of the state, as precisely? Doubtful.