This is why Obama will lose....
His name sounds wrong.It turns out that almost all presidents have had first names with stressed first syllables - think WILL-iam, or RICH-ard. One-syllable names are also stressed when you say the candidate’s entire name - think BILL CLIN-ton or GEORGE BUSH. (The tendency to choose words with initial stress also tends to be true with regard to names for professional sports teams - think YANK-ees, PA-triots, ROY-als.)
Here’s a trivia question: Who is the only president in American history with an unstressed first syllable in his first name?
It’s u-LYS-ses S. Grant.
Trochaic (e.g., DUH-da) first names are much more common than iambic (e.g., da-DUH) names. This is bad news for bar-RACK hus-SEIN o-BAM-a, a treble iambic, and it’s good news for HIL-lary CLIN-ton. (Last names are also more likely to have initial stress. I think we have to go all the way back to Mc-KIN-ley for an unstressed initial syllable in a president’s last name.)
This is the kind of wonking I enjoy. The, "We're not saying there's a connection, just a weird pattern...." kind of analysis.
Here’s a trivia question: Who is the only president in American history with an unstressed first syllable in his first name?
It’s u-LYS-ses S. Grant.
Trochaic (e.g., DUH-da) first names are much more common than iambic (e.g., da-DUH) names. This is bad news for bar-RACK hus-SEIN o-BAM-a, a treble iambic, and it’s good news for HIL-lary CLIN-ton. (Last names are also more likely to have initial stress. I think we have to go all the way back to Mc-KIN-ley for an unstressed initial syllable in a president’s last name.)
This is the kind of wonking I enjoy. The, "We're not saying there's a connection, just a weird pattern...." kind of analysis.