The "Um"

In the run-up to this year’s election, the press and the blogosphere have treated us to thoughtful analyses of such pressing topics as flags in bags, shotgun marriages, hugs for running-mates and lipstick for dogs. So I have no fear of sounding lowbrow if I continue in this venerable tradition of dwelling on non-issues and discuss the “Um.”

Conservative pundits and bloggers have already been having some fun with Obama’s debating style, in particular his habit of saying “um.” Liberal bloggers have taken similar pleasure in McCain’s green screen and rigor mortis smile during his RNC speech. But the “um” matters. It tells us something about Obama. It tells us that he thinks.

Obama is a product of his education, and approaches problems as a lawyer and an intellectual. He takes nothing for granted, and is known by those who have worked with him to be almost pedantic in his scholarly insistence on gathering the advice of experts before coming to a conclusion. The “um” is like that little watch icon on your computer, it tells you that there’s something going on in there. It’s a reflection of his style of thinking and decision-making.

It must be said that “um” is the sort of thing that can get you killed as a fighter pilot. But I cannot help but think that, for all his vaunted experience, McCain the politician might have benefited from the occasional “um.” He has admitted as much in his comments about sometimes taking quick decisions and living with the consequences. Clearly there was not much “um” before he chose corruption-and-scandal-prone Palin as a running mate, although the consequences of that are not yet clear. McCain’s style of decision making is to come quickly to a conclusion and then back it up with unflinching conviction. In that it is similar to George W. Bush’s decision-making, quick and bold, but not always considered. It is um-less.

Obama’s lofty oratory and his halting, considered debating style do not endear him to the new breed of talk-radio conservatives who show consistent contempt for anything intellectual. They will mock the “um” as yet another reminder that Obama is one of those over-educated elite lawyers we are all told we should mistrust, even as they praise Palin’s wise-cracking and McCain’s folksy plain-talking. But they forget that there are many Americans who do not consider intelligence to be a bad thing, many on both left and right who fear the gut reaction more than they fear the perceived elitism of rigorous intellectual analysis. To those of us who would rather place our faltering economy and fragile security in the hands of a cautious thinker rather than a quick-reacting maverick, the “um” reflects a welcome brand of small-c conservatism.

So let them mock the “um”. With the bewildering array of complex issues our country is facing, I find the “um” kind of comforting.