At the right time and before the right audience, Hillary Clinton, 2016 candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, can be heard speaking in a Southern accent. Hillary grew up in Illinois, just outside Chicago, and met Bill Clinton in law school. Only after graduating from law school did Hillary move to Arkansas with Bill.
“Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in one long haul. Sometimes it is also a long drawl,” Vox noted about Hillary’s accent on the campaign trail. Campaigning recently in South Carolina, Hillary showed an accent in telling the audience that she is “running to live again at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”
There are times, or some audiences, when Hillary doesn’t sound like she has a Southern accent. Vox noted that it was missing when Clinton spoke at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Colorado.
The Washington Free Beacon even reported on Hillary’s Southern accent, noting how she pronounced the state “South Caroliiiina” and mentioning something she “hiiiiiighly recommends.”
“Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton’s habit of changing accents based on her location returned Wednesday,” The Washington Free Beacon noted about the 2016 Democratic front-runner campaigning in South Carolina yesterday.
The conservative blog site Hot Air made note of the issue, with an article titled “Campaign season now officially underway: Hillary’s fake southern accent is back.”
Noting it wasn’t as bad as the “noways tahhhrd” comment Hillary once said, Hot Air noted that it doesn’t seem to fit that someone raised in Illinois would at the right times suddenly speak with the Southern accent, as she did in South Carolina yesterday.
Given that Hillary grew up in Illinois, went to college and law school in New England, and served almost a decade as U.S. Senator from New York, it would be understandable if Hillary had little if any accent at all. Perhaps she picked up a bit of an accent while living in Arkansas, but that would not explain her ability to turn it on and off at will before difference audiences in different places.
If those scandals endanger her campaign for 2016, Hillary Clinton might have use for that Southern accent if she has to answer more questions on those issues.
[Photo of Hillary Clinton by Joe Raedle, Getty Images.]