even though i laughed out loud reading this, it really isn't nice!

Actually, I think that was a pretty dumb question. Pretty condescending and insulting. There's a reason people use "uhm" and "ahh", and if you took a look at how much Senator Clinton did similar things, I think you'd find they were awfully similar.

The amount of times someone says "um" is probably the last reason they should be considered unPresidential. Seriously, its like asking if Clinton would be unPresidential because of her laugh.

I think it's an indication that he's (y'ow) actually processing his answers in real time, as opposed to (ahh) spitting out a canned sound-bite on every (y'ow) "issue".

If you don't like that answer, relish the rich potential for entertaining spoofs when he becomes President!

Do people that create a four-line diary to ask a stupid question have a thinking impediment?

What?  Is that you Gibson?  Stephanopolous?  The debate is over.  What a stupid fucking journal entry.

I don't know that a crutch like "Umm" counts as a speech impediment.

Hillary does it too, by the way.  She puts a lot of "like" and "you know" in her answers.  

McCain has two crutches.  They're called Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham.

The allure of Barack Obama is premised on the following recipe:

Speechwriter + Teleprompter = Eloquence

When you take away either, we see the wizard behind the curtain, as anyone watching the debate saw clearly tonight.  

Serious question for you...how often do you have to do public speaking in your life?

Ummm.. no.

Obama is not a very good speaker unless he is doing a stump speech or a prepared talk.  He tends to pause way too long, as though he cannot think of what to say and utters many "ahhhs" and "uhhhs" in between.  I've wondered for a long time why everyone thinks he's such a good speaker.  

Clinton is nothing special in this regard, but she's slightly above average for a pol.

I thought Edwards was the best spoken of the major three.

A year ago I thought this would be a more frequently addressed topic. The number of "uhhhs" was startling and I mentioned it on a few sites.

A few months ago it was less noticeable and I thought Obama had been prepped to avoid them. But tonight I decided it was much more basic: When under pressure the most ingrained flaws tend to resurface. Not much different than the Greg Norman push to the right, when he was gagging late in a major event.

The relative lack of "uhhhs" from Obama until tonight only serves to hint at how much he has gotten away with, the media obsession with attacking Hillary and keeping her on the defensive.

Hillary says "you know" more than your average  athlete. Same principal, she is trying to collect her thoughts and uses "you know" to pause and think.

Actually, saying 'uh' over and over means the person is lying.

It's freshman psych 101.

you're not familiar with it. We see so little of it.

The idea of actually thinking about answers to questions as opposed to spitting out canned answers which may or may not relate to the question asked is a rarity in politics and since the opposing candidate in this case is an old school politician the contrast is more stark.

I have no link, but I have heard that he had a stutter when he was a child.  The uh's and umms could be how he's learned to work through his stuttering.  Again, I've been told that, but I don't have any hard proof.  Maybe someone can confirm or positively deny that.