Politics is the practice of doublespeak. Fortunately, through the magic of creativity and relatively cheap digital audio editing tools, the speech of political creatures can finally be unspun, and the truth laid bare.
These are galleries of translations of popular politicians as made by audio collage artists from around the planet. While these files are being made freely available here, the creators of these works may hold additional rights to them which could preclude their use in other settings. Please contact the creators directly about such matters.
George W. Bush (358 tracks, 35hr 34min)
The 43rd president of the United States is a master of obfuscation. His speaking style seems to lend itself to translation – or maybe it’s just the fact that the disconnects between his rhetoric and reality are so incredibly huge as to compel reinterpretation.
Various Artists (23 tracks, 2hr 22 min)
Multiple politicos from a plethora of eras diced and blended into revealing dialogues.
Ronald Reagan (16 tracks, 2hr 38min)
The Alzheimer’s seems to explain a lot now, but this actor turned president-actor provided plenty of fodder for collage artists.
Barack Obama (10 tracks, 34min)
Democratic wunderkind and 44th President speaks with passion, if not precision.
Tony Blair (12 tracks, 24min)
One of the slickest politicos on the U.K. scene, the former Prime Minister is a potential motherlode of rhetorical fodder.
Donald Rumsfeld (11 tracks, 41min)
He may have been more coherent than his boss, but the things that came out of his mouth were oftentimes just as baffling.
John Kerry (9 tracks, 23min)
The Democratic challenger to GWB in 2004 was under-hyped and over-handled.
George Bush, Sr. (9 tracks, 20min)
If you thought “read my lips, no new taxes” was a good one, get a load of these.
Bill Clinton (9 tracks, 23min)
Even an artful elocutionist like Bill, who can redefine the meaning of “is” at will, has his words mangled artfully.
Richard Nixon (6 tracks, 19min)
Another president with the potential to be very funny when properly assembled. Considering the skeletons in the closet there are to work with, I’m surprised there aren’t more translations of him.
Lyndon B. Johnson (6 tracks, 25min)
Having lived through so much history, why is there so little lampooning of it?
Arnold Schwarzenegger (6 tracks, 24min)
From body builder to action flick star to governor: welcome to California, the land where dreams come true…even the bad ones.
John F. Kennedy (5 tracks, 21min)
One of the most mythical Presidents of all time.
Politico Potpourri (48 tracks, 2hr 44min)
Featuring Dick Cheney, Dwight Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Herbert Hoover, John Ashcroft, David Cameron, Robert Kennedy, John McCain, Dan Quayle, Ari Fleischer, Queen Elizabeth II, Ralph Nader, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mitt Romney, Benito Mussolini, Frank Moore, Margaret Thatcher, John Howard, Nick Griffin, Alberto Gonzales, Rudolph Giuliani, George Tenet, Pat Buchanan, Douglas Feith, Sarah Palin, David Blunkett, John Reid, The Dalai Lama, Monica Goodling, Winston Churchill, and Gordon Campbell.
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