"Ladies and Gentlemen"
You'll notice Kerry keeps saying that; it's a classic debater tick, presumably left over from his debatin' days at Yale. I keep expecting him to refer to Gibson as "Mr. Speaker" or thank "this most august house."
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Tick or trick?
Tick--like a verbal habit. There's a whole bunch that get passed down from debater to debater.
Kerry was an Assistant District Attorney, who worked in front of juries. He successfully prosecuted at least one big mob trial. "Ladies and Gentlemen" is a trial lawyer thing, too. Though I guess that could be because they were all debaters.
He did it thirteen times by my count.