Bushisms ‘Resignate’

Gauracandra · January 23, 2003

The President’s Gift of Gab Pays Off

By Buck Wolf

Jan. 21 — Don't "misunderestimate" President Bush's "embettered" English. Bushisms are big business and worthy of "analyzation."

A talking Bush doll, a Bushisms calendar and several best-selling books celebrate the president's unique gift of gab.

Whether it's pronouncing nuclear as "NOO-kyuh-luhr," botching speeches, or coining new words like "Hispanically," Bush just seems to "resignate" with Americans.

President Rivals Dilbert

The 2003 George W. Bush Quote Calendar has became a national sensation, selling more than 110,000 copies in the last two months, and joining such perennial powerhouses as Dilbert and The Far Side on Barnes & Noble and Calendars.com's Top 10 lists.

Bush's mangled words are even finding their way into the English language. "Misunderestimate" tops the list of 2002's new words, according to YourDictionary.com.

There are more than 10,000 references to "misunderestimate" on the Internet. Even if the word is often used as a joke, the president's impact is unmistakable, editors say.

For those of you not fluent in Bush-speak, the Web site offers these definitions. Examples of their usage are offered here as documented by Jacob Weisberg's best sellers Bushisms and More Bushisms.

• Misunderestimate: To seriously underestimate. Usage: "They misunderestimated me." (Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000)

• Embetter: To make better. Usage: "I want to thank the … people who made the firm and solemn commitment to work hard to embetter themselves." (Washington, D.C., April 18, 2002)

• Resignate: To resonate. Usage: "This issue doesn't seem to resignate with the people." (Portland, Ore., Oct. 31, 2000)

• Foreign-handed: To understand foreign policy. Bush usage: "I will have a foreign-handed foreign policy." (Redwood, Calif., Sept. 27, 2000)

• Analyzation: Analysis. Bush usage: "This case has had full analyzation and has been looked at a lot. I understand the emotionality of death penalty cases." (June 23, 2000)

There's a blooper reel for every modern president — even those hailed as master communicators. It's no wonder. Every word they publicly utter is recorded and dissected. But Bush is on his way to become the Yogi Berra of American politics.

It's a talent that's been apparent since he set out on the campaign trail. "I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family," he told supporters in January 2000 at the Nashua Chamber of Commerce, shortly before the New Hampshire primary.

Bush addressed education policy in South Carolina: "Rarely is the question asked, Is our children learning?"

Then, debating rival John McCain, Bush made overtures to unite his party. "I think we agree, the past is over," he said, after complaining that the Arizona senator "can't take the high horse and then claim the low road."

How to Push the President’s Button

Toy merchant John Warnock and his family struck gold just before Christmas with a talking George W. Bush doll — a $30, 12 ½-inch action figure that demonstrates the president's way with words with 17 "powerful and patriotic phrases."

Push the plastic president's button and he says all your favorite things, such as, "I don't need to be 'sublim-in-able' about the differences between our views."

More than 12,000 Bush dolls sold in less than a week, when supplies ran out, Warnock says. In the days before Christmas, they were selling on eBay for $250, making the commander in chief this year's Tickle Me Elmo.

Through it all, Bush laughs off his critics. "You have to admit in my sentences, I have gone where no man has gone before," he joked at his own expense at the 2001 White House Correspondents Dinner.

But if we laugh at Bush, we should remember that he's not the only national politician who's been roasted for his malapropisms. Al Gore certainly has been known to trip over his tongue.

On the campaign trail in 1996, Gore visited a school in a largely Hispanic section of Albuquerque, N.M., and decided to use a little Spanish. He tried to say "muchas gracias" ("many thanks"). Instead he waved and told the crowd, "machismo gracias" ("manliness thanks").

Then, in 1998, after Michael Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to their sixth NBA championship, the vice president offered this assessment of the game: "I tell you that Michael Jackson is unbelievable, isn't he? He's just unbelievable."

stonehearted · January 23, 2003

I posted this a month ago,and this reminded me of it. It's a completely different perspective on Bush's gaffes.

Published on Thursday, November 28, 2002 by the Toronto Star

Bush Anything But Moronic, According to Author

Dark Overtones in His Malapropisms

by Murray Whyte

When Mark Crispin Miller first set out to write Dyslexicon: Observations on

a National Disorder, about the ever-growing catalogue of President George W.

Bush's verbal gaffes, he meant it for a laugh. But what he came to realize

wasn't entirely amusing.

Since the 2000 presidential campaign, Miller has been compiling his own

collection of Bush-isms, which have revealed, he says, a disquieting truth

about what lurks behind the cock-eyed leer of the leader of the free world.

He's not a moron at all - on that point, Miller and Prime Minister Jean

Chrétien agree.

But according to Miller, he's no friend. "I did initially intend it to be a

funny book. But that was before I had a chance to read through all the

transcripts," Miller, an American author and a professor of culture and

communication at New York University, said recently in Toronto.

"Bush is not an imbecile. He's not a puppet. I think that Bush is a

sociopathic personality. I think he's incapable of empathy. He has an

inordinate sense of his own entitlement, and he's a very skilled

manipulator. And in all the snickering about his alleged idiocy, this is

what a lot of people miss."

Miller's judgment, that the president might suffer from a bona fide

personality disorder, almost makes one long for the less menacing notion

currently making the rounds: that the White House's current occupant is, in

fact, simply an idiot.

If only. Miller's rendering of the president is bleaker than that. In

studying Bush's various adventures in oration, he started to see a pattern

emerging.

"He has no trouble speaking off the cuff when he's speaking punitively, when

he's talking about violence, when he's talking about revenge.

"When he struts and thumps his chest, his syntax and grammar are fine,"

Miller said.

"It's only when he leaps into the wild blue yonder of compassion, or

idealism, or altruism, that he makes these hilarious mistakes."

While Miller's book has been praised for its eloquence" and "playful use of

language," it has enraged Bush supporters.

Bush's ascent in the eyes of many Americans - his approval rating hovers at

near 80 percent - was the direct result of tough talk following the Sept. 11

terrorist attacks. In those speeches, Bush stumbled not at all; his language

of retribution was clear.

It was a sharp contrast to the pre-9/11 George W. Bush. Even before the

Supreme Court in 2001 had to intervene and rule on recounts in Florida after

a contentious presidential election, a corps of journalists were salivating

at the prospect: a bafflingly inarticulate man in a position of power not

seen since vice-president Dan Quayle rode shotgun on George H.W. Bush's one

term in office.

But equating Bush's malapropisms with Quayle's inability to spell "potato"

is a dangerous assumption, Miller says.

At a public address in Nashville, Tenn., in September, Bush provided one of

his most memorable stumbles. Trying to give strength to his case that Saddam

Hussein had already deceived the West concerning his store of weapons, Bush

was scripted to offer an old saying: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me

twice, shame on me. What came out was the following:

"Fool me once, shame ... shame on ... you." Long, uncomfortable pause. "Fool

me - can't get fooled again!"

Played for laughs everywhere, Miller saw a darkness underlying the gaffe.

"There's an episode of Happy Days, where The Fonz has to say, `I'm sorry'

and can't do it. Same thing," Miller said.

"What's revealing about this is that Bush could not say, `Shame on me' to

save his life. That's a completely alien idea to him. This is a guy who is

absolutely proud of his own inflexibility and rectitude."

If what Miller says is true - and it would take more than just observations

to prove it - then Bush has achieved an astounding goal.

By stumbling blithely along, he has been able to push his image as "just

folks" - a normal guy who screws up just like the rest of us.

This, in fact, is a central cog in his image-making machine, Miller says:

Portraying the wealthy scion of one of America's most powerful families as a

regular, imperfect Joe.

But the depiction, Miller says, is also remarkable for what it hides -

imperfect, yes, but also detached, wealthy and unable to identify with the

"folks" he's been designed to appeal to.

An example, Miller says, surfaced early in his presidential tenure.

"I know how hard it is to put food on your family," Bush was quoted as

saying.

"That wasn't because he's so stupid that he doesn't know how to say, `Put

food on your family's table' - it's because he doesn't care about people who

can't put food on the table," Miller says.

So, when Bush is envisioning "a foreign-handed foreign policy," or observes

on some point that "it's not the way that America is all about," Miller

contends it's because he can't keep his focus on things that mean nothing to

him.

"When he tries to talk about what this country stands for, or about

democracy, he can't do it," he said.

This, then, is why he's so closely watched by his handlers, Miller says -

not because he'll say something stupid, but because he'll overindulge! in

the language of violence and punishment at which he excels.

"He's a very angry guy, a hostile guy. He's much like Nixon. So they're

very, very careful to choreograph every move he makes. They don't want him

anywhere near protestors, because he would lose his temper."

Miller, without question, is a man with a mission - and laughter isn't it.

"I call him the feel bad president, because he's all about punishment and

death," he said. "It would be a grave mistake to just play him for laughs."

Tarun · January 24, 2003

"It's not that I prefer polluted water & polluted air. On the contrary contract. The atmosphere is at most fear, right? Just like Freddy Roosevelt said. Who can deny? What is your position?...

...But really, it's that our spring water business is hauling in $cash$ hand over fist. Oxygen sales r also up 50%. Tanks to you. Oxygen tanks to you too."

All these things r predicted in that Famous Amos ancient book "Brave New World Order."

Have u read this book? I've heard about it. You two? Me two?"

Bush is now = today trying to repeal restrictions on air & water pollution worldwide.

Should we pipe polluted air & water into his Austin & White House windows & plumbing?

Just to get his policy point across, of course.

Streetstraw · February 15, 2003

Drop Bush, Not Bombs

AP wires now live: over 600 cities demonstrating

London $ Wash DC redesigning, reforming

Plans on hold due to China, France, Russia opposing invasion!

WAR: What is it good for? Absolutely Nothing!

If War is so good, our leaders should go there themselves & fight on frontlines.

Teach by Example. Example before Precept.

All 5 Pandavas + Krishna Himself were on the battlefield all 18 days.

Where r your warmonger leaders? Hiding in bunkers?

Lion-hearted or Chicken-hearted? Cowards at best.

Pretending to defend democracy while trampling on human rights. Pff!

theist · February 15, 2003

How deep are Saddams bunkers? How easy to say peace peace peace when you don't live under the rule of Saddam Hussein and can march in streets and still go home at night.

There are no Arjun's ruling in this age; what's new? When Saddam invaded Iran and then later Kuwait what should the response have been? Talking about it endlessly in the UN? Yeah violent resisitence is always bad until someone is kicking down your own door.

When you have a Kamsa running amock dialouge won't get you very far. At some point you have to take 'em out.

I'm curious, just how did the Ksatriya's of old increase their treasuries? Did they just sit in their parlor and chant "give peace a chance"? Or did they march into smaller kingdoms and win tribute? What does the Bhagavatam say?