I imagine the idea was “They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and we never stop thinking about new ways to protect them.”
I actually SAW that clip – Dubya was READING it !
Yes we all make mistakes and I do make the occassional tpyo, but when you are the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth, when you are speaking about an extremely important topic and when the cameras are right in front of you, don’t you want to present the best image possible? Doesn’t this guy rehearse his speeches? Maybe I am being harsh but to me it seems, if you aren’t good at public speaking, don’t run for President.
Hey, I realize my limitations. I am 5’3", have multiple sclerosis and I’m “over-the-hill” in terms of athletic prime. Therefore, I do NOT bang down the door of the Boston Celtics and ask them for a tryout. (Don’t worry, depite the MS, I work a full-time job - but (surprisingly) not as a Boston Celtic.)
Gee, I wonder if other personalities have only “selected” quotes well-publicized. Perhaps Yogi Berra (when NOT making his usual misstatements) has recited scholarly critiques of Marcel Proust’s “Remembrance of Things Past” or expressed with lucid erudition his interpretation of James Joyce’s “Finnegan’s Wake”.
I disagree. If I think I could be the greatest President ever, and everyone who knew me thought I would be the greatest President ever, but I spoke like Jimmy Stewart, we…we…well…wellll, you be…be…better believe I…I…I’d try as hard as I could to be P…pre…president.
And if I made it, I’d surround myself with people who could articulate my ideas much better than I could.
A good public speaker isn’t, de facto, a smart person. A bad public speaker isn’t, de facto, an ignoramus. Public speaking is part talent, part skill.
Y’know, I’d vote for someone who spoke like Jimmy Stewart. Know why? Because he appeared **sincere ** when he spoke. Carter appears sincere. Paw Bush appears sincere. Clinton well…I always got the idea he was hitting on America but maybe that was just me? Junior just seems like someone pushed him on stage and handed him a script, like he has finally figured out he’s a pawn and scapegoat but hasn’t the brains or cajones to do anything about it.
Presidents have had speech writers for a long time. Junior needs to fire his and get somebody literate. Yes, public speaking is an art that may or may not give an indication of intelligence, but The President’s job is to motivate. And unless he’s going to pick up a pencil and start drafting laws that make sense, he needs to learn how to communicate effectively in order to motivate lawmakers and constituents to get behind his vision. Unfortunately, he’s probably blown any chance he has at this, even if he took emergency elocution lessons and found a clue. He’s already lost credibility with the ROTW, his lawmakers, HIS SCOTUS, and half of his constituents.
Like Nixon, whether or not he’s actually done anything wrong, too many people already believe he has, and so he can not effectively rule…er…preside.
The url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3541706.stm]BBC articlehighlights the fact that gaffes like this make him actually endear him to the US electorate.
Is the US becoming a genuine idiocy? “Aww, lookee there. The President is dumber than me!”
Back in the mid-80’s when Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were still in the news about Jim’s infidelity, I both heard on the news and saw a quote under a photo of a weeping (!) Tammy Faye: “I wake up every morning wishing they had just killed me! And Jim does too!”
Garfield226
I guess I have that snobby attitude that if someone doesn’t speak English properly, it reflects on all their mental abilities. (Speech impediments excluded of course).
Would you feel comfortable if a brain surgeon told you “We’re bringing you to the operational room so we can take care of that subdurable hematoma” ?
Despite what the White House spokesman said, I don’t believe this was a “mis-speak”. He was reading the speech. You don’t need to add words or change the sentence around for it to make sense.
“They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
By thinking about new ways this country can be harmed, we will be able to protect ourselves from those threats. This is why we now have beefed up security at Power Plants, Water Treatment facilities, Bridges, malls, etc. It’s because we never stop thinking about ways our country and our people can be harmed. Homeland Security is always thinking about the new ways to harm this country, so that they will be prepared if/when it happens, and so they may prevent it from happening.
I’m not saying that Bush isn’t the worst speaker ever. Or that he’s not an idiot. Or that his policies suck. He says some of the siliest things when he is unscripted. But the person at fault here is clearly his speech writer for giving him such a dubious line. And granted, Bush is at fault for not pre-reading or noticing the line before he was live on camera.
I wonder what the White House’s motive is for not mentioning the speech writer. Are we supposed to believe he writes his own?
I’m positive this was not a mis-speak, or a mis-read. It was a poorly constructed sentence.
Oh… but yeah, it was funny. I laughed when I saw it on Letterman and I laughed when I saw it again on Kilbourne. It’s funny!
Thing is, Bush could be a saint, but I can’t understand what he’s saying. I think I understand what he’s trying to say, but who knows?
Reagan said so many goofy things that I think the press just gave up on him and gave him a pass – as if to say, “Aw, quit picking on him! He’s a dear, sweet old man! He means well. He’s doing his best. Leave him alone!” And he got away with everything. Bush just keeps playing the folksy, regular-guy card, and gets angry and defensive whenever anyone questions him about anything, from 9/11 to his daughter’s drinking habits, and we can’t do anything. He seems to have no sense of shame, no clue that this is unacceptable.
Bumper sticker on my vehicle:
“ME FOR PRESIDENT / Hey, it’s not as if I could do any worse.”
Lots of laughs in the rear-view mirror.
Cervaise for Predisent !!!
Consider that nomination secondable !!!
Well, exactly! In 2000, Bush just about admitted how uneducated and unqualified he is to be president, but he claimed it would be okay because he knows how to ask for help, and he would have good advisors around him.
With that logic, why not just have a lottery every four years? In America, any schmoe can be president! We’ll walk you through every decision you have to make, and then you pick one of the options we’ll provide for you.
I remember that!
I always wondered if she really meant it that way…
I thought it was pretty damned funny.
Some of my personal favourite Bushisms…
“It’s clearly a budget. It’s got a lot of numbers in it.” -Reuters, May 5, 2000
“We ought to make the pie higher.”
-South Carolina Republican Debate, Feb. 15, 2000
“I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.”
-Greater Nashua, N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan. 27, 2000
“Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?”
-Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000
“Teach a child to read and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.”—Townsend, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2001
astorian
Now that I think of it, you said that Kerry makes mistakes when he speaks too. I suppose a good test would be the debates. (I trust they will debate.) That will definitely show which one has better speakable skills.
Kerry doesn’t have to get elected first. He recently gave a speech in which he praised the Buckeyes. Problem was, he was in Michigan, where Buckeye praise might be a felony. 
Moonbomber
I was aware of his praising the Buckeyes while in Michigan.
It made the news. I saw it.
My point being that with Kerry and Dubya Bush side by side in a debate wouldn’t that be an unbiased determination of which is the better speaker and which one made the fewer mistakes ?
No, Mr. McClellan, he does not speak with clarity and conviction.
As some posters have opined, being an awesome public speaker is not the quality that makes or breaks a Presidency. Clinton could read the Satanic Verses and make it sound like an Easter sermon, but it’s just that of sugarcoating that rankled with a lot of citizens. Still, whether or not it’s important to speak with clarity and conviction, I do not agree that GWD does speak with clarity and conviction.
Now, the sentence itself might actually work, with proper presentation. Harry Turtledove could pull it off in print:
*“More sabotage,” Dowling greeted Morrell as the colonel strode into his office.
“Yes.” Morrell’s face was grim as as he settled into a chair. “The Freedom Party never stops thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people.” He paused, leaning forward to underscore his next words. “And neither do we.”
Dowling nodded with an ironic smile that left his eyes untouched. He had, in fact, thought of little except the Freedom Party’s atrocities since reading the reports from the field earlier that day. But more to the point, thinking about new ways harm could be brought to the USA was an unpleasant but necessary preoccupation. If the war was to be won, the Americans had to anticipate whatever ruthless scheme the Confederates would concoct next. “Think you can get one step ahead of them?”
“There’s nothing Featherston wouldn’t order his people to do. We just have to think of it before they can do it.”*
But this is real life, where we don’t have a narrator. It really is all in the delivery, and it should have been read as two sentences, like I had it above. Bush just doesn’t have the proper timing for anything complex. At this stage of the game, it’s too late for him to become a better speaker, so he needs a better speechwriter. It should be someone who will stick to the essentials. No clever turns of phrase; not anything that can be taken two ways.
*I’m deeply immersed in Settling Accounts: Return Engagement, after having skimmed the Great War and American Empire series last weekend, so I’ve got Turtledove on the brain.