Missed it, Drain. So spill!
> Tell me, folks who plan to vote for him, how do you get past this type of thing?
I would ask that of the Gore supporters. He’s no rocket scientist. He’s the one who flunked out of school, not Bush.
Fact is, probably anyone who does enough speeches makes the kinds of errors mentioned in this thread.
The media doesn’t make a big deal over Gore’s stupidities, like when he went to Monticello & couldn’t identify busts of the founding fathers, or when Mr. Outdoors got lost in the woods. Or how he limits the number of black Secret Service agents protecting him.
It’s too bad nobody wants to discuss the issues any more, just these sideshows.
> The only other countries that execute minors or the mentally ill are Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Oh, and Texas.
And Arkansas under Clinton.
> When he was my age, he was busier drinking, doing coke
I don’t know if Gore did coke or not, but you shouldn’t say so if there’s no proof. I’ve only heard him admit to pot.
> the man is running for PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Don’t you think he SHOULD be a little brighter than the average bear
You’re talking about Gore, right? Sadly, he’s not.
Translated: I can’t.
There’s actually a webpage out there that lists almost every verbal mishap spouted forth from George W. Bush (there are a lot more than you think). I don’t remember the URL offhand (someone here prolly does tho). Either way, “subliminable” is NOT the only thing bogus he’s said. He doesn’t just mess up pronunciation but screws up the syntax of normal, everyday conversation. It’s not an occassional occurence either, and thats why it is kind of scary.
Well, regardless of whether GW is dyslexic, an idiot or just another dumbass Texan, (I can say that, I’m from down yonder) the fact is that the average Joe Blow voter is beginning to wonder.
As was pointed out by another poster, stumbling over words does not indicate a lack of intelligence. However, these repeated missteps can be “perceived” by voters as a sign of weakness and vulnerability, especially in a presidential candidate.
Imagine GW at a NATO meeting in Athens, saying “I am thankful to my Grecian hosts, and look forward to meeting with the Serbloblians and the Kosovalarians”
These days, I believe most voters go by sound bytes, (except the enlightened Dopers of course!) and GW is sounding pretty stupidable. I personally think Condoleeza (sp?) Rice should run in place of GW. She’s smart, hip, articulate, and a political babe.
Algore will win in a runaway.
Main Entry: Gre·cian
Pronunciation: 'grE-sh&n
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English greciane, from Latin Graecia Greece
Date: 15th century
: GREEK
- Grecian noun
Your point?
TampaFlyer wrote:
That just ain’t so.
This non-story got started by Cynthia McKinney, a member of the House of Representatives from here in Atlanta. There is currently a dispute between the Secret Service and some black members or former members of that organization. Ms. McKinney, as is her wont, injected herself into the dispute. The false statement about Gore appeared on her website.
The Atlanta Constitution debunked the story. (It turned out that something like 18% of the agents who had guarded Gore were black - actually higher than the percentage of blacks in the general population, I believe - and that there was no evidence Gore had ever done anything to limit the number of black agents in his entourage.)
McKinney has a bad habit of stirring up racial conflict wherever possible. After the Atlanta Constitution story came out, she disavowed the statement which had appeared on her website.
I think his point regarding the Greek/Grecian thing is that one is considered to be proper when speaking of people (Greek) while the other is only used for objects. So you might see Grecian urns in a museum, but the people looking at them are Greeks. It’s similar to ‘oriental’ in that it is considered okay to have oriental tea, but don’t call your guests Orientals.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Ptahlis *
**
Can I get a cite on that? The dictionary doesn’t make any mention of this connotation being wrong. (Of course, I could just ask my super – but we already had a falling out over Istanbul vs. Constantinople!)
jmullaney said:
Yeah, well, that’s nobody’s business but the Turks.
I’d love to give you a cite, if I had even the faintest idea where to look. Is there a PC Dictionary online? Maybe an etiquette manual or something? Seriously, I just don’t know where to find this kind of info other than to say that that’s what I have heard expressed in the past.
Give the guy a break. Some people are better at speaking than others. The Bush’s have never been that good, at least comparing to other major politicians. Read up on the topic of speech - people make mistakes all the time, and regularly do not speak in gramatically correct sentences. Multiply an x percentage of mistakes per word by the enormous output of words a politican has to speak while running for President. Then select the best ones, air them on TV, and you suddenly have an incorrect understanding of the guy’s speaking ability.
So to say that George is dumb because he mispronounces a word is to be make several mistakes: to think that you have an accurate impression of his speaking ability and vocabulary, and to believe that this indicates his intelligence.
I’m not saying George is intelligent. But to criticize the guy for pronunciation is pretty bad…
That’s what I said, but he being Greek Orthodox (we live next do to his church) he had a few bones to pick.
Why they changed it, I can’t say. People just liked it better that way.
[super hijack]
First off, huge congratulations to jmullaney and John Corrado for conspiring on the most excellent They Might Be Giants (Dennis-Miller-esque) reference I’ve ever seen!
[/super hijack]
Avumede said:
Yes, but unfortunately the voting and media-listening public will not be the only ones to make that mistake. I respectfully submit that the other people Dubya interacts with on a day by day basis will come to the same, possibly mistaken, conclusion - that he’s an idiot. As lissener essentially pointed out, that would be very bad for his (and by extension the USA’s) image if those people are heads of foreign nations. They’ll stop listening to him. I know I would.
What’s worse, imagine that the people he works with every day, his advisors and Cabinet et al., come to the same conclusion. And then they stop listening to him, and start finding ways to work around him. Then you have a potential idiot out there in front of the cameras flapping his gums while entirely other machinations run things behind him. For this reason I think it’s very important NOT to “give the guy a break.”
…that town with a less-than-eloquent mayor!
Seriously, Mayor Daley is infamous for disjointed and rambling speeches whenever he speaks extemp. It’s the butt of jokes in the newspaper columns. Yet nobody contends that he’s stupid or unqualified to be mayor. Heck, he’s pretty damn popular, has been reelected solidly, and even his opponents admit he’s clever and intelligent.
. . . That wasn’t a TMBG reference, it was a Bette Midler reference. Duh.
Likewise, George Bush Sr. was well known for his ham-fisted sentence structure, but was considered an expert at foregin policy and negotiations.
Who, Dumb-Dumb Daley? That’s not my impression.
Unfortunately, there’s absolutely NO way to describe it and still have it be anywhere near as funny. You know how Conan does “interviews” with famous people on the TV screen behind him? It was one of those, with George W. and Cheney. Anything more than that you’ll have to see in reruns. It was a good episode, too–Lieberman’s version of “My Way” was top-notch hilarious.