We often hear people make fun of the President for the way he speaks. Even my own students occasionally call him dumb. I remind them that most of them screw their past participles up royally, that they are 20-30 years old but still mixing up there/their/they're, and that anyone whose extemporaneous speech is transcribed word for word is going to make grammar mistakes. The measure of a man is not grammatical accuracy but the message that's being conveyed. I'd much rather hear this
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Sarah - you're right. The other day they played a gaffe by the president on EVERY station I saw on TV plus the radio and internet. Yet NO ONE except for bloggers picked up on Kerry's 'more sensitive' war on terror. More sensitive? What the heck does THAT mean? I think President Bush speaks more like a NORMAL person who makes mistakes. At least you know who he is and what he stands for. With JK, it's about who the audience is. He changes from minute to minute. I find it heartening that President Bush laughs at himself. At least he is human with emotion.
Posted by: Kathleen A at August 08, 2004 09:05 AM (vnAYT)
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“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
I, for one, believe Our Great Leader.
Posted by: rfidtag at August 08, 2004 03:42 PM (XxIKf)
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WooHoo Sarah - you are so on target with this. I heard Kerry "mispeak" a word last week (I think it was menator for senator) but did you hear about it in the media nope. I read it on a blog. But of course we all KNOW how useless blogs are ..... according to the media. LOL I'll take President Bush's gaffes any day instead of the waffling, nuanced Kerryspeake of a sensitive war on terror. What in all of stupidity does that mean? NOTHING. And that's what nuanced speak is: NOTHING.
Posted by: Toni at August 08, 2004 10:11 PM (3e3Je)
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I was highly offended and shocked by the "bring 'em on" remark, since I had a son in the Army just arriving in Iraq at the time Bush said it.
Well, they were listening: and they certainly have brought it on. My son was telling me about the feeling that you get when you wonder whether you're going to wake up with no bottom half if your tent in a FOB gets hit with a mortar or rocket. Or when you see soldiers all messed up by roadside bombs.
Thank God he survived 15 months there unharmed, but I wonder how the families of those who have been killed and wounded feel about "bring 'em on."
Easy to say "bring 'em on" when you didn't even leave Baghdad airport.
Posted by: Five Niner at August 08, 2004 10:59 PM (Y+j+9)
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Five niner, the purpose of the military is to engage the enemy and protect American citizens. Better to fight the enemy on our terms than to find another smoking hole in NYC.
Posted by: Sarah at August 09, 2004 01:21 AM (OFppu)
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Ok, and what purpose did saying something stupid like "Bring 'em on" serve?
Hey, check this out, Sarah: there has been no connection shown between Iraq and 9/11. There have been no weapons of mass destruction found. The army is getting wrecked by overextension: my son's unit, after just getting back after 15 months, is scheduled to go back next July. The 173rd Airborne, which just came back in May after a year in Iraq, is going to Afghanistan in January for another year. Almost everyone is getting out of the Army and the Guard as soon as they can.
The author of "Imperial Hubris," an anonymous senior CIA analyst, has said that the incompetantly run Iraq invasion has been a gift to our enemies in al-Qaeda.
Sounds like we're fighting them on their terms.
Posted by: Five Niner at August 09, 2004 02:58 AM (Y+j+9)
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Ahh...Our Great Leader has yet another pearl of Wisdom. When responding to a question posed by a Native American journalist on what he thought about the sovereignty of the Indian tribes in the U.S., Bush responded with: "sovereignty is well ... sovereignty, and if you have sovereignty you are sovereign."
Sarah...there is and never has been a connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda. The military is not the right tool for this so-called War on Terror. If you lived in NYC you would recognize the we aren't any safer because of Iraq. But you don't, and you are not reasonable.
Posted by: rfidtag at August 09, 2004 07:55 AM (XxIKf)
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Looks like I made a Bushism. Ooops. At least I can accept responsibility.
Posted by: rfidtag at August 09, 2004 07:56 AM (XxIKf)
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Jesus, rfidtag, the whole point of this post was how Bush accepts responsibility for his malapropisms. Are you really so blinded by your Bush hatred that you can't see that?
And I'm almost afraid to ask, but if you don't think the military is the right answer, then what is?
Posted by: Sarah at August 09, 2004 09:46 AM (lKeVD)
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The military is the right answer being wrongly used in the wrong place.
Afghanistan, no problem with that: we should have more troops there, even into Pakistan where most of the al-Qaeda seem to be hiding.
Iraq has been a tremendous diversion from the real war, and even if getting rid of Saddam was good on its own merits, it was incompetantly and corruptly (no-bid contracts to Halliburton) managed by the civilian leadership of the DoD.
Hell, Bush didn't even let the Marines take Fallujah after they shed so much blood and were on the brink of taking the city. It's still a haven for the guys killing our own.
Posted by: Five Niner at August 09, 2004 10:32 AM (Y+j+9)
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We have a military tradition in my family, but I have advised my other son, and my nephews of military age not to volunteer until and unless Bush, Cheney and the rest of the chickenhawk crew is defeated and the grownups are in charge again, people that would listen to commanders like Gen. Shinseki. I have two stickers on my car "I'm the Proud Parent of A Soldier" and "Veteran for Kerry."
Posted by: Five Niner at August 09, 2004 10:39 AM (Y+j+9)
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"Well, from the standpoint of the shrine, obviously it is a
sensitive area, and we are very much aware of its
sensitivity."
--Dick Cheney on the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf.
"Now in terms of the balance between running down intelligence and bringing people to justice obviously is -- we need to be very
sensitive on that."
--George W. Bush, at the Unity 2004 conference in Washington.
Emphasis mine.
Posted by: curveball at August 17, 2004 10:07 PM (4M6f+)
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