Bush Shifting Away From Brevity

[Florida_Geek]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Going-Long.html

April 10, 2004
Bush Shifting Away From Brevity
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 9:31 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Looks like that yawning boy in Florida may have been on to something when he struggled to stay awake during a recent speech by President Bush. Bush's rhetoric is best known for the occasional syntax mangle and terse, my-way-or-the-highway one-liners. Lately, the president has tended toward the super-lengthy in his remarks, particularly when the subject is jobs and the economy.

Consider the event Tuesday on job readiness ideas that ran for a full hour in El Dorado, Ark. Even though six others participated, Bush did the vast majority of the talking.

There are several other examples where Bush alone accounted for all the verbiage: a 54-minute speech in Charlotte, N.C., on Monday on job training, 51 minutes in Wisconsin late last month on the economic help from his tax cuts, and 45 minutes on the same topic in Cleveland on March 10.

Bush's standard speech to purely political audiences also has swelled, from a reliable 24 minutes last year to routinely well over 30.
.. more at AP