Bush trips over Abu Ghraib pronunciation - Reuters

[Bombtrack]

CARLISLE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Two rehearsals for his prime-time speech were not enough to keep U.S. President George W. Bush from mangling the name of the Abu Ghraib prison that brought shame to the U.S. mission in Iraq. During the half-hour televised address, Bush mispronounced Abu Ghraib each of the three times he mentioned it while announcing U.S. plans to tear down the infamous jail and replace it with a new facility.

The prison, the scene of torture under Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and the setting for the Iraqi prison abuse scandal under the U.S. military, has a name that English speakers usually pronounce as "abu-grabe". But the Republican president, long known for verbal and grammatical lapses, stumbled on the first try, calling it "abugah-rayp". The second version came out "abu-garon", the third attempt sounded like "abu-garah".


White House aides, who described the speech as an important address on the future of Iraq, said Bush practised twice on Monday before boarding his helicopter for his trip to the speaking venue at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

[Egalitarian Zetetic]

1. he is just simply a dumbfuck i hate the bastard<nt>

[Az_lefty]

2. If bush's incompetence didn't pose such a danger to the world

this would be hilarious.

[nixonwasbetterthanW]

3. it doesn't make sense on so many levels

Why not roll "ah-boo-grabe" or "ah-boo-graib" into the teleprompter? He needn't spell it right. Heck, when Kennedy spoke in Berlin, his text actually said something like "ick bin ine bear-linner."

Bush's helpers are paid good money to try their damnedest to prevent such embarrassments. Have even they given up on him?

Is there a psychological speech pathologist who can shed some light for us? I just can't figure it out.

[bloom]

7. there are several threads

speculating on Bush* possibly having epilepsy or seizures related to cocaine use or other things that might? explain it.

[calimary]

11. Yeah, really. Heck, I remember when I was anchoring during the Iran

hostage crisis - EVERY script had a phonetic pronunciation for ANYTHING even remotely dicey, so I wouldn't slip up. So it was ALWAYS Eye-a-TOLL-ah ho-MAY-nee. For heaven's sakes. He just must not care. So thoughtful of him.

[TrogL]

13. I'm not a speech pathologist, but I do similar work

I'm a vocal teacher.

Some people just plain don't 'get it' when it comes to foreign words. I have enough trouble myself. I flunked French every year I took it. I failed a choir audition because my German stank. Ahknaten has tried to teach me a few simple Arabic phrases then just laughs at me. Even so, I do a lot better than Dubya.

The problem is, he's never been exposed to foreign culture or language so his brain isn't wired to deal with it. Even pronounced phonetically on the teleprompter, he's gonna try and put a (fake) Texas accent on it and it's just gonna come out all mangled.

Dubya simply shouldn't be doing his own speeches. They should be assigned to underlings.

OK, you can stop laughing now.

Lemme try that again.

The people who actually know what is going on should be doing the talking, not Dubya.

Better?

[charlie105]

4. Great analysis on Salon.com

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room//index.html

Given the importance of President Bush's Iraq address, it's the wrong time to be petty, but someone needs to say that his stumbling over the pronunciation of Abu Ghraib was a stunning gaffe

snip..

Is Bush the only American who hasn't discussed the torture scandal enough in the last month to have decided already how to pronounce the prison's name?

snip..

But the worst of it was the way Bush got stuck on the word, parsing out the syllables lamely, as though he'd never read or heard them before. In fact the way the prison scandal unfolded seems to indicate that Bush and his advisors really hadn't heard of Abu Ghraib before they invaded Iraq, didn't know about its symbolism as a fortress of terror, or they never would have turned it into the concentration camp it became.

[MikeG]

5. It is more a lack of attention to detail.

It comes from having your ass wiped for you your whole life.

[Jim__]

6. I think you got it ! - n/t

[AlCzervik]

8. thats when i stopped watching

right after he called it, and this is what i heard..."Omar shariff" and then there was dead silence but i imagine the carefully picked and vetted crowd clinched all at the same time.

[calimary]

12. And don't forget "America's Ambachelor to Iraq, John Negroponte."

SHEESH. I think the "having your ass wiped for you your whole life" part is spot-on. He just doesn't even bother to think about the fine points or details. Such a jerk.

And I could be wrong, not having much experience with seasoned drunks past my college dorm days, but it always strikes me that this guy is trying EXCRUCIATINGLY hard to pronounce things carefully, as though he were walking on eggshells the whole time. As though he's trying VERY hard to conceal the fact that he's stewed. I saw many friends (and even did it once or twice myself) stumble through their articulation after having had quite a few. You REALLY overly-wrap your mouth all over every one of those words, so that nobody might think you're slurring your speech. So you go overboard in the other direction, but everybody's already got your number anyway, and knows full well how much you drank. I swear, it's the first thing I think of, EVERY time I hear him speak in public.

[DakotaDemocrat]

9. Normally, people from around the world...

...admire the American President for his eloquence and vision - a symbol of what makes America great: a well-educated person who can endure hardship to achieve great things in the land of the free.

Now we have a person who the world sees butcher the English language, doesn't read, and has a tendency to fall off things (stationary and moving).

Geesh...

I don't know who I am afraid of more: him, or the people who think this person is the second coming...

[rock]

10. He's such a little man

[9215]

14. His constituency loves it.

But then his constituency hates readin', writin' and 'rithmetic anyway.

[doni_georgia]

15. Hookt on fonix wurkt fer me

You'd think by now they write out phonetically words that * stumbles over - Aboo Grabe, Uh-mare-ee-ka, Ter-ror-ists, Nu-clee-are, Sa-dahm.