Bush's verbal skills have sunk to an awful new low

[wuushew]

I was watching the News Hour last night during the Brooks and Shields segment and a clip was shown(http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/04/20070416.html#). I continued to listen not because there were any obvious gaffs or misquotes, but because the repetitions, cadence and strange pauses were some of the worst I can recall during his entire time in office.


Arm chair mental physicians what does this mean? Has his past substance abuse entered the terminal senility phase? For a man who goes to bed early, gets plenty of guiltless sleep how the hell can his brain we so faulty?


This was a painful, painful speech to listen to. I am reading the transcript and if it is the text prepared by a speech writer, it too is of low quality. Look at how poorly many of his paragraphs are composed. The transcript is somewhat useful in showing how sentence structure is illogically ordered with numerous inappropriate sentence starts and continuances.


Example

We must give our men and women in uniform the tools and resources they need to prevail. Providing these resources is the responsibility of the United States Congress. And that is why, 70 days ago, I sent Congress an emergency war spending bill that would provide the vital funds our troops urgently need. But instead of approving this funding, Democrats in Congress have spent the past 70 days pushing legislation that would undercut our troops. They passed bills in the House and the Senate that would impose restrictions on our military commanders. They set an arbitrary date for withdrawal from Iraq. And they spend billions of dollars on domestic projects that have nothing to do with the war. After passing these unacceptable bills, House and Senate leaders then chose to leave town for spring recess, without resolving their differences or sending any legislation to my desk.



Did anyone else make similar observations?

[saltpoint]

1. His topic sentence, such as it is, doesn't specify in what way

Congressional Democrats have withheld funding from our troops.

You're right -- the paragraph is not bad for an astute-but-misguided 6th grader. For a president, eh, not so good.

[wuushew]

5. I am not an English major

but normally isn't it discouraged to start sentences with "and"?

It seems to me he can't define what he is talking in a single phrase. He just keeps piling on crap in each subsequent utterance that he somehow forgot to address at the beginning of the previous point.

[saltpoint]

14. My high school English teachers, may they rest in peace, discouraged

us from using "And" or "But" to begin sentences. For Gore Vidal and Joan Didion, though, it often works, since they can do anything with language better than anyone else.

Dubya's problem is exactly what you say it is. The sludge keeps piling up and it's hard to trace the base idea of each sentence. The sludge-laden sentences don't often seem to have anything to do with each other n content, and not much to do with themselves in structure.

The boy's a mess.

[Clark2008]

32. It's changed with the language.

I was taught in high school and college not to start sentences with "and" or "but," myself, and I was a Communications major/English minor.

However, the newspaper for which I worked brought in a writing coach once who told us that we should start sentences - sparingly, of course - with "and" or "but" simply because that is the way our language has evolved. Language isn't static.

I think, if it's needed to convey a thought and break up a run-on sentence, starting a sentence with a conjunction is fine.

[pnwmom]

26. There is no such rule among real writers.

Only among English teachers.

[illinoisprogressive]

2. His speeches have been really going downhill fast the past year, not

that any of them were great from the beginning. his writers and his speaking have always been of subpar quality.

[Botany]

3. Too many times I have noticed

Last week he said the N. Koreans have to be be agreeable to the agreement which
they agreed to. Something like that .... w/ the P.M. of Japan @ a joint presser.


"And they spend billions of dollars on domestic projects that have nothing to do with the war."

Master of the obvious .... some domestic projects have nothing to do with the war.

He is speaks in a gibberish of stutters, talking points, and some "Cowboy Bob" from the wild
west show thrown in too.

The madness of King George is there for all to see ... yesterday or thursday he had huge welt
over his left eye as he was speaking.

[hippiechick]

4. ... they could give him Hamlet's soliloquy and ...

... he'd still sound like a fuckin' juiced up bumpkin.


History will show him to be the only proof we need: Drugz Is Bad. :smoke:

[Botany]

6. Hamlet's soliloquy

you R just one of demm smart types .... educated and what not.

"Alas, poor Hippie Chick! I knew her, a DUer of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.

[hippiechick]

10. LOL!

:applause: :hi:

[MADem]

8. Heheheheh.... "..he'd still sound like a fuckin' juiced up bumpkin"

That line struck me as funny!!

Isn't it ironic, though, that the "bumpkin" went to school in Andover, Massachusetts, New Haven, Connecticut, and Boston, Massachusetts....and still manages to sound like a bad movie-acting cowboy? We New Englanders don't hear that accent in our daily lives, except when we have the misfortune to get too close to a television playing Faux Snooze "Hero Dunce" clips!

[Straight Shooter]

9. He may have gone to school at Andover, New Haven, and Boston ...

... but he was just making an appearance. He didn't bother to actually learn anything, because after all, Daddy was going to pave the way and make everything all nicey-nice for Little Boots.

I think his years of being an alcoholic cokehead, coupled with the stress of perhaps beginning to realize how many people actually hold him in unmitigated contempt, are taking their toll on the little mutant sociopath. I hope so. Lord knows I really hope so.

[Nay]

15. Yep, plenty of little fuckin' rich boys went to my college, too, and no

matter how dumb or lazy, they got their piece of paper at the end of 4 years -- Daddy and Mums saw to that. And then it was off to work for one of dad's companies, or one of dad's friend's companies, while the rest of us sent out hundreds of resumes and suffered dozens of debasing interviews.

Problem is, I have a hard time convincing Pub coworkers that this happens. Most have not gone to college, do not know how it works, and think that if you have graduated from college, you must be smart. Sorta like going to the Wizard of Oz and getting a brain -- in fact, exactly like that. They hold one of two views -- finish college and you're a college puke, without the sense to get in out of the rain; or, finish college and you are automatically elevated to that rarefied stratum that contains only the best and smartest of human beings. Sometimes these pubs hold these views simultaneously. If you're leftist you're the college puke; if you're George Bush, you're a "smart mayun."

I have pretty much given up trying to reason with anyone.

[MADem]

27. Oh, agree wholeheartedly...but you'd think he'd pick up the accent as one does during one's

formative years.

[MUAD_DIB]

18. There should be enforcible laws against favoritism in the elite school system.

All that edjumacation wasted of a fucking cokehead-drunk-fratboy-cheerleader is such a damn shame.

Somebody missed out because of that shit, and thousands more miss out now by dying in his fuckup misadventure.

[Poiuyt]

35. Wasn't Hamlet debating whether or not he should commit suicide?

[stevedeshazer]

7. He's drunk.

I watched a few minutes of this, and it's very clear that he is intoxicated, probably alcohol.

[TheLeftyMom]

12. Is this the interview where he's all slumped in the chair?

Looking like a disgruntled teen whose parents just sat him down for a chat? The cameraman had to keep adjusting because he'd sit up for a split second...then slouch back down like a 13-year-old who just got busted for hiding porn under his mattress?

[stevedeshazer]

20. No, but same idea

Watch the video clip in the OP's post if you can.

[achtung_circus]

11. I watched the whole thing.

I think Bush has been taking oration lessons. The first part of the speech was a very poor attempt to sound Churchillian. The glib catch phrases began to slip off his tongue (does he even hear them anymore) and the speech went off whatever rails it was on.

After that, where to begin?

i.e.
what a wonderful country where people will actually VOLUNTEER to join the Army. Has Bush ever left the country in an unsedated state, or read a history book. That's offensive to the world at large.

The Democrats need to not make this a political issues, he says if front of a hand-picked audience designed to politicize the issue.

sigh.

my head hurts now.

[terrya]

13. He has the worst verbal skills of any President in my lifetime.

And this includes Richard Nixon, who hardly could have been accused of verbal flights of fancy.

I simply can't stand to listen to George W. Bush. Listening to him speak, he barely sounds literate, let alone a recipient of an education most people could only dream of getting.

[givemebackmycountry]

16. Bush's verbal skills have sunk to an awful new low

"In other words, his verbal skills are low. And awful".

Has any one noticed that he's always saying "In other words"?

Over the years, I bet you I have heard him add "in other words" so many times it's laughable.

"The Democrats should listen to the generals on the ground, in other words they should listen to the generals"

Or some shit like that.

He's a shameful example of "lazy brain syndrome" not very curious, not very thoughtful, not very anything.

[Ino]

23. oh yeah! Some examples for your enjoyment....

As you know, I've made the tough decision to commit American troops into harm's way. It's the toughest decision a President can ever make, but I want you to know that I tried diplomacy -- in other words, a President has got to be able to say to the American people, diplomacy didn't work.

The government is now -- they're beginning to form. In other words, you're seeing a lot of sharp elbows, probably kind of like American politics seem to some people, a lot of throwing of sharp elbows.

And they kill indiscriminately. In other words, they don't care who they kill.

The comments by the number two man of Al Qaeda make it clear that Iraq is a part of this war on terror, and we're at war. In other words, he's saying, leave. As I have told the American people, one, that people like Zawahiri have an ideology that is dark, dim, backwards. They don't trust -- they don't appreciate women. If you don't agree to their narrow view of a religion you'll be whipped in the public square. That's their view, and they have tactics to help spread that view. In other words, they've got goals. They want to spread that point of view throughout the world, starting in the broader Middle East. And part of their goal is to drive us out of the broader Middle East, precisely what Zawahiri said. In other words, he's threatening.

By the time the baby boomers like me get completely retired, there will be about 75 million. In other words, a lot. ...And I believe that if you are a willing employer -- In other words, if you have somebody looking for work and you can't find an American, there ought to be a legal way -- not an illegal way -- a legal way for you to be able to employ that person. ...We'll use our diplomatic corps. In other words, we're working with friends and allies. ...We're working hard to coordinate law enforcement around the world. In other words, we're using all assets of this great nation in order to defeat this enemy.

Secondly, we're strengthening the defenses at our most important and vulnerable locations. In other words, part of a strategy is ta -- to try to figure out where the enemy may attack.

Freedom is not a discriminatory thought, at least in the White House -- in other words, if you say, certain people should be free, but others shouldn't free.

There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.

Andrew Biggs is with us. He is the Associate Commissioner for Retirement Policy of the Social Security Administration, Washington, D.C. In other words, he is an expert on the subject.

But we got attacked on September 11th. It hurt our economy. In other words, you're in a recession, then we have an attack.

Except when you're marching to war, it's not a very optimistic thought, is it? In other words, it's the opposite of optimistic when you're thinking you're going to war.

The principle of the bill is pretty simple, that we believe the more money people have in their pockets, the more likely it is somebody is going to be able to find work in America. In other words, the more money somebody has, it means somebody is more likely to demand a good or a service, which means somebody will produce a good or a service, which means somebody is likely to find work.

when a person has more money in their pocket, they're likely to demand somebody to produce them a good or a service. In other words, you get money in your pocket -- you say, well, I think I'd like this product, or I'd like this service.

Because of a quirk in the Senate law, all the work that we did reverts back to normal in 10 years, normal being what it was prior to the tax relief. In other words it's kind of hard to explain. But you get tax relief and you don't get tax relief, see. It stays in place for 10 years and then it goes away.

Lots more at
http://tinyurl.com/2tm4or

[saltpoint]

25. Good god. And this guy is the President of the United States.

[buzzard]

29. He uses "in other words" as much as those under oath use "I can't remember or I don't recall" he is

truly the worst spoken US President that I have ever seen.

[buzzard]

30. He uses "in other words" as much as those under oath use "I can't remember or I don't recall" he is

truly the worst spoken US President that I have ever seen.

[Arkansas Granny]

17. I saw that and I thought it sounded more disjointed than usual, also.

It was as though he couldn't remember what he had just read so he could repeat it. The pauses were so long that I thought he had stopped speaking a couple of times.

[durtee librul]

19. And let's not forget his wife is a

lyberrian who probably just gave up on trying to teach him.

Bottom line, he's an embarrassment that should be clearing brush permanently on his 'ranch' in Crawford (poor residents of Crawford - I think if I lived there, I'd sneak a For Sale into his front yard one night)

[Mend]

21. reverse evolution...just wait until he starts flinging his feces.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

22. Just his ordinary skill at Nincompoopese.

[lpbk2713]

24. You'd think that with his income ....

he could afford a better quality booze and drugs. :shrug:

[Obamarama]

28. Confessions of a former speech-writer....

I did some speechwriting for elected and government officials - nobody high profile - and you do construct sentences a little differently for a speech than you would for the purely written word.

If you constructed a gramatically perfect text, it would likely not sound as natural were you to speak it exactly as written. Therefore, you break some rules and do things like begin sentences with "and", etc. to make it sound more conversational.

I did, on occasion, need to craft a speech for an official who was neither the brightest bulb on the string nor the most gifted orator. I would have to dumb down the structure and the content considerably so he could get through it without sounding like a complete boob.

My guess is the Boy King is reading a Hooked On Phonics quality script (because that's likely about what he can handle) and STILL fucking it up.

[Botany]

34. In June of 2002 he dropped this gem.

"I've got my looks on for them."

In response to where bin Laden & al Qaeda might be .... I pulled off to the side of the road
and screamed .... in some farm country in Ohio.

He has degrees from Andover, Yale, & Harvard. God bless the dean of the University of Texas
Law School who sent him a letter and said he was too dumb to be a lawyer.

[benld74]

31. I've heard the WH speech writer graduated from Regent!

[jillan]

33. The one thing I have noticed

is that he is always reading! He barely looks up.

It's like Cheney writes down what he should say, and the idiot goes out there and reads it.

Nothing comes from his heart ( oh yeah - he doesn't have one )
or from his mind ( hmmm - nope again )