George W. will for the seventh and last time—thank the good Lord—report on the State of the Union tonight. Each one of these speeches has caused my muscles to tense, has made me feel that my government has somehow been taken from me.
I knew we were in trouble nine years ago when Bush didn’t know what “subliminal” meant and pronounced it “sublibdibal.” How did such an inarticulate man become leader of the free world? Along the way, he has tried to make jokes about his poor grammar and use of language, but I don’t find his jibes funny at all. If a president cannot master his speech, then I must question whether he can master his thoughts. Bush is clearly master of neither. He has tripped over his tongue a thousand times and chuckled at the most inappropriate moments (such as when talking of the death penalty), revealing a clear discomfort with his audience. He usually cannot stand up straight at a news conference, always leaning on the podium. An unscripted Bush is a Bush waiting to fall into a pit of jumbled vowels and consonants, a Bush who is not quite sure of his message.
The PBS series Frontline did several shows on the Bush presidency, and the consensus of the producers was that Bush was groomed to run for the White House by men such as Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz (the architect of the current Iraq War), Richard Pearl, and others of the same ilk. Rove wanted permanent Republican rule, while Wolfowitz wanted a permanent U.S. presence in the Middle East (something he’s advocated since 1991). They knew they had someone who would be the perfect puppet, but there's nothing more dangerous than a leader who thinks he’s in charge. Cheney has always been the de facto president, someone who installed his own people, without Bush's awareness, at key "chokepoints" within the government so that nothing could happen without his knowledge.
Bush has been the butt of endless cartoons and impressionists for obvious reasons. To use the words of Shakespeare, he is a man full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Paradoxically, he has, through sheer ignorance, proven to be the most dangerous man in the world.
Picture: Public Domain
I knew we were in trouble nine years ago when Bush didn’t know what “subliminal” meant and pronounced it “sublibdibal.” How did such an inarticulate man become leader of the free world? Along the way, he has tried to make jokes about his poor grammar and use of language, but I don’t find his jibes funny at all. If a president cannot master his speech, then I must question whether he can master his thoughts. Bush is clearly master of neither. He has tripped over his tongue a thousand times and chuckled at the most inappropriate moments (such as when talking of the death penalty), revealing a clear discomfort with his audience. He usually cannot stand up straight at a news conference, always leaning on the podium. An unscripted Bush is a Bush waiting to fall into a pit of jumbled vowels and consonants, a Bush who is not quite sure of his message.
The PBS series Frontline did several shows on the Bush presidency, and the consensus of the producers was that Bush was groomed to run for the White House by men such as Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz (the architect of the current Iraq War), Richard Pearl, and others of the same ilk. Rove wanted permanent Republican rule, while Wolfowitz wanted a permanent U.S. presence in the Middle East (something he’s advocated since 1991). They knew they had someone who would be the perfect puppet, but there's nothing more dangerous than a leader who thinks he’s in charge. Cheney has always been the de facto president, someone who installed his own people, without Bush's awareness, at key "chokepoints" within the government so that nothing could happen without his knowledge.
Bush has been the butt of endless cartoons and impressionists for obvious reasons. To use the words of Shakespeare, he is a man full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Paradoxically, he has, through sheer ignorance, proven to be the most dangerous man in the world.
Picture: Public Domain
3 comments:
As well written as this is, the sad irony is that it is hackneyed garbage. Why? Because everybody agrees with you and has been saying the same thing.
Lordy.
If'n we all know this, how did we ever let it get this far?
We used to have a Prime Minister called Meggyesy who also had problems with longer and complicated words. His way of talking became a matter of ridicule, too.
Scott, no problem. (I "get it" now.) Thanks, my friend.
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