Saturday, September 08, 2007
Cicero, he isn't
Seven years into George W. Bush's presidency, he still can't orate his way out of a paper bag. But we knew that when we elected him, didn't we?
29 Comments:
By 
Dawnfire82, at
Sat Sep 08, 11:45:00 AM:
I can't help but think that he'd be doing a lot better politically if he were eloquent instead of... not.
By 
, at
Sat Sep 08, 12:14:00 PM:
He is either dyslexic or lazy.
After all this time a little coaching wouldn't be to much to ask, would it.
By , at
Sat Sep 08, 01:51:00 PM:
Rarely is his message not understandable,although misspoken.Clinton is very articulate but most hucksters are.
By , at
Sat Sep 08, 01:57:00 PM:
You're so right-- he's no Cicero. Thankfully.
By , at
Sat Sep 08, 05:51:00 PM:
It is fairly pathetic that he hasn't had better results from media training and just time on the job, but I still like this President. He's human.
Clinton was a great speaker, and full of crap. He never answered a question, and just came off to swarmy. With George, I think you actually DO know where you stand.
By , at
Sat Sep 08, 05:52:00 PM:
He can read a speech off a teleprompter just fine, but his unscripted speeches are painful to watch (and hear).
Would he do better if he was eloquent? Look at Tony Blair.
By , at
Sat Sep 08, 06:10:00 PM:
[[ insert puerile CC comment ending with LOL here ]]
By , at
Sat Sep 08, 08:51:00 PM:
I can't help but think that he'd be doing a lot better politically if he were eloquent instead of... not.
There are times I can't help but be amazed that he's done as well as he has politically. The other times I'm reminded that he and Ms. South Carolina have a lot in common.
Can you imagine the stress level his handlers must be under?
Please God let him speak in full sentences.
Please God don't let him ad lib.
Please God don't let him read the teleprompter correctly.
And God, please make him stop chuckling when he's talking about Iraq.
By Assistant Village Idiot, at
Sat Sep 08, 08:55:00 PM:
I watched a repeat of the Quayle-Gore debate in 1992, which at the time was considered a political victory for Gore.
Quayle comes off much better now that so much of what he said has turned out to be correct. Rather than the buffoon he was painted as, he comes across as measured and intelligent.
While something similar may happen with W, it pays to remember that you don't get to lead via retrospective analysis. The effect a speech has on the populace today is part of the equation.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Sat Sep 08, 09:16:00 PM:
Good grief, AVI, the guy couldn't spell "potato."
Quayle's prepackaged responses probably came from his chief of staff, Bill Kristol. If you liked them, subscribe to "The Weekly Standard."
By jeff, at
Sat Sep 08, 10:11:00 PM:
Sure he could. But just out of curiosity, what does knowing the flash card misspelled potato have to do with the speeches he gave? If his chief of staff wrote them, dont you think he would have written things that would have been favorably viewed THEN rather than things that are favorably viewed NOW, using hindsight? Prepackaged?
By , at
Sat Sep 08, 10:35:00 PM:
DEC,
I'm not quite as old as you are, but I saw it spelled both as "potato" and "potatoe" as a kid.
Dan was ridiculed for a great many things, sometimes deservedly, but that is about the most trivial.
-David
By , at
Sat Sep 08, 10:44:00 PM:
On topic:
The guy had crossed 12 time zones in the previous few days, stopped in Iraq and had a very tense meeting (I'll bet) with al-Maliki, then went on to Sidney.
I'm about 9 years younger than GWB, and at times have suffered badly from jet-lag on business trips to Europe. Once I was nearly incoherent at a meeting because I hadn't had a good nights sleep in five days.
I know many people think the man is a jerk, but maybe he was just exhausted.
-David
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Sat Sep 08, 10:50:00 PM:
Sorry, David, I never saw it spelled (correctly) any way but the way it is in the dictionary: potato.
You and Quayle must have gone to the same school (joking).
We probably can thank Quayle for electing Bill Clinton. Quayle was a big drag on the Republican ticket in '92.
By , at
Sat Sep 08, 11:07:00 PM:
I remember lugging 50 lb bags of "Idaho Potatoes" down into the basement as a kid, unloading the car after my Mom's grocery shopping (circa 1965).
That, of all things, seemed about the most ridiculous of things to whack Quayle about, to me at least.
I had a friend (still a friend today) who thought that Nancy Kassebaum should have been George HW Bush's running mate in 1988, instead of Quayle. I wonder how things would have played out in that case?
-David
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Sat Sep 08, 11:07:00 PM:
Re: Trivial
Don't forget. Lloyd Bensten ate Quayle for lunch in the '88 debate.
Look, guys. I am tired of defending inarticulate Republicans (Quayle, "W"). We live in an age of mass communications. At least this time around, we have several Republican Presidential candidates (Thompson, Guiliani, etc.) who are comfortable on stage.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Sat Sep 08, 11:14:00 PM:
"Idaho Potatoes"
Yes, the "e" belongs in the plural "potatoes." But not in the singular (as Quayle wrote it). Don't blame me. I didn't write the dictionary.
In Quayle's case, it wasn't the one mistake. The mistake was a symbol of Quayle's deeper problem: He was a featherweight.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Sat Sep 08, 11:18:00 PM:
By , at
Sun Sep 09, 12:31:00 AM:
He is not doing the will of the people and we oppse illegal imagration and who knows whats comming in on those mexican trucks and their cutting off out water to sell to wealthy mexican drug dealers IMEACH BUSH,IMPEACH KENNEDY,IMPEACH CLINTON
By , at
Sun Sep 09, 05:08:00 AM:
DEC-
Potatoe is indeed listed as an "alternate spelling" of the word. Kind of like armor (American English) and armour (English English). In a spelling bee this counts, in real life, not so much. Dan Quayle was hit with an early version of the "moron smear" that has been used so effectively against the current President. Morons cannot graduate from Harvard, Yale and Air Force flight school, it is just not possible. However, i have met an incredible number of people who honestly believe that the Presidents IQ is 40 points below average. We don't know for sure, but given his armed forces recommendations based on their tests, Bush has a higher IQ than Kerry, who speaks many languages. I read an interesting essay written by a linguist who compared President Bush's speeches while running for Governor to those after he was elected. His diagnosis? The President speaks "Texan" and thus "DC Political English" is not his native language. I do pretty well with Spanish, but I am glad my friends do not use my effectiveness with that language to judge my intelligence.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Sun Sep 09, 10:57:00 AM:
And exactly what is your source for that "alternate spelling," Tyree?
Today the ability to communicate well in a variety of different cultures is an essential job skill for the positions of President and Vice President. That is the bottom line.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Sun Sep 09, 11:28:00 AM:
P.S. The President and Vice President don't need to speak other languages. But they do need to know how their various domestic and international audiences think.
As an international businessman, I can speak neither Japanese nor Chinese Mandarin. But I damn well know how the Chinese and Japanese think. And I adjust my message and choice of words accordingly.
By , at
Sun Sep 09, 03:22:00 PM:
from Wikipedia
"Spelling
The singular spelling variants potato vs. potatoe co-existed into the 19th century. Potatoe in the 20th century came to be considered a misspelling, while the plural remains potatoes."
And the flash card that Dan Quayle was given had the spelling as "potatoe", so his mistake is understandable.
I wish the President was better at public speaking myself but I know many brilliant people who can't tell a joke or string four sentences together in a row. I personally who rather have an inarticulate capitalist than an eloquent socialist as President, and sometimes, that is the coice we get.
By , at
Mon Sep 10, 12:41:00 AM:
The left-wing liberal news media made big thing when DAN QUAYLE mispelled POTATO but not a thing whe AL GORE got lost in the woods and they had to send in the SECRET SERVICE thats becuase gore was too busy hugging the trees and not paying attention to where he was going
By Assistant Village Idiot, at
Tue Sep 11, 06:42:00 PM:
I hesitate to disagree with DEC, but tyree makes an important point of linguistics here. George Bush could have adopted the accent and dialect favored by the media elite had he chosen to. While some of his misspeakings are not due to tribal and cultural identifications, some are. The impression of his being poorly spoken is intensified by accent. Scientists at Oak Ridge who happen to be from the South also say "nukular," and seeing as they're doing it for a living, they might be given some credit for knowing what it's about.
Hey, it bothers me, also. I am of humanities-studying New England stock for generations, and Bush's accent grates on me and says "not very bright." But that is an artificial prejudice on my part, brought on by a cultural elitism that no longer has strong basis in fact.
One might argue that the political effect of holding on to a less-favored accent is a political cost that someone who wishes to lead a country should take into account. But the counterargument, that he has also to take into account leading the rest of the country, is equally strong.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Tue Sep 11, 09:09:00 PM:
I don't care about the accent, AVI. I have done business in the Midland-Odessa area (Bush grew up in Midland and Houston) since 1979. One of my closest friends has a ranch outside Amarillo. All of my Texas friends can communicate effectively. Bush can't.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Tue Sep 11, 09:24:00 PM:
P.S. President Eisenhower was as bad as Bush in the delivery of unscripted remarks. But Eisenhower didn't have TV cameras in his face every day.
Today a President needs the communications skills of JFK or Ronald Reagan.
By , at
Wed Sep 12, 05:45:00 AM:
Bush expresses himself just fine -- what has suffered is people's ability to listen. In our country, oratory counts for nothing these days; it is judged as performance art or cheer leading, but nothing more. It no longer moves or informs or converts or persuades. Most people make up their minds on entirely different grounds, usually without recourse to facts, logic, or knowledge, and oratory can have no effect on them. People who are intelligent and thoughtful no longer need oratory to make up their minds as they have many other resources, so it serves no purpose for them either. Bush understood that before he ran for President. In this, he much more astute any his critics of whatever stripe.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Wed Sep 12, 11:01:00 AM:
And as the "astute" Bush said during a tribute to Tony Blair last June: "Tony's great skill, and I wish I had it, is that he's very articulate. I wish I was a better speaker."
