Bushism

In American English, a Bushism is a word or phrase unique to the style of President George W. Bush while speaking publicly and usually extemporaneously. While any public figure speaking in so many venues over time is prone to unflattering errors, Bush's regular use of unusual grammatical construction has some common characteristics that have given him a hallmark style:
  • Adding agentive endings to words not usually accustomed to such treatment, such as suiciders, game changer, and truth teller
  • Splicing words together in unusual combinations, such as misunderestimated and musta could've
  • Odd sentence agreement, such as "We had a chance to visit with Teresa Nelson who's a parent, and a mom or a dad."
Quotes from Bush's speeches that create an impression of incompetence are often called Bushisms. Many quotes, sometimes taken out of context, seem to imply that Bush has significant misconceptions about geography, history, political processes, and the world in general. There is no easy way to tell how many of the quotes reflect Bush's actual knowledge and opinions and how many are merely results of verbal mishaps, but that has not stopped some of Bush's critics from using a number of embarrassing mistakes in efforts to discredit him. The term Bushism has become widely recognized, partly due to book titles and Web sites dedicated to the President's quotations. Bushism can also describe the doctrine of the George W. Bush administration, especially as seen by foreigners, though this term is not as widely used as with the former context. Journalist E.J. Dionne, Jr., wrote in The Washington Post, January 27, 2002:
"Government isn't the solution, government is the problem," Ronald Reagan said. "Too often, my party has confused the need for limited government with a disdain for government itself," says Bush. This is the essence of Bushism: By rejecting pure anti-government rhetoric, Bush has left himself more room to reduce the size of government. http://www.brook.edu/views/op-ed/dionne/20020127.htm

See also

Further reading

  • Thorne, Justin. The DubyaSpeak Compendium
  • Miller, Mark Crispin. The Bush Dyslexicon. ISBN 0393041832.
  • George W. Bushisms: The Accidental Wit and Wisdom of Our 43rd President. Ed. Jacob Weisberg. ISBN 0740744569.

External links

 

<< PreviousWord BrowserNext >>
service dog
calhoun county
chambers county, alabama
perpendicular
chilton county, alabama
thames barrier
plane
chteau de villandry
choctaw county, alabama
qibya massacre
maximinus
parallel
clarke county, alabama
cherokee county, alabama
maxentius
pin oak
fontevraud abbey
denmark
limited animation
electrocardiogram
francisco varela
ewald andr dupont
tartaric acid
fft
self organizing map
glass catfish
psychedelia
gil galad
the animals
nankana sahib
kabir
khalsa panth
bushmead priory
maya (illusion)
biological hazard
louis xiii of france
388 bc
389 bc
386 bc
468 bc
473 bc
472 bc
314 bc
apple lisa