Bushism

File:President George W. Bush address the nation on the economy 2008.jpg

George W. Bush addressing the nation from the East Room, September 2008

Bushisms are unconventional statements, phrases, pronunciations, malapropisms, and semantic or linguistic errors made in the public speaking of George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name = bbcmisunder>Template:Cite news</ref> Common characteristics of Bushisms include malapropisms, spoonerisms, the creation of neologisms or stunt words, and errors in subject–verb agreement.

Discussion

Bush's use of the English language in formal and public speeches has spawned several books that document the statements. A poem titled "Make the Pie Higher", composed entirely of Bushisms, was compiled by cartoonist Richard Thompson.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="snopes">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Various public figures and humorists, such as The Daily Show host Jon Stewart and Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau, have popularized Bushisms.<ref>Template:Cite comic</ref>

Linguist Mark Liberman of Language Log has suggested that Bush is not unusually error-prone in his speech, saying: "You can make any public figure sound like a boob, if you record everything he says and set hundreds of hostile observers to combing the transcripts for disfluencies, malapropisms, word formation errors and examples of non-standard pronunciation or usage... Which of us could stand up to a similar level of linguistic scrutiny?".<ref>Mark Liberman, "You say Nevada, I say Nevahda". January 3, 2004.</ref> In 2010, Philip Hensher called Bush's apparent coinage of the term "misunderestimated" one of his "most memorable additions to the language, and an incidentally expressive one: it may be that we rather needed a word for 'to underestimate by mistake'."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Stanford University lecturer and former Bush advisor Keith Hennessey has also argued that the number of Bush's verbal gaffes is not unusual given the significant amount of time that he has spoken in public, and that his successor Barack Obama's gaffes were not as scrutinized. In Hennessey's view, Bush "intentionally aimed his public image at average Americans rather than at Cambridge or Upper East Side elites".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

British journalist Christopher Hitchens published an essay in The Nation in 2000 titled "Why Dubya Can't Read", writing:

I used to have the job of tutoring a dyslexic child, and I know something about the symptoms. So I kicked myself hard when I read the profile of Governor George W. Bush, by my friend and colleague Gail Sheehy, in this month's Vanity Fair. All those jokes and cartoons and websites about his gaffes, bungles and malapropisms? We've been unknowingly teasing the afflicted. The poor guy is obviously dyslexic, and dyslexic to the point of near-illiteracy. [...]

I know from my teaching experience that nature very often compensates the dyslexic with a higher IQ or some grant of intuitive intelligence. If this is true for Bush it hasn't yet become obvious.<ref> {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} </ref> {{#if:|{{#if:|}}

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Bush's statements were also notorious for their ability to state the opposite of what he intended, including his remarks on the estate tax: "I'm not sure 80% of people get the death tax. I know this: 100% will get it if I'm the president." These incidents have been described as or likened to Freudian slips.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 2001, Bush poked fun at himself at the annual Radio & Television Correspondents Dinner (now the White House Correspondents Dinner), delivering a monologue reacting and responding to his Bushisms.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The term Bushism has become part of popular folklore and is the basis of a number of websites and published books. It is often used to caricature Bush.

Examples

General

• "I think we agree, the past is over."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 10, 2000; to his former primary election rival John McCain

• "We can have filters on Internets where public money is spent."Template:Sndduring his third Presidential debate with Al Gore, October 17, 2000<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• "They misunderestimated me."Template:SndBentonville, Arkansas, November 6, 2000.<ref name="Time_Misunderestimate">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
• "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."Template:SndSaginaw, Michigan, September 29, 2000; while expressing opposition to removing dams to protect endangered fish species<ref name=Time_PeopleFish>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
• "Families is where nations find hope, where wings take dream." La Crosse, Wisconsin, October 18, 2000<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
• "There's an old saying in Tennessee—I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, 'Fool me once, shame on...shame on you.' Fool me—you can't get fooled again."<ref name="WhitehouseArchives_FoolMe">Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:SndNashville, Tennessee, September 17, 2002.
• "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country."<ref name=Time_OBGYNlove>Template:Cite magazine</ref>Template:SndPoplar Bluff, Missouri, September 6, 2004
• "I'm going to put people in my place, so when the history of this administration is written at least there's an authoritarian voice saying exactly what happened." – while announcing he would write a book about "the 12 toughest decisions" he had to make.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."<ref name="Simran Khurana">see (item number "26.", of) {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

• "I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office." – Washington, D.C., May 12, 2008; in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.<ref name = bbcmisunder/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Foreign affairs

• "I'm the commander, see. I don't need to explain—I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the President. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• "I was proud the other day when both Republicans and Democrats stood with me in the Rose Garden to announce their support for a clear statement of purpose: you [Saddam Hussein] disarm, or we will." – Manchester, New Hampshire, October 5, 2002.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
• "Yesterday, you made note of my—the lack of my talent when it came to dancing. But nevertheless, I want you to know I danced with joy. And no question Liberia has gone through very difficult times." – Washington, D.C., October 22, 2008; to President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
• "This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses." – Charleston, South Carolina, January 2000.<ref name="Make the Pie Higher!">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to the Financial Times, the phrase "mental losses" seemed to be a malapropism of "missile launches".<ref name="Make the Pie Higher!" />

• "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." – Washington, D.C., August 5, 2004.<ref name="Simran Khurana"/><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
• "I'm telling you there's an enemy that would like to attack America, Americans, again. There just is. That's the reality of the world. And I wish him all the very best." – Washington, D.C., January 12, 2009.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• "Well, I mean that a defeat in Iraq will embolden the enemy and will provide the enemy—more opportunity to train, plan, to attack us. That's what I mean. There— it's— you know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• "I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• "We must stop the terror. I call upon all nations, to do everything they can, to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you...now watch this drive." – to reporters while playing golf.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• "The decision of one man [Vladimir Putin], to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. I mean, of Ukraine. Iraq too. Anyway...[I'm] 75." – In an address to the George W. Bush Institute, May 18, 2022.<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Economics

• "You bet I cut the taxes at the top. That encourages entrepreneurship. What we Republicans should stand for is growth in the economy. We ought to make the pie higher." – Columbia, South Carolina, February 15, 2000.<ref name="Make the Pie Higher!" />
• In January 2000, just before the New Hampshire primary, Bush challenged the members of the Nashua Chamber of Commerce to imagine themselves as a single mother "working hard to put food on your family".<ref name="Make the Pie Higher!"/>
• "You work three jobs?Template:Nbsp... Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that." – Omaha, Nebraska, February 4, 2005<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Education

• "Rarely is the question asked: is our children learning?" – Florence, South Carolina, January 11, 2000.<ref name="snopes" />
• "You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test." − Townsend, Tennessee, February 21, 2001.<ref name="Simran Khurana"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• "As yesterday's positive report card shows, Template:Notatypo do learn when standards are high and results are measured." – New York City, September 2007.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

• Anguish Languish
• Chernomyrdinka, similar sayings by or attributed to Viktor Chernomyrdin
• Colemanballs, similar sayings by sports broadcasters
• Covfefe, an apparent typo by Donald Trump
• Eggcorn
• Freudian slip
• Great Moments in Presidential Speeches, a recurring sketch airing on Late Show with David Letterman during the Bush administration
• List of nicknames used by George W. Bush
• Malapropism
• Putinisms, similar sayings by Vladimir Putin
• Spoonerism
• Strategery, a mock-Bushism coined by comedian Will Ferrell
• Yogiisms, similar sayings by baseball player Yogi Berra

Further reading

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
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External links

• DubyaSpeak.com
• The Complete Bushisms by Jacob Weisberg