Not So Quotable Notables

Recently at a fundraiser in Texas, President Bush said this:
“There’s no question about it,” President Bush said. “Wall Street got drunk, that’s one of the reasons I asked you to turn off the TV cameras. It got drunk and now it’s got a hangover. The question is how long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments.”
This ties into my post yesterday about diction and text-speak. Besides the obviously ridiculous comparison he is making here, using phrases like "got drunk," "got a hangover," and "try to do all these fancy financial instruments" just makes him seem stupid. I'm not arguing whether or not he actually is stupid, but when you speak poorly, that is the impression you give others.

I'm sure there are many instances of presidents using ill-advised phrases and poor grammar, it's just that our current president has so many offenses against him that Washington Post writer Richard Thompson created an entire poem gleaned from phrases Bush has used in his public speaking engagements. You can find the poem and their sources here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/piehigher.asp

Just a last note from TheDomina, in case you have been swayed by the way certain people pronounce certain words, "nuclear" is actually pronounced "nu-cle-ar" and not "nu-cu-lar."