In W's speech last night I noticed

[mburbank]

He can't figure out how to pronounce 'Abu Ghraib'. Each time he said it, he said it a different way, and none of them were the standard ABOO-GRABE I've heard every newscaster use.

Do you think this is like Nuke-ya-ler, a mistake he's purposely allowed to make, did he not practice, did he not know he was going to have to say it, could they not have spelled it phonetically on the teleprompter. I mean, it's no big deal, but you'd think he might prepare for a big speech like this as much as say a high school debate team member. I can think of a whole hour he might have spent learning the correct pronunciation of this rather important word. If he'd done that, they might not have had to slather so much make-up all over his chin.

[Buffalo Tom]

I think it is funny that with each grammar mistake, Bush looks less and less the education president he touted himself to be during the 2000 election campaign. Whenever I hear Dubya make a public speaking mistake, I am reminded of the time when the Progressive Conservative government in Ontario, a Canadian party which shares the same neo-conservative views on domestic policy as the American Republican party, appointed a high-school drop-out as the Minister of Education.

[mburbank]

All I know is he must have known he'd have to say that name repeatedly in his speech. How could he not have gotten it down? What the hell is wrong with him? If I gave an important presentation at work and repeatedly got some name wrong that I knew in advance was going to be ion the presentation, I'd get spoken to about it. My guess is, so would anyone reading this. Doesn't anyone have any baseline performance expectations of a man who has to make presentations to the entire world?

[ranxer]

maybe no one corrected him during practice.
kinda like saddams problems with people being affraid of correcting or bringing bad news to the dictator. still surprising he could'nt say it.. odd even, considering the amount of press its gotten in the last few weeks.

[Ronnie Raygun]

I guess you don't have any real issues to talk about. You must really be frustrated. Maybe tomorrow Bush won't have a matching tie.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

So what's the latest on that John Kerry intern scandal??? Remember, ***KERRY IS TOAST***, or whatever....? Like real issues have EVER fucking mattered to you, Raygun. You run from them every chance you get....

[Ronnie Raygun]

That had the makings of a huge story that could have broken Kerry's back.

It's not even comparable to the pretzel story.

[sspadowsky]

Had the makings of? Huh. And why do you suppose nothing came of it, Ronnie? Could it be that massive liberal media conspiracy I keep hearing about? Or could it simply be that it was a bullshit story that had no basis in fact? I'm betting I know which one you think it was.

[Ronnie Raygun]

Do you even know where the story came from, moron? Who leaked it to the media? Tell me that.

[El Blanco]

Max, please don't tell me someone who seems to be so into politics watched this speech and the only thing he came away with was Bush mispronouncing a word.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Do you even know where the story came from, moron? Who leaked it to the media? Tell me that.

Chris Lehane, who was Gephardt's boy. However, you seem to lose track of the context. You were chastizing Max for bringing up non-issues on the board. You yourself do that almost daily, despite the supposed "makings" of the story. Lehane didn't post that thread at I-Mockery.net, YOU did.

[sspadowsky]

Do you even know where the story came from, moron? Who leaked it to the media? Tell me that.

I couldn't possibly care less where it came from, you jackass. A bullshit story is a bullshit story; I don't care if Christ Himself leaked it, it would still be bullshit, and that's why it didn't pan out.

[Ronnie Raygun]

The story came from the left, where you reside.

[sspadowsky]

Do you even know where the story came from, moron? Who leaked it to the media? Tell me that.


I couldn't possibly care less where it came from, you jackass. A bullshit story is a bullshit story; I don't care if Christ Himself leaked it, it would still be bullshit, and that's why it didn't pan out.

[Ronnie Raygun]

Yeah, all this sudden it doesn't matter where the story comes from because it wasn't some "neo-con special interest" organization.

You aren't very consistent. You should work on that...

[sspadowsky]

You should work on kissing my pucker. I don't care where a bullshit story comes from. I guess it's just coincidence that most of the stories posted here that have no basis in reality, let alone fact, are posted by you.

[mburbank]

I tthink this and the bike story have the makings of a HUGE story.

'REFORMED ALCHOLIC PRESIDENT HAS RELAPSE!'

There's every bit as much truth in that story s the Kerry intern tale, and possibly more. If I were Drudge, I wouldn't be posting that as a joke.

"I guess you don't have any real issues to talk about. You must really be frustrated. Maybe tomorrow Bush won't have a matching tie."

Let me be the first to apologize. Your right. I hardly ever make pots about the issues in this race, in fact, now I think of it, I never have. I bet it's cause I'm lazy and firly uninterested in politics. Thanks for the wake up call Nalds.

"Max, please don't tell me someone who seems to be so into politics watched this speech and the only thing he came away with was Bush mispronouncing a word."
Oh, I promise you, that wasn't all I came away with. The main thing for me was that after the build up, there was nothing new offered in the speech. Despite what the British are saying, we intend to control the military and the prison system, and how aid money is spent after the sovereighnity hand off, so I'm mystified about what sovereignity we are giving them. Do you think we'd leave if the new government told us to? Would we concider ourselves a sovereign nation if we couldn't order a foreign army off our soil or even ask them to stop shooting at people?

Here's my thing about this though. I KNOW it seems like a very small thing to most people, but we all have our values. I think one of the least things we should expect from the leader of the free world is that they make an effort at communication. Now maybe W has some sort of real learning disability when it comes to speech, nd if that's the case, I think they should have admitted it long ago. To me, and this is just me here, it looks like he couldn't give a crap and that he places no value on getting names right, speaking in whole sentences or speaking to the world with dignity. At very least the level of dignity my boss expects of me. Hell, I truly believe President should be required to write their own speeches, becuase I think the people have a right to know what their President thinks and feels and see how he epxresses himself, not how a team of writers and their focus groups write a script. I think our standards for Presidential communication are shamefully low. He speaks for our country. It's a big part of the job, and sure, there are other more important aspects of it, but W's the one who campaigned on the dignity of the presidency . When he gets up there and can't say the name of the prison where America tortured prisoners the same way one out of three times, I think he looks like an unprepared, overconfident freshman. It's meaningful to me. If it's any consolation, I think Kerry is a shitty public speaker too, and it's a damn shame.