Ooops: What Did The President Say Exactly?

Notes from a “word carpenter.”By John E. Carey
October 17, 2006

While it is a stretch to say I “love” president Bush, I do generally support him. And I find him to be “lovable,” or, more appropriately: beguiling.

The dictionary defines beguiling as amusing, charming or delightful.

One of President Bush’s comedic aspects is his ability to mangle and mix words. He might say he “mixmangles” them. Saturday Night Live has lampooned the president for this trait several times, creating the word “strategery” (a play on the words “strategy” and “strategic”).

Washington Examiner reporter and author Bill Samon made “Strategery” the title of his book about the Bush White House.

For real word aficionados, a malapropism is a “ludicrous misuse of a word, especially by confusing it with one of similar sound.” But that is not what the president generally does.

I think for some of the humorous new words, like “strategery,” created by or attributed to President Bush, I’ll stick to “mixmangles.”

Actual troubling quotations made by President Bush have sometimes been dubbed “Bushisms” by his political opponents. But they hate their president and take all the fun out of his comedic language.

On Saturday, The United States of America proudly accepted the new United States Air Force Memorial as its own. Several dignitaries gave patriotic speeches. The Air Force showed a fantastic video historical montage of its service to the nation. And several historic aircraft flew overhead; followed by the Air Force’s flight demonstration team: the always thrilling Thunderbirds.

The event was flawless.

Almost.

The President of the United States gave a stirring speech. And I must say the president always has the finest writers and the most well crafted speeches imaginable. But, midway through this one, one or two electrons in the president’s brain missed their mark and the president delivered this line:

“General Hap Arnold called Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle into his office and gave him an unprecedented mission — retaliate against Tokyo. Just over four months later, Doolittle’s raiders had shocked the world by striking the enemy capital some 4,000 miles away from Pearl Harbor. To do it, they had to load B-52 bombers on the deck of an aircraft carrier.”

Give the White House credit: their web site records the speech text almost exactly as the president delivered it: including the B-52 slip. The bomber’s of Doolittle’s raid were, of course, B-25s.

Most American’s probably didn’t even notice the president’s slip. But this audience was largely the U.S. Air Force itself: and they do notice when aircraft types are misrepresented.

Fortunately they are very forgiving. Especially of their Commander in Chief.

Despite that one miscue, the dedication of the United States Air Force Memorial was perfect and memorable in every way.

And nobody much noticed the president’s small slip. It didn’t matter and I’ve made much worse mistakes in public speaking myself.

But if you were hanging on every word, the way I often listen to truly memorable speeches, you might have rendered just a little grin at the thought of a massive B-52 trying to take flight from the somewhat stubby deck of an early World War II aircraft carrier.

Full text of President’s Bush’s speech at the U.S. Air Force memorial Dedication, from the White House web site:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061014-2.html