Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Clintonism of the Day:
Here's [1]today's Bushism of the Day from Slate (note that "they"
refers to the voters):
"They've seen me make decisions, they've seen me under trying
times, they've seen me weep, they've seen me laugh, they've seen me
hug. And they know who I am, and I believe they're comfortable with
the fact that they know I'm not going to shift principles or shift
positions based upon polls and focus groups." -- Interview with USA
Today, Aug. 27, 2004
The subhead of the column is, as always, "The president's accidental
wit and wisdom," but this has nothing to do with the misspeaking --
whether real or imagined, unusual or commonplace in the normal speech
of normal people -- that is supposedly Bush's hallmark, and that is
thus supposedly accidentally funny. Nothing here is ungrammatical or a
malapropism (unless, I suppose, the author is somehow picking on Bush
for saying "under trying times" as opposed to "in trying times" or
"under trying conditions").
The only thing that I can imagine the Slate author finding amusing is
the "they've seen me hug" line, and more broadly the touchy-feeliness
of the first sentence. But that's not a Bushism -- that's an "I feel
your pain" sensitive-guy Clintonism. I confess it puts me off a bit; I
hope you'll never hear me say "they've seen me hug" in public. It says
more, however, about the Clintonization (or 70s-ification, if you want
to go that far back) of American politics than about Bush's accidental
wit and wisdom.
References
1. http://slate.com/id/2105741/
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