Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Mysterious Bushism:
[1]Slate's Bushism today is:
After all, Europe is America's closest ally.
What's at all funny, odd, or otherwise Bushism-worthy here? The only
thing I can imagine is that Bush is talking about "Europe" as an ally
instead of particular European countries. But of course Europe, in the
sense of the European Union, is indeed an entity of its own. And the
European Union is often referred to as Europe.
But of course Bush couldn't have possibly meant Europe in the sense of
European Union (or for that matter Europe as a cultural grouping of
countries), because . . . . Because why exactly? Because Texans aren't
up on modern transnational organizations? Well, let me give you the
context, since of course Slate never gives you the context, or even a
pointer to the context. (And who can blame it? After all, while Web
sites like ours can provide links to the full transcripts, to assure
people that the quotes are in context, old-fashioned paper-based media
like Slate don't have that luxury. Oh, wait . . . .)
Here's the [2]transcript containing the "Bushism" but also the
following sentences:
After all, Europe is America's closest ally. I said yesterday, and
I want to say it again: The European project is important to our
country. We want it to succeed. And in order for Europe to be a
strong, viable partner, Germany must be strong and viable, as well.
And in order for us to have good relations with Europe, we must
have good relations with Germany. And that is why this trip is an
important trip for my country and for me.
And so I want to thank you very much for the chance to be here, a
chance to reconfirm the importance of the transatlantic alliance,
and a chance to talk about important issues. Gerhard went over the
issues; I will go over them briefly, as well. . . .
No Europhile -- or for that matter non-Europhile urban articulate
sophisticate -- could have said it better: Alliance with Europe, the
European project, good relations with Europe, transatlantic alliance.
The one other conceivable objection is that our relations with Europe
aren't so hot in some respects now, but surely that's just the
time-honored and quite reasonable diplomatic trope of talking about
aspirations of friendship as reality.
What's up here? How could the editor of a major publication, a
publication that aspires to being seen as witty but thoughtful and
credible, mock someone for a perfectly normal statement like this --
and mock him with no further explanation and commentary, as if the
statement were so obviously silly that no explanation was required?
References
1. http://slate.com/id/2113953/
2. http://tokyo.usembassy.gov/e/p/tp-20050224-21.html
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