No one ever accused President Bush of being eloquent, but at least quote 
his lack of eloquence in context and correctly...

At 04:48 PM 6/29/2004 -0400, Robert Espeseth wrote:
>>X-Auth-No:
>>X-Comment: AT&T Maillennium special handling code - c
>>From: "Planet Janet" <[log in to unmask]>
>>To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;>
>>Subject: Our eloquent President speaks
>>Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 15:32:22 -0400
>>X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1409
>>
>>The Edge is a column in the Oregonian, a newspaper I like so much I read
>>it online.
>>
>>These are classic quotes from the president himself:
>>
>>"I know the human being and the fish can coexist peacefully."

"On Friday, 29 September 2000, Governor Bush was on the stump in Saginaw, 
Michigan, and deviated from his prepared speech to reassure the business 
community that he would not support the tearing down of energy-producing 
dams merely to protect threatened fish species, an issue he had recently 
covered while campaigning in the Pacific Northwest" (quoted from
http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/piehigher.asp )


>>"What I am against is grades. I am against hard grades, grades they
>>basically delineate based upon whatever. However they delineate, grades, I
>>think vulcanize society."

Actual quote: "What I'm against is quotas.  I'm against hard quotas, quotas 
that basically delineate based upon whatever.   However they delineate, 
quotas, I think, vulcanize society." George W. Bush (Austin 
American-Statesman 3/23/99)

The Statesman printed a correction on 3/25/99 that read "A front-page story 
Tuesday inaccurately quoted Gov. George W. Bush's position on quotas in 
college admissions and the awarding of state contracts. The story said Bush 
believes quotas "vulcanize society." Bush actually said he believes quotas 
"Balkanize society."


>>"Reading is the basics for all learning. You teach a child to read, and he or
>>her will be able to pass a literacy test. Then America will be a literate
>>country, and a hopefuller country."

This quote apparently has some basis (or basics as Mr. Bush might say) in 
fact--but not as quoted.  It is actually a combination of two quotes:
"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass the literary 
test"
"I want it to be said that the Bush administration was a results-oriented 
administration, because I believe the results of focusing our attention and 
energy on teaching children to read and having an education system that's 
responsive to the child and to the parents, as opposed to mired in a system 
that refuses to change, will make America what we want it to be—a literate 
country and a hopefuller country."

I feel his pain (as another president said)--I find that I often get tongue 
tied when speaking publicly.  Grammatical errors aside, the first quote is 
a brilliant statement of the obvious--which I find it is, all too often, 
necessary to state.  How many times have I read about studies (no doubt 
government funded) that result in proving common sense?


>>"They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's
>>some kind of federal program."

In context:
"You know what else has changed on this issue? There are thousands of 
younger workers who understand that if our government does not think 
differently, they either are going to have to pay huge payroll tax 
increases or have major reductions in benefits. It doesn't have to be that 
way. We trust individual workers, and so our plan says we’re going to keep 
the promise to our seniors. But we'll allow younger workers at their choice 
to invest some of their own money in the private markets to get a better 
rate of return so that the Social Security promise will be kept.  And this 
frightens some in Washington. Because they want the federal government 
controlling the Social Security like it’s some kind of federal program. We 
understand differently though. You see, it’s your money not the 
government’s money."

Source: Speech in St. Charles, MO Nov 2, 2000


>>"More and more of our imports come from overseas."

As quoted elsewhere: "It is clear our nation is reliant upon big foreign 
oil. More and more of our imports come from overseas."
While it is possible to import foreign oil without crossing the sea, I 
think it is safe to assume that the idea he was trying to convey was that 
more and more of our imports come from overseas (countries that relish our 
dependence on them.)


>>"Do you have blacks, too?"   -- To Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/brazil.htm


>>"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream."
>>
>>"You're working hard to put food on your family."

These two quotes fall generally into the category of "Spoonerisms." (Yes, 
it's true, these sorts of linguist gymnastics are not original to George W. 
Bush.)
"Spoonerisms are words or phrases in which letters or syllables get 
swapped....Spoonerisms are named after the Reverend W. A. Spooner 
(1844-1930) who was Dean and Warden of New College in Oxford, England. He 
is reputed to have made these verbal slips frequently....English is a 
fertile soil for spoonerisms, as author and lecturer Richard Lederer points 
out, because our language has more than three times as many words as any 
other – 616,500 and growing at 450 a year. Consequently, there's a greater 
chance that any accidental transposition of letters or syllables will 
produce rhyming substitutes that still make sense – sort of....But Spooner 
was no featherbrain. In fact his mind was so nimble his tongue couldn't 
keep up. The Greeks had a word for this type of impediment long before 
Spooner was born: metathesis. It means the act of switching things 
around."  http://www.fun-with-words.com/spoon_history.html

Suzanna Nichols
Office Manager
UT SimCenter at Chattanooga
423-425-5497
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