George Bush & His Malapropisms

By Tara Overzat

My boyfriend and I had long talked about whether Pres. George W. Bush had suffered a stroke sometime early on in his presidency. He had been an artful speaker as Governor of Texas, fast on the draw. As president those skills began to wane considerably. I never once believed he was as dumb as the media liked to portray him. If not a stroke, maybe belated effects of his earlier alcoholism had hit him hard and at a bad time.

Much like the people surrounding FDR kept the public from knowing he was in a wheelchair, Bush’s team did an artful job of letting the public believe this was just President Bush’s down-home Texas personality shining through. People in Texas, the Bush camp implied, maybe talk a little plainer and a  little slower. Bush, the explanation went, was an Everyman.

The video below is a side by side comparison of Bush’s gubernatorial debate in Texas in 1994 and a later debate in 2004. The difference in speech is striking.

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Pres. Obama on TV Too Much

Pres. Obama with Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show"

By Tara Overzat

With all the ills in the country and the world at large, it is high time Pres. Obama get off my flat screen and behind a desk. He somehow has time, long after the election, to appear on “The Tonight Show,” “The Daily Show,” Read more »

US Stimulated by Inauguration? Great! US Stimulated by Economic Program? Not a Chance

by Tara Overzat

With Barack Obama’s historic inauguration just two days away, the media is clamoring about Washington, D.C. and celebrating in advance. It is in fact a great moment in both American and global culture. But with the economic downturn and Obama’s ambition to sign legislature for a $825 billion stimulus program Read more »