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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