DisFluent
Language Log: Has George W. Bush become more disfluent?:
"Obviously, the extent to which uh [0.295]
the Japanese government wants to give reconstruction money to Iraq is up to the Japanese government, and [pause 0.187]
to- to the- and I- as to the- [pause 0.205]
the- the uh deployment of troops, it's up to- [0.421] it's up to the government. [pause 1.237]
's what happens in democracies -- government makes decisions that uh [pause 0.598]
that uh that they're uh capable of living with, and that's [pause 1.966]
that's what we said, ((we)) said, do the best you can do; [pause 0.530]
make up your own mind, it's your decision, not mine.
(audio clip)
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Circling the drain at a faster and faster rate...
I wonder what speech pathologists say about him
Dementia - early stage with alcohol induced brain damage.
It's a sad, sad truth. Just helps him look slightly more idiotic, which is quite difficult, but he seems to always be an overachiever with that.
On the screen, in writing, it looks like he's flipped out at last. But listening to the clip reveals that it's just more of the same stuttering search for words and phrases that characterizes him. Of course, it's all completely demented to anyone with half a brain.
Yet it's W all over. The squirrel gets on the wheel and up pops the concept "democracy," nevermind that he's aiming to say something concrete about Japan helping reconstruct Iraq. It's just one of those stopping spots on the little wheel in his head these days. Especially when he's lost for an answer and knows it. Note the pronoun avalanche: I, they, we, you. He's linguistically quite mad by most yardsticks for sane speech. And he's angry, to boot.
And the closing defensiveness is classic W. It's his way of saying, "fuck off, and stop asking me questions already." It's totally schizoid because he's trying to say something about Japan making its own decisions, but the real message is "leave me the hell out of all this, because I'm not really in charge."
Like his dad, he's not answering a question or speaking to a point so much as he's trying to influence you in some arcane way as to how you should be interpreting what he's saying. In his own classic lingo, he's catapulting the propaganda, at all times, even when he's making no sense whatever. He's still in launch mode whether he's loaded or not (take that any way you want).
I didn't think it sounded that bad.
I have to agree with Mary in Florida, Pre-Senile Dementia: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/video1019.htm
That is something I have noticed about him. Back when he was an oil guy and in his early days of being the Texas governor his public speaking and interviews were not so rough and didn't seem so labor intensive for him. If you can find early clips of him, check them out.
When we make love "Deliverance-style" - my Bushy's squeals are delicious, consistent and without pause.
His constant butchering of the English language is a great resource for myself and I imagine countless other English teachers around the world. No plan for tomorrow’s students? No problem. Just print out the text, play the tape and presto! The students have a first class “find the Dubya errors” English lesson. I’ve actually done this and they have a lot of fun correcting the US president’s English. On the down side it’s a very sad state of affairs when Japanese high school students speak English better as an L2 than my country’s president can as a native tongue.
Actually, he sounds quite lucid and fluent in that clip, comparatively. Maybe without the painfully disjointed body motions that video would provide, he sounds more like us naked apes.
Abandoned by his puppetmasters?
the ear device was cutting out on him
T-t-t-today juinor!
Back in 2004, Bush was cleaner and a bit sharper, and he could handle the slow delay of the earpiece much better.
Now, however, on anti-depressent medication and probably sneaking some coke and/or boozeon the side, his reflexes are shot, and the internal listen then parrot reflex is not working as well as it should
And, of course, Rove was the best at working with GW with the system, and the current stand-in is good, but doesn't completely understand how absolutely stupid the POTUS is, and therefor expects faster responses. They would probably have run through five or ten "Presidental Electronic Communications-Supported Response Facilitators" but they don't want to spook an already fragile monkey with too many new trainers. Also, to get POTUS to allow ANYBODY to replace Rove at the mike in his ear, they probably had to tell him they had found "the best replacement in the world." Even georgie isn't stupid enough to believe that they keep coming up with a better and smarter replacement every week.
He'll get the hang of it by the time the impeachment hearings come around in January of 2009.
Charlie L Portland, OR