FREAK OF THE WEEK: George W. Bush
If you thought he was gone, think again. This week, the FredBlog shines its freaklight on former U.S. President George “Dubya” Bush, whose malapropisms are following him on his post-presidential lecture circuit.
Not only that, they follow him across the border.
Last week, Dubya gave his first post-presidential speech in Calgary, Alberta, Canada – no surprise since the province of Alberta is basically the Texas of Canada. And it was there that he reportedly revealed his plan to write a book about the “12 toughest decisions I had to make” as president. (Decisions which, I presume, included, “What country should I invade next?”)
But he also said this about his book: “I’m going to put people in my place, so when the history of this administration is written at least there’s an authoritarian voice saying exactly what happened.”
Read that quote again. He said “authoritarian”! I can only assume he meant to say “authoritative,” meaning, “having the sanction or weight of authority.”
But he said “authoritarian,” meaning, “of, relating to, or favoring a concentration of power in a leader or an elite not constitutionally responsible to the people.”
Then again, given how he became and subsequently acted as president, maybe he didn’t really make a mistake.
The prospect of freak and republican becoming synonyms gained some additional momentum it seems with this little nugget of news. I think Roget's long ago...8yrs ago approximately...added Bush as a synonym for freak. As funny as his unintended, or not, use of the word authoritarian is, I'm much more concerned that he believes he had only a dozen tough decisions to make over the course of his 2-term presidency. Might I implore former-president Bush to instead write a book that is a sure-fire bestseller -- the 12 dumbest decisions he made. I suspect that there should have been at least a dozen tough decisions to make on the morning of September 11th but rather than face the tough choices, he made the first of oh-so-many wrong decisions by deciding to keep on reading "My Pet Goat" to a group of school children. And sadly, for us and our country, that poor decision may have been the high water mark for the administration's decisions and choices for the ensuing 7 years.
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