Debunking Bushisms

As part of my ongoing effort to debunk political spam I offer the following e-mail (below) regarding George W. Bush's struggles with the English language.

As with all political spam, your first thought after reading is: "It sounds reasonable." However, if you're willing to do just a little digging you'll find that the claims are bogus. I'm not particularly interested in providing a detailed refutation of this piece of hackery. But, with the minimal effort I did put into researching these quotes, I'm fairly comfortable asserting that most of these statements attributed to George W. Bush are actually statements made by former Vice President Dan Quayle. Irregular Times did a takedown on this e-mail during the 2000 presidential election when, presumably, these statements were first attributed to Bush.

This bit of mass-mailed lying is interesting in that with a quick cut and paste the smear can be directed at almost anyone. In the few minutes I spent on this I was able to find sites that attributed one or more of these to Al Gore and John Kerry. Of course, the lie becomes much less believable when the name of the victim is changed, demonstrating that for political spam to be truly effective it must have the ring of truth.

Finally, I've got to question the work ethic and intelligence of the author of this piece of spam. Seriously. Why on earth claim that George W. Bush makes weird utterances and then refer to statemetns he never made? There are whole books of inane linguistic acrobatics by George W. Bush. For a sampling, check out Bushisms, More Bushisms, and Still More Bushisms.

In the spirit of letting George W. Bush have the final word on the matter I'll recommend his sage words of advice regarding any mass mailing you might find in your inbox:

"There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again."

Now, on with the e-mail that started this whole mess:

-----Original Message-----
From: XXX
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2004 5:21 PM
To: Buck, Mike
Subject: Language



The first three years . . .

Can the English language survive?

"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country."
- George W. Bush

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
- George W. Bush

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'."
- George W. Bush

"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments
in the future."
- George W. Bush

"The future will be better tomorrow."
- George W. Bush

"We're going to have the best educated American people in the world."
- George W. Bush

"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."
- George W. Bush

"We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe."
- George W. Bush

"Public speaking is very easy."
- George W. Bush

"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls."
- George W. Bush

"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur."
- George W. Bush

"For NASA, space is still a high priority."
- George W. Bush

"Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children."
- George W. Bush

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."
- George W. Bush

"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system."
- George W. Bush