Subjective Objectivism

Ya need a “Speak & Spell” with that?

Notwithstanding my recent rant about the qualities I think a good president should have, this gem I ran into today was good for a laugh:

 A quickly remedied glitch momentarily gave visitors to the UN website a version of Bush’s UN General Assembly speech that included phonetic spellings for world leaders, a former Soviet satellite, and at least one capital.

OK, now I do know that teleprompters are a common appearance at public speeches but the text contained in this particular teleprompter elicited a little chuckle from yours truly:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is “sar-KO-zee.” Mauritania should be said “moor-EH-tain-ee-a.” Kyrgyzstan sounds like “KEYR-geez-stan.” And the capital of Zimbabwe President Robert “moo-GAH-bee” Mugabe is Harare “hah-RAR-ray.”

This makes me wonder if he just flat out ignores the teleprompter whenever he is supposed to say “nuclear”. I even found the response from the White house spokeswoman, when asked about the presidents elocutive “difficulties”, hilarious:

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said such phonetic guidance is common but curtly rebuffed a questioner who wanted to know whether Bush has a hard time with certain names: “I think that’s a offensive question. I’m going to just decline to comment on it.” – [Yahoo/AFP]

Oh, come now Ms. Perino.  Exactly how is that question offensive? Is it offensive because he has difficulties or because he doesn’t? I mean, I could see how asking that question of a mentally challenged person could be construed as offensive or insensitive, but our president isn’t mentally challenged is he…? Wait… Err… Mercy…

Speak ‘Bush’ in one easy lesson – [Yahoo/AFP]

Tags: America, Bush, President, Washington