“I do not need to explain why I say things. ? That’s the interesting thing about being the President. ? Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don’t feel like I owe anybody an explanation.”
-U.S. President George W. Bush
Finished “The Bush Dyslexicon” yesterday. The title and the image of GWB on the cover would lead you to think this is just a thrown-together joke book of malapropisms. But it’s actually a rather detailed look at how Bush’s language betrays his actual nature. The quote above, given as part of a hagiographic 60 Minutes piece hawking Bob Woodward’s new book, “Bush at War,” is a perfect example of this. Bush looks at the presidency as his birthright, and gets a little exasperated when people actually require him to explain himself.
What the book also does is show the difference between a speaker and a thinker. We may not care that the president is the former, but I think we should care if he’s the latter.
I had assumed it was exactly the sort of jokebook you described. Thanks for pointing out the error. I’ll have to check it out.