I know this happened a couple of days ago, but I couldn't pass up saying something about it. This President has made so many gaffes and blunders over the last six years, a list would be thousands of items long. I've already presented my opinion that the President acts like an eight year-old, and lamented his inability to speak anything but colloquial, Texas-drenched English.
A doofus can be somewhat all right, even endearing. Ronald Regan was an endearing doofus for a time, before he ascended to Republican deity. But Bush is an embarrassing doofus. The Dixie Chicks had it exactly right. I cringe hearing him speak, even if he gets every word right.
Wait, that never happens. He's always said "duddn't" for "doesn't," "nook-yoolar" instead of "nuclear," "shoulda" instead of "should have," and "iddnit" instead of "isn't it." It doesn't matter if he's talking to the Queen of England, he uses that stupid Texas gibberish, and manages to embarrass or even insult his guests and listeners.
Well, he's doing it again in Australia. At least three times in one event, this time, not counting the pidgin English. Read on:
[Excerpt]
Bush: OPEC or APEC
SYDNEY, Australia - President Bush had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at the Sydney Opera House.
He'd only reached the third sentence of Friday's speech to business leaders, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, when he committed his first gaffe.
"Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit," Bush said to Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
Oops. That would be APEC, the annual meeting of leaders from 21 Pacific Rim nations, not OPEC, the cartel of 12 major oil producers. [snip]
The president's next goof went uncorrected — by him anyway. Talking about Howard's visit to Iraq last year to thank his country's soldiers serving there, Bush called them "Austrian troops."
That one was fixed for him. Though tapes of the speech clearly show Bush saying "Austrian," the official text released by the White House switched it to "Australian."
