The Language Thing: Four Years of ‘Bushisms’

WASHINGTON — George Bush on George Bush: “Fluency in English is something that I’m often not accused of.”

That quote is an example of what have become known as “Bushisms,” statements by President Bush that highlight his verbal imprecision and often unconventional use of the English language.

A collection of 100 Bush quotes, compiled by the editors of The New Republic magazine, has just been published in a book titled “Bushisms,” which provides conclusive evidence that Vice President Dan Quayle has no monopoly on puzzling public statements.

Quayle has been a target of satirists from the moment he was chosen as Bush’s running mate in the 1988 presidential election campaign. Famous Quayle quotes include, “If we don’t succeed, then we run the risk of failure.”

But while Quayle has polished his skills as an orator over the past three years, the standard of Bushisms has varied little over the years, judging from the new collection.

Take, for example, a 1984 answer to a question on his and then-President Ronald Reagan’s views on taxes: “There’s no difference between me and the President on taxes. No more nit-picking. Zip-ah-dee-doo-dah. Now it’s off to the races.”

And compare with a Bushism dated March 29, 1992, when the President startled foreign tourists in Washington’s Lafayette Park with this greeting: “Hey, hey, nihaoma. Hey, yeah, yeah. Heil, heil--a kind of Hitler salute.”

( Nihaoma is Mandarin Chinese for “How are you?” Students of Bushisms have yet to figure out how Hitler entered the equation.)

The deeper meaning of the President’s problem of verbal communication is a matter of dispute among Washington pundits.

The New Republic’s Jacob Weisberg, one of the editors of “Bushisms,” insists that the President speaks in a peculiar way because he is as eager to please everyone as “a big, clumsy, golden retriever drooling and knocking over furniture.”

Michael Kinsley, a New Republic editor and television talk show host, has a less charitable view in an introduction to “Bushisms.”

“At bottom, his problem is a simple lack of anything to say. That’s why he babbles. That’s why he contradicts himself. That’s why he tells you how you should perceive what he’s saying instead of just saying it. That’s why he tells transparent whoppers.”

Drawing parallels between the rambling style of Bush and that of the late President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Kinsley says Eisenhower’s admirers believed he could turn the verbal fog machine on or off at will and used it purposely to divert and confuse.

“No one has ever tried to make that case about Bush, so far,” he said, adding Bush supporters believe the President’s inarticulateness “illustrates his sincerity and lack of artifice.”

It is all in the eye of the beholder. Or, as Bush puts it: “Please just don’t look at part of the glass, the part that is only less than half full.”

There are Bushisms on a wide range of subjects, even caribou:

“If you are worried about caribou, take a look at the arguments that were used about the (trans-Alaska) pipeline. They’d say the caribou would be extinct. You’ve got to shake them away with a stick. They’re all making love lying up against the pipeline and you got thousands of caribou up there.”

Another Bushism featuring an animal, this time the presidential dog, Millie:

“I’m delighted that Barbara Bush is with me today and I--she got a good, clean bill of health yesterday from Walter Reed Hospital, I might add, and then--but I’m taking another look at our doctor.

“He told her it’s OK to kiss the dog--I mean--no--it’s OK to kiss your husband, but don’t kiss the dog. So I don’t know exactly what that means.”

One reviewer of “Bushisms” judged that unlike the often-quoted Quayle, Bush can be laughed with, not at.

Another example:

“I know what I’ve told you I’m going to say. And what else I say, well, I’ll take some time to figure out--figure that all out.

“To kind of suddenly try and get my hair colored, and dance up and down in a miniskirt or something, you know, show that I’ve got a lot of jazz out there and drop a bunch of one-liners, I’m running for the President of the United States. I kind of think I’m a scintillating fellow.”

That was in 1988 and Bush won. How the 1992 elections will go is anybody’s guess. But, as Bush said, one thing is certain:

“It’s no exaggeration to say the undecideds could go one way or another.”