I awoke this morning, fixed a cup of coffee, sat down at the computer, and turned on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” only to discover that President Bush would shortly be giving a speech on the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a high-ranking al-Qaeda leader in Iraq.
Listening to the speech, without the President’s image, to distract me, I felt a vague unease.
Then I realized why.
President Bush wasn’t just slurring his words together as he often does; poor enunciation is common to the President’s speeches. No, Bush was also dropping whole words–verbs, subjects, prepositions. He didn’t come across as Presidential, as a leader; instead, he came across as weak, tired, perhaps even drugged. All because he dropped words and slurred the ones he had.
It wasn’t a great speech by any means. The President rambled beyond his problems with parsing and enunciation. Has a corner been turned, as the President implied? Who knows, but I’m not optimistic.