Bushisms

Sharing research and ideas on Linguistics, Applied Linguistics and ELT (English Language Teaching).

"I do not believe we've put a guilty - I mean innocent - person to death in the state of Texas."

"Those of us who spent time in the agricultural sector and in the heartland, we understand how unfair the death penalty is."

"I cut the taxes on everybody. I didn't cut them. The Congress cut them. I asked them to cut them."

"Recession means that people's incomes, at the employer level, are going down, basically, relative to costs, people are getting laid off." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Feb. 19, 2004

"The march to war affected the people's confidence. It's hard to make investment. See, if you're a small business owner or a large business owner and you're thinking about investing, you've got to be optimistic when you invest. Except when you're marching to war, it's not a very optimistic thought, is it? In other words, it's the opposite of optimistic when you're thinking you're going to war."

"The recession started upon my arrival. It could have been — some say February, some say March, some speculate maybe earlier it started — but nevertheless, it happened as we showed up here. The attacks on our country affected our economy. Corporate scandals affected the confidence of people and therefore affected the economy. My decision on Iraq, this kind of march to war, affected the economy."

"Dick Cheney and I do not want this nation to be in a recession. We want anybody who can find work to be able to find work."

"A tax cut is really one of the anecdotes to coming out of an economic illness."

"And if you're interested in the quality of education and you're paying attention to what you hear at Laclede, why don't you volunteer? Why don't you mentor a child how to read?"

"The public education system in America is one of the most important foundations of our democracy. After all, it is where children from all over America learn to be responsible citizens, and learn to have the skills necessary to take advantage of our fantastic opportunistic society."

"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test."

"One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures."

"Then you wake up at the high school level and find out that the illiteracy level of our children are appalling."

"We want our teachers to be trained so they can meet the obligations, their obligations as teachers. We want them to know how to teach the science of reading. In order to make sure there's not this kind of federal—federal cufflink."

"Natural gas is hemispheric. I like to call it hemispheric in nature because it is a product that we can find in our neighborhoods." —George W. Bush, Dec. 20, 2000

"Do you have blacks, too?" to Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso.

"My trip to Asia begins here in Japan for an important reason. It begins here because for a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times. From that alliance has come an era of peace in the Pacific."

"We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease."

"King Abdullah of Jordan, the King of Morocco, I mean, there's a series of places—Qatar, Oman—I mean, places that are developing—Bahrain—they're all developing the habits of free societies."

"Anybody who doesn't think I'm smart enough to handle the job is underestimating."

"Actually, I - this may sound a little West Texan to you, but I like it. When I'm talking about - when I'm talking about myself, and when he's talking about myself, all of us are talking about me."

"I've got an additional responsibility to hug and that's me - and I know what it's like."

"I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe- I believe what I believe is right."

"I think it's very important for the American President to mean what he says. That's why I understand that the enemy could misread what I say. That's why I try to be as clearly I can."

"And I am an optimistic person. I guess if you want to try to find something to be pessimistic about, you can find it, no matter how hard you look, you know?"

"I'm also not very analytical. You know I don't spend a lot of time thinking about myself, about why I do things."

"I'm the commander — see, I don't need to explain — I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being president."

"This is what I'm good at. I like meeting people, my fellow citizens, I like interfacing with them."

"I think anybody who doesn't think I'm smart enough to handle the job is underestimating."

"I'm a patient man. And when I say I'm a patient man, I mean I'm a patient man."

"I've changed my style somewhat, as you know. I'm less—I pontificate less, although it may be hard to tell it from this show. And I'm more interacting with people."

It is time to set aside the old partisan bickering and finger-pointing and name-calling that comes from freeing parents to make different choices for their children.

"We had a chance to visit with Teresa Nelson who's a parent, and a mom or a dad."

"In other words, I don't think people ought to be compelled to make the decision which they think is best for their family." on smallpox vaccinations.

"Over 75 percent of white Americans own their home, and less than 50 percent of Hispanos and African Americans don't own their home. And that's a gap, that's a homeownership gap. And we've got to do something about it."

"My pro-life position is I believe there's life. It's not necessarily based in religion. I think there's a life there, therefore the notion of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness."

It would be a mistake for the United States Senate to allow any kind of human cloning to come out of that chamber.

There's no question that the minute I got elected, the storm clouds on the horizon were getting nearly directly overhead.

"Give me a chance to be your president and America will be safer and stronger and better." —Still-President George W. Bush, Marquette, Michigan, July 13, 2004

"Free societies are hopeful societies. And free societies will be allies against these hateful few who have no conscience, who kill at the whim of a hat."

"There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again."

"We need to apply 21st-century information technology to the health care field. We need to have our medical records put on the I.T."

"Free societies are hopeful societies. And free societies will be allies against these hateful few who have no conscience, who kill at the whim of a hat."

"I'm honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein."

"I'm not the expert on how the Iraqi people think, because I live in America, where it's nice and safe and secure."

"I wish I wasn't the war president. Who in the heck wants to be a war president? I don't."

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

"People say, how can I help on this war on terror? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in's house and say I love you."

"There's no doubt in my mind that we should allow the world's worst leaders to hold America hostage."

"These people don't have tanks. They don't have ships. They hide in caves. They send suiciders out."

"The truth of that matter is, if you listen carefully, Saddam would still be in power if he were the president of the United States, and the world would be a lot better off."

"We are working hard to convince both the Indians and the Pakis there's a way to deal with their problems without going to war."

"My administration has been calling upon all the leaders in the - in the Middle East to do everything they can to stop the violence, to tell the different parties involved that peace will never happen."

"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it."

"First, we would not accept a treaty that would not have been ratified, nor a treaty that I thought made sense for the country."

"But I also made it clear to (Vladimir Putin) that it's important to think beyond the old days of when we had the concept that if we blew each other up, the world would be safe."

"I'm honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein."

"Like you, I have been disgraced about what I've seen on TV that took place in prison."

"The march to war hurt the economy. Laura reminded me a while ago that remember what was on the TV screens — she calls me, 'George W.' — 'George W.' I call her, 'First Lady.' No, anyway — she said, we said, march to war on our TV screen."

"More Muslims have died at the hands of killers than — I say more Muslims — a lot of Muslims have died — I don't know the exact count — at Istanbul. Look at these different places around the world where there's been tremendous death and destruction because killers kill."

"See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction."

"We need to counter the shockwave of the evildoer by having individual rate cuts accelerated and by thinking about tax rebates."