Random State of the Union thought

[robotech_master]

It's been seven fricking years. Why has nobody ever spoken up to tell W. that it's nuCLEar, not "nucular"?

Comments

[frustratedpilot]

He's one of the bug people from Meet the Applegates.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Thank you, because, being English, I had always assumed that this Bushism was actually an acceptable regional accent. Now I can mock with impunity!

[mrbankies.livejournal.com]

It wouldn't matter if they did. He wouldn't listen.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

I think he deliberately mispronounces it, in an attempt to foster his "down home Texan" persona (despite being from New England).

[demiurgent.livejournal.com]

Dvan has the right of it. Early on in the 2000 campaign, it was made clear that yes, Bush knew how to pronounce nuclear, but as "real folks" mispronounced it, this would endear him to them.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I liked that in the Letterman Top Ten, Obama promised to pronounce it correctly. *laughter*...

[point5b.livejournal.com]

The same reason people avoided correcting Jimmy Carter when he called himself a "nu-cu-lar engineer".

[foomf.livejournal.com]

For Carter, it was a regional dialect that he had to overcome, and he WAS a nuclear engineer.

For Bush, it's an affectation, like everything else about him, and talking to Bush about it would have no effect as he has demonstrated that he is not teachable.