"Doug Kanter" wrote in message

.....You're talking about accents, and I'm talking about grammar.

No, you're missing my point, Doug. You're attributing grammatical or
structural mis-speaks to rank ignorance, but I disagree. I say they
predominantly arise from insecurity and self-consciousness in [mostly]
ex-temp public speaking.

His recent press conference is a case in point. I saw a room full of
professional wordsmiths and stand-up reporters doing their utmost to
embarrass and humiliate the President of the US. These guys are all
building their careers on the ease with which they can make a bad speaker
look uneasy. I think we may be only a short time from the day when some
petty little s#*t like Terry Moran will stand up and say "Mr. President,
don't you think you were a fool to say that......"

When reading a prepared text GW does much better -- still not
"right-at-home", but I don't think it's a major issue. As I've said
elsewhere, we recently had eight years of one of the finest ex-temp speakers
ever to inhabit the WH, thus proving conclusively that the ability to speak
off the cuff does not necessarily bring with it a man of character and
integrity.

Unless you have had occasion to have private, off record conversations with
Mr. Bush, neither of us can resolve this question.