It's been a good long while since we've posted a big fat presidential guffaw here on TIG (not that there hasn't been great fodder all along). But the editor geek in me was especially impressed with this headline:
When words get in the way, Bush goes phonetic
The article explains that somehow, a marked-up draft of Bush's speech appeared on the UN's website as he was delivering…. a marked-up version showing that Bush needed help with his mouth words. From the article:
The White House was left scrambling to explain after a marked-up draft of Bush's speech popped up briefly on the U.N. Web site as he delivered his remarks, giving a rare glimpse of the special guidance he gets for major addresses.
It included phonetic spellings for French President Nicolas Sarkozy (sar-KO-zee), a friend, and Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe (moo-GAH-bee), a target of U.S. human rights criticism.
Pronunciations were also provided for Kyrgyzstan (KEYR-geez-stan), Mauritania (moor-EH-tain-ee-a) and the Zimbabwe capital Harare (hah-RAR-ray).