I saw a story saying that some dyslexia organization watched him butcher his way through several speeches and declared him, in all probability, a dyslexic? I believe it, too. No offense to him or anything...but his speeches are rougher than waves at the North Shore. After seeing that story, I saw the ruckus on the TV ad with subliminal messages and Bush said multiple times during appearances downplaying the ad, "subliminable"...LOL. Jon Stewart was making fun of him on his show, The Daily Show. He had a dictionary and said, "Let me look that up. I think it's a word". He found it and said the definition was, "Pronunciation of the word subliminal by George W. Bush" . It's kind of sad but I can't stop laughing. Seriously, though...I think he has a problem and it could be dyslexia. That...or his speaking abilities are just plain awful. I think Gore is much more of an eloquent speaker. Surf ------------------
or maybe he's on smack. or maybe he has borrowed Les' stadiums microphones ------------------ Discombobulation Imminent
My advisor at the College of Charleston, Mitch Colgan, has dyslexia. It is an insult to Mitch to compare him even remotely similar to Dubyah. It's actually insulting to any dyslexic to excuse Bush's idiocy w/ that label. On a related note, a friend of mine that is an educator just had to allow a child w/ down's syndrome into his ESL class. Huh? WTF? Perfect message. Non native speaker? Developmentally disabled? Same thing, right! ------------------ Why don't you guys go down to the gym and pump each other [This message has been edited by Achebe (edited September 13, 2000).]
Maybe RATS was supposed to be STAR. ------------------ Save Our Rockets and Comets SaveOurRockets.com
What the **** is that supposed to mean, Freak? I am not making fun of learning disorders...I am ragging on Bush because he is a lousy public speaker and he doesn't represent himself well. Damned if he is going to be my president when he can't even communicate well and he fumbles his words while stuttering. What I said about a dyslexia group mentioning that Bush could be a dyslexic is true and, if that is the case, then I feel sorry for him because he has gone through life like that without acknowledging he has a problem. But, I don't think it is the case. He is just a lousy public speaker who mispronounces words way too often. I look for strong communication skills in any leader and Bush just doesn't have it. So, he won't get my vote. Damned if I'm gonna watch him butcher speeches for four years in the president's seat. So, if your referring to me making fun of dyslexia, then your dead wrong. I am making fun of Bush for other reasons and, if he is dyslexic, then he needs help and it's no longer funny in my opinion. Seems like he would have a reading disorder, also, if he was dyslexic...so I highly doubt that is the case. Surf ------------------
I do not think that adding extra syllables to words (which he does often) can be considered dyslexia. Personally, I think it is the satanic rituals... ------------------ Talking to a dead hare about art
Doesn't Don King do that too?? ------------------ I am the founding member of the Butt-Nekkid Party! White House here we come!
Well, you had to see the speeches they were referring to in the news report on the subject. Butchering words is one thing. But, he was mixing up his words in his sentences and they were coming out all wrong. They appeared to be stated backwards. It is like he would start off at the end of the sentence and finish at the beginning. I definitely had a hard time following. The mispronunciations were just plain hilarious. Even the people standing behind him appeared to be laughing when he said subliminable over and over. ------------------
AAAhhh, Now Dubya has a label he can use as an excuse. "I'm not stupid, slow or dumb, I have dyslexia! How dare you mean Democrats make fun of me!" Just watch the RNC find some way to spin this in his favor. Incredible ------------------
If anything, this article has made me look at Bush as a worse candidate than ever before. The fact that he denies he is dyslexic before he has even been tested and that he seems to infer being dyslexic is equivalent to being stupid does...in fact... make him LOOK STUPID. And, as stated in the article, there is nothing wrong with being dyslexic. But, if he is not dyslexic, then he certainly has problems with communication. I would hate to see him fumble his words all about during a peace conference. Just think of translators trying to translate the garbage coming from his mouth to someone of another language. For instance, what if he said, "Do what you want...I do" and it came out, "I want to do you...do what?" Then, we would have some real problems . ------------------ [This message has been edited by Surfguy (edited September 14, 2000).]
I'm not sure it's that much of a problem. This hasn't ever been a big issue with him before, and he's been very successful in the business and political world. I just keep thinking of his father mispronouncing the word Saaaa-dum, then finding out later he did it on purpose. Is it better to have a president who is very precise, and defines words the way he wants to? ("I did not have sexual relations with that woman." "Define what the word is, is.")? ------------------ Stay Cool...
dc "he's been very successful in the business and political world" Dubya's business career has been marked by mediocrity or failure in everything he's tired, which nonetheless resulted in him getting lots of money from his father's political allies. And his political career has been handed to him on a platter by his famous name, and by his dad's cronies. Would you like me to start listing sources? ------------------
Nope. I'm a little tired of Bush not helping himself right now, and I'm not going to carry his burden for him. I don't think he got to the position he's in solely on his father's name, or due to his father's buddies. My feeling is, he's just not as polished a public speaker as Clinton/Gore, and it's hurting him. ------------------ Stay Cool...
dc, It's all good my friend. But I just got to pass this along from a friend of mine. CHARACTER ASSASSINATION CANDIDATE George W. Bush just can't catch a break this month. Not only did the fearsome Gail Sheehy write his character "obit" in a sizzling article appearing in the new Vanity Fair (it is devastating in the extreme) but now they are selling Bush-league Seeds in The Lone Star State, with the Governor's likeness on the front under the slogan "Texas Homegrown Dope." mar1juana leaves poke out in the background. (The seeds are actually for an ornamental shrub.) Planting instructions read: "Using a silver spoon, plant in shallow hole. Protect from draft. Feed with loads of family and soft money." Is this fair? Of course not. It's politics and journalism. But we can't accuse writer Sheehy of not being impartial. Her last work was a book that didn't do Hillary Clinton one bit of good. "Hillary's Choice" from Ballantine was a Times best seller. What is Sheehy's worst indictment of George W? Her take on the environmental conditions in west Texas and big oil's efforts to hinder progress as Bush cooperates - makes your hair stand on end. ------------------
The Chronicle had an editorial on this today: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/editorial/666186 Sept. 13, 2000, 6:31PM Dyslexia doesn't mean one's a dimwit, Gov. Bush -- By R.G. RATCLIFFE With his Republican presidential campaign in a post-Labor Day struggle to regain its footing, Texas Gov. George W. Bush needs to call 1-1-9. That phone number, according to Bush, is "for dyslexics who have an emergency." Two years after Bush told that joke to the Alfalfa Club of Washington, D.C., he found himself responding Tuesday to a pop-psychologist's diagnosis that he is dyslexic. A Vanity Fair article by Gail Sheehy quoted experts as saying Bush's verbal gaffes and family history are strong indicators that he has a learning problem. Dyslexia is a disability that can affect a person's ability to read or their ability to write, spell or speak. What would have been seen as a minor distraction when things were going well for Bush was another brick in the wall he is trying to climb to get his campaign back on top of Democrat Al Gore. But as someone who has spent his life worrying about what people would think if they learned he was dyslexic, I found Bush's response to the Sheehy article to be disappointingly political. Bush's reaction focused on protecting his image from any hint of imperfection. In doing so he also promoted the stereotype that there is something wrong with being dyslexic. "No, I'm not dyslexic," Bush said on ABC's Good Morning America. "That's all I can tell you." Bush communications director Karen Hughes referred to the Sheehy article as "fiction." Another spokesman said Sheehy was told before the article was published that Bush was not dyslexic and that he still is not dyslexic. The more honest answer for Bush and his spokes-people would be that he does not know whether he is dyslexic. At an earlier time in the campaign, I asked Hughes about this subject. Her answer at that time was the governor has never been tested for dyslexia and has no reason to believe he is. Dyslexia cannot be diagnosed on simple observations, but there are plenty of reasons to believe Bush is. For one, Bush's younger brother, Neil, is known to be dyslexic. And dyslexia is genetically passed along in families. If one child in a family is dyslexic, probably other members of the family are as well. Then there are the famous verbal gaffes. Bush's father, former President George Bush, mangled the English language. And the governor has made verbal mistakes such as referring to trade "terriers." Responding to a separate controversy Tuesday, Bush struggled to say the word "subliminal" to the point that it was funny. So the question becomes, is George W. Bush somehow diminished as a potential president if he is dyslexic? It certainly did not diminish Winston Churchill's ability to lead England during World War II, nor Nelson Rockefeller's ability to serve as vice president. Many believe John F. Kennedy, Andrew Jackson and George Washington were dyslexic. And there is a good chance President Bush is dyslexic as well. Some of the other famous figures who have either been diagnosed or supposed to be dyslexic include Ted Turner, Henry Ford, Charles Schwab, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Harrison Ford, Robin Williams and Tom Cruise. Oh, yes, Leonardo Da Vinci, as well. He is believed to have been dyslexic because he mirror-wrote. In other words, his handwriting could be read by a normal person if the paper was held up to a mirror. If such luminaries of the past have been dyslexic, why would Bush be so adamant that he is not? I'm sure it is partly because Bush and his campaign are trying to overcome questions about whether he is intelligent enough to be president. But they could have put some of those questions away early by admitting that he might be dyslexic and that his goofs occur because of that. In fact, most studies have found that dyslexic persons usually are of above-average intelligence and score well on I.Q. tests but struggle academically. Dyslexics tend to be visually oriented, multi-dimensional thinkers who are talented in the arts, sports, engineering and in interacting with others. Somewhere between 15 percent and 20 percent of the population is dyslexic. But Bush and his aides react as if being called a dyslexic is the same thing as being called stupid. That is the stereotype that Bush has promoted. My good fortune was that my pediatrician had a daughter who was dyslexic. When I struggled in school, he told my parents to have me tested. Tests led to a diagnosis that led to years of special education training on top of my daily attendance at school to learn how to deal with speech and spelling problems. I was lucky and never had problems reading. For those dyslexics, that is a real problem to overcome. For years, the stigma associated with dyslexia made me fear that my career as a writer and journalist would be short-lived if my employers found out. Any mistake would not be a simple human error, but something innately wrong with me. The discipline I learned of coping with dyslexia made me a better journalist, though. I do not tolerate mistakes in myself and pride myself in giving my editors stories that are as mistake-free as I can make them. Bush should know these things through his first-hand experience with his brother. He may not have wanted to admit a possible personal imperfection, but he certainly missed an opportunity to educate America that dyslexia is a learning disability and not the same thing as unintelligent. ------------------ Stay Cool...
