Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Tough words and the President of the United States

I am glad to hear that the United States will increase its military presence in Baghdad. The scale of violence in that city has approached a civil war. However, our president really, really, really can misspeak. CNN:
"Conditions change inside a country," Bush said at a joint White House news conference with the Iraqi leader. "The question is, 'will we be facile enough to deal with them, will we be nimble enough.'" Bush said the answer is yes.
Dictionary.com:
facĀ·ile ( P ) Pronunciation Key (fsl)
adj.
1. Done or achieved with little effort or difficulty; easy. See Synonyms at easy.

2.Working, acting, or speaking with effortless ease and fluency.

3. Arrived at without due care, effort, or examination; superficial: proposed a facile solution to a complex problem.

4. Readily manifested, together with an aura of insincerity and lack of depth: a facile slogan devised by politicians.

5. Archaic. Pleasingly mild, as in disposition or manner.
When he makes an error like this, it's usually so bad that I second guess myself...

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, he'll keep on being facile, definition #3.

As a copyeditor myself, I can't bear listening to him speak because I have to work too hard: "Did he intend that double negative? Is he still on the same subject he started the sentence with? That doesn't sound right; I'd better Google that assertion. Was that a question?"

6:25 PM  

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