Former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow joined Jay Leno on the Tonight Show on Thursday.
Snow was so well-suited to his job as spokesman for the Bush administration. As a member of the press for so many years, he knew how to handle them. He never seemed flustered during the briefings. He's a sharp, intelligent man, as well as patient.
He would be firm when he had to be, like with the doddering Helen Thomas; but he's so likable that he never came off as combative or cruel.
I didn't see the beginning of the Tonight Show. I missed Leno's monologue and his first guest, Ben Stiller.
However, I got the feeling that Leno had told a joke about a grammatical slip made by President Bush earlier on Thursday. When Leno asked Snow about it, he didn't do much of a set up and the audience seemed to be aware of what Leno was talking about.
Bush's mistake was perfect, albeit terribly predictable, late night fodder.
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Offering a grammar lesson guaranteed to make any English teacher cringe, President George W. Bush told a group of New York school kids on Wednesday: "Childrens do learn."
Bush made his latest grammatical slip-up at a made-for-TV event where he urged Congress to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act, the centrepiece of his education policy, as he touted a new national report card on improved test scores.
...During his first presidential campaign, Bush -- who promised to be the "education president" -- once asked: "Is our children learning?"
On Wednesday, Bush seemed to answer his own question with the same kind of grammatical twist.
"As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured," he said.
Leave it to Reuters to publish such ridiculous "news."
Naturally, the crack Reuters research staff was able to whip out a quote from the 2000 election to further mock Bush.He said "childrens" instead of "children."
STOP THE PRESSES!
The White House opted to clean up Bush's diction in the official transcript.
Oooh! A cover-up!
The Bush presidency is based on lies. Lies! All lies!!
"Cleaning up" a transcript isn't the same as altering the Congressional Record like Russ Feingold did when he made his comments in support of infanticide magically disappear.
The chilling exchange between Sen. Rick Santorum and Feingold took place during debate on partial birth abortion, September 26, 1996.
Transcript
Sen. Santorum: Will the Senator from Wisconsin yield for a question?
Sen. Feingold: I will.
Sen. Santorum: The Senator from Wisconsin says that this decision should be left up to the mother and the doctor, as if there is absolutely no limit that could be placed on what decision that they make with respect to that. And the Senator from California [Sen. Barbara Boxer] is going up to advise you of what my question is going to be, and I will ask it anyway. And my question is this: that if that baby were delivered breech style and everything was delivered except for the head, and for some reason that that baby's head would slip out -- that the baby was completely delivered -- would it then still be up to the doctor and the mother to decide whether to kill that baby?
Sen. Feingold: I would simply answer your question by saying under the Boxer amendment, the standard of saying it has to be a determination, by a doctor, of health of the mother, is a sufficient standard that would apply to that situation. And that would be an adequate standard.
Sen. Santorum: That doesn't answer the question. Let's assume that this procedure is being performed for the reason that you've stated, and the head is accidentally delivered. Would you allow the doctor to kill the baby?
Sen. Feingold: I am not the person to be answering that question. That is a question that should be answered by a doctor, and by the woman who receives advice from the doctor. And neither I, nor is the Senator from Pennsylvania, truly competent to answer those questions. That is why we should not be making those decisions here on the floor of the Senate.
Why is it that President Bush saying "childrens do learn" is such a newsworthy event?
It's silly. It's rather petty on the part of Reuters.
I'd rather have some mangled words from the President than have the sort of mangling and murdering of babies that Feingold and his comrades support. Every Democrat presidential candidate is pro-abortion.
Moreover, the President making some verbal mistakes is nothing compared to a president making a mockery of his marriage vows in the Oval Office.
Bush is no stranger to verbal gaffes. He often acknowledges he was no more than an average student in school and jokes about his habit of mangling the English language.
Of course, the President jokes about his screw-ups. For all his supposed swagger, he does exhibit humility. And let's remember that average student Bush was a better student at Yale than John Kerry.
Just a day earlier, the White House inadvertently showed how it tries to prevent Bush from making even more slips of the tongue than he already does.
As Bush addressed the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, a marked-up draft of his speech briefly popped up on the U.N. Web site, complete with a phonetic pronunciation guide to get him past troublesome names of countries and world leaders.
Phonetic pronunciations?
Really?
What a revelation!
Are there ever phonetic pronunciations on those teleprompters that the geniuses in the media can't live without? Do they ever rely on such methods to prevent mistakes? Of course they do.
This whole story is so idiotic that naturally Leno found it irresistible. He asked Snow how he as the Press Secretary would react when he'd learn of a verbal slip by the President.
Snow said it was like "biting on foil."
He was very funny, admitting to the various difficulties and headaches he faced as Press Secretary. Nonetheless, still loyal to the President, class act Snow spoke glowingly of Bush and his intelligence, that his verbal missteps are simply verbal missteps.
From the end of the couch, Ben Stiller felt the need to butt in.
When Snow said that there were times when acting as the President's spokeman was like "biting on foil," Stiller snipped that Snow had to do that more often than most Press Secretaries.
Lame.
He should have kept his mouth shut rather than interrupting Snow. Given the tone of the interview, it seemed inappropriate. Although Snow held a position in the Bush administration, the focus of the segment really wasn't very partisan at all.
Snow responded with a simple comment about the Clinton years also having plenty of foil-biting moments.
Stiller took a cheap shot at the President, but Snow didn't let him get away with it. With a quick, good-natured remark, Snow effectively shut Stiller up.
I guess Stiller felt he had to at least needle Bush's man a little bit or he couldn't hold his head up when he would find himself in those Bush-hating Hollywood circles.
I really regret that Snow isn't still serving as the Press Secretary. He was so good at it. He's such a decent, good man. I wish him the best.
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