Great Moments in Presidential History? or Bad Political Writing?

    Being the David Letterman fan that I am-for my politics and the english language assignment I went to the good ol' raw "Great Moments in Presidential History".  These excerpts of former President Bush's speeches are the epitome of very bad political speaking.  George Orwell stated, "Political writing is bad writing."  Some political writers are hard to uncover their bad political writing, but George Bush could never be put into that category.  During this segment of "Great Moments in Presidential History" Orwell's rules were evident.

 

    First of all, Bush was very cliche as President.  If you were to watch the video you would see his infamous wink numerous times.  I believe he used this winkk to say, "Hey I'm on your side- but I haven't a clue what I am doing."  During the segment he also added, "

I'm going to go to Vegas, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas right?"

  This was very unprofessional and cliche as the same time. 

 

    Although Bush tried in his speeches, I found myself laughing at him more than actually believing in him.  With all of his "ummms and uhhhs" as his way of sugar coating what bad news he had to bring next.  Politicians should be able to get their point across and also be good public speakers without the "ummms and uhhhs".

 

    Orwell says not to use large words as opposed to smaller, simpler words.  If Bush knew how to keep his speeches nice and concise he probably would not have ever spoken this sentence,

"The best way to deny them is to deny them the recruiting tools and the recrudaments made possible by resentment."

  The majority of the American population probably had no idea what he was trying to get at.  If Orwell was around to see Bush's speeches then he probably would have told him "K.I.S.S" (keep it simple stupid).

 

    My favorite part of the segment was the ending when he used a figure of speech to relate to the War in Iraq.  I am guessing during this time period "the tides were turning" in the war.  When Bush was asked to talk about this tide turn he said,

"Well I was raised in the desert. . .but it is easy to see a tide turn right?"

  This was a cliche, a figure of speech, and humorous- everything Orwell said not to do.

 

    "Great Moments in Presidential History" sums up Orwell's lesson about bad poilitical writing.  It is everywhere, but no one is more evident than Mr. George W. Bush.