I don't intend to defend people I don't like, but I think people here are
being too picky. Bush probably meant something different, but without the
context we have only a distorted quote.
A rightist politician in Brazil said something like: "If a guy is sexually
aroused, he should rape, but not kill". That's always quoted by his
political enemies as: "Rape, but don't kill". He obviously meant to say that
that killing after raping is worse than raping only and may be avoided,
since the rapist ( or rapper? :-) ) will have already satisfied his sexual
impulse.
I'll stretch out a helping hand to Bush and interprete what he must have
meant:
"If we don't succeed we run the risk of failure."
If we don't succeed in doing something specific now, we run the risk of
failure in the future.
"The future will be better tomorrow."
The future will be better starting from tomorrow, not a distant future.
"A low voter turn out is an indication of fewer going to the polls."
A low voter turn out shouldn't be interpreted as anything else, since that
fact only doesn't give elements for further interpretations.
'I believe we are on an irreversible trend towards more freedom
and democracy - but that could change."
Sorry, Bush, but I can't operate miracles!
'We're going to have the best educated American people in the world."
Oh, Bush, that's getting harder and harder!
"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."
Finally: misstatements as opposed to misconceptions.
"For NASA space is still a high priority."
He must have meant the conquest of space, not only Colombia!
"Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children."
As they're the only people who teach our children, they're very important
and should be paid as well as presidents are... ops... maybe not really
that!
"We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe."
We belong to Western civilization.
"Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things."
An honest politician! You guys are being hard on him :-)
Bye,
Caio Rossi
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