There are, of course, hundreds of quotations in which George uses terrible grammar, but I'm always willing to forgive someone for one-time mistakes. I'm sure if someone looked at every word that came out of my mouth, you could write a book humiliating me. What bothers me, though is his repeated mispronounciation of the word "nuclear." Hasn't somebody told him by now that it's not nucular, it's nuclear, as in the nucleus of an atom? Perhaps he's trying to identify with his voter base in Texas... If you think I'm being excessively picky, this is really about more than a word, it's about his general education and intelligence
2007-06-01 10:10:49 · 23 answers · asked by Killer B 2 in Politics & Government ➔ Politics
In response to MoJo...A very good argument could be made that all of the successes you mentioned could be attributed to him being George H. W. Bush's son. (his test scores and high school record certainly didn't merit Yale acceptance) By the way, I'm also a pilot, I've been a submarine reactor operator, and am an air traffic control student with a 3.92 GPA. Stupid people irritate me.
2007-06-01 10:36:54 · update #1
It is an affectation.
The guy went to Yale, for crying out loud. He certainly realized the proper way to pronounce the word way back when.
And now he is president of the US, and has probably been in hundreds of meetings and briefings when the word was properly pronounced.
The only conclusion I can reach from this is that he is willfully mispronouncing it. Whether he is doing this to simply be a stubborn jack*ss, or whether he is doing it to cozy up to the Homer Simpson 'nucular' vote, is an open question.
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So several people below have said that Jimmy Carter also says "nucular", and as far as I can tell this is not true. He seems to pronounce it more like "nukea", slurring the syllables with an accent one might expect from a man raised on a farm in Georgia in the 1930s. Losing the "L" and "R" in the word is an authentic accent, while adding a nonsense syllable is not.
Several also claim that "nucular" is a regional variation. I don't accept this either. Probably all Americans are taught the right way to say the word in 8th grade science class ("The atom has a nucleus."), and then again in HS biology ("The red blood cells have no nucleus."). Probably virtually all of those university educated science teachers pronounce the word correctly, and they understand that if any of their students aspire to technical, medical or scientific careers then the students need to pronounce it correctly too.
Consequently, I don't think there is a regional pronunciation, since educated people in all regions would say it the same way, but that there is a educated class vs. uneducated class difference in pronunciation: if someone listened and learned in science classes, they know how to say it; if someone didn't listen or doesn't want to appear to have listened, they don't. W clearly wants to appear not to have listened.
2007-06-01 10:13:04 · answer #1 · answered by 62,040,610 Idiots 7 · 4⤊ 2⤋
It's an accent pronunciation. Really no big deal.
Confession: I'm actually old enough to remember when Carter, who also said 'nucular', was President. In the BBS systems that I was on in the late 80's, the Cons loved to mock Carter for that. I guess they've changed their tune since.
Of course, Carter had a southern accent because he was an authentic southerner. Bush is a fake from New England who affects a thick Texas accent that neither his parents nor his siblings speak with.
2007-06-01 10:23:11 · answer #2 · answered by A M Frantz 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm sure someone has mentioned it to him. Jimmy carter, a student of Hyman Rickover couldn't even pronounce it right. Anyone know why George H W Bush couldn't correctly pronounce Saddam Hussein's name?
2007-06-01 10:53:48 · answer #3 · answered by Mike W 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Like Deep Purple: Toe-kay-yo
2016-04-01 10:04:14 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am from Texas and I say nuclear correctly. As a matter of fact I know plenty of people around me that say it correctly. I also know plenty that say "nucular". It is not just Bush. There are people all over national news that say it incorrectly. Watch a little CNN, MSNBC, FoxNews, et al. People notice it in Pres. Bush because they are looking for something to ridicule about him.
2007-06-01 10:20:09 · answer #5 · answered by Spencer C 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Really? Bush graduated from two ivy league schools, was a pilot in the air guard, CEO of two successful businesses, owned a baseball team, gov of Texas more than one term and went on to be President of The United States.
Hey, Lib, what's on your resume?
2007-06-01 10:20:29 · answer #6 · answered by ks 5 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Well I am on both sides of the fence - Yes I think Bush is an idiot - no I don't think he is in command of the US
But as to the speech thing we had a PM who was awful Worse than Bush - He literally could not talk and stuttered out gibberish from time to time
He wasn't a bad PM and it was incredibly entertaining to watch him meet leaders from around the globe
2007-06-01 10:16:44 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Who cares. Has anyone else noticed that English Teachers and the like are the wierdest people on the planet?
2007-06-01 10:15:50 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
Picky?? You are being catty like my teenage granddaughters!! The fact you even brought it up leads me to think that you know you are. Get over it for crying out loud and move one! He graduated from Yale, have you?
2007-06-01 10:20:19 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
His speech has got nothing on Hillary's fake, pandering southern accent.
2007-06-01 10:17:42 · answer #10 · answered by Truth B. Told ITS THE ECONOMY STUPID 6 · 4⤊ 0⤋