great article:
When a reporter asked Bush to name his biggest mistake since 9/11, he replied:
I wish you'd have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it. . . . I'm sure something will pop into my head here . . . you just put me under the spot . . . and maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one . . .
There's no need to multiply the examples of gaps and gaffes—which are not aberrations in the speaking style of the far right but rather its basic unit of composition. Their linguistic world is that of the anti-Extemp, where failures in fluency are marks of authenticity, ignorance is often a point of pride, and tautology supplants cogitation. Romney, earlier this year: "I'm not familiar precisely with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said, whatever it was."
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