Whether you’re a supporter or detractor of Sarah Palin (or somewhere in-between), I found something in the text of her speech tonight which shows that McCain and Palin are trying to draw a clear distinction between the Bush Presidency and what a McCain-Palin administration would look like. It comes down to one word:
Nuclear.
As you know, W. has been pronouncing “nuclear” as NOO-kyu-lurr since our introduction to him (and very probably since he first learned the word). If you want to make quick points with the American public — understanding that they draw a correlation between using language properly and a speaker’s intelligence — and distance yourself from President Bush in the process, all you need to do is pronounce the word “nuclear” correctly. Every time. Tonight, in her speech at the Republican National Convention, Sarah Palin did just that. Something McCain guaranteed.
I have no idea how Ms. Palin pronounces the word in her daily life, and that’s irrelevant. What’s important to note is that the Republican party took no chances when preparing her speech for tonight. From a document in the New York Times whose heading reads: “The following is the text provided by the Republican National Committee of Gov. Sarah Palin’s speech as prepared for delivery at the Republican National Convention,” there are two passages worth paying attention to. Passage one:
Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we’re going to lay more pipelines … build more new-clear plants … create jobs with clean coal … and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources.
Could be a typo, right? Wrong. From later in the same speech:
Terrorist states are seeking new-clear weapons without delay … [McCain] wants to meet them without preconditions.
Since there are no other misspellings or alternate spellings in the text, the presence of two identical radical (and phonetic) spellings of “nuclear” is not a coincidence.
McCain didn’t want Bush to speak on his behalf at the convention, and he got his wish (at least as far as non-virtual appearances go). Now he doesn’t want his running mate to speak like Bush at the convention. Currently McCain is two for two.
Tonight we learned that McCain and Obama are on the same side of the nuclear issue — they both agree on how to pronounce it.
