Top Bushisms in the Category of: Perseveration

Perseveration is a term in psychology defined as: "the uncontrollable repetition of a particular response, such as a word, phrase, or gesture, despite the absence or cessation of a stimulus, usually caused by brain injury or other organic disorder." I don't know what the "stimulus" was for each of the Bush perseverations below, but I like the part about organic disorder!

As listed under the Bushism Malapropisms, here's what candidate Bush had to say during "Perseverance Month" at Fairgrounds Elementary School in Nashua, New Hampshire, on Jan. 28, 2000: "This is Preservation Month. I appreciate preservation. It's what you do when you run for president. You gotta preserve." He may not know what "persevere" means, but he sure knows how to perseverate. Check it out!

 
1. "I'm a patient man. And when I say I'm a patient man, I mean I'm a patient man." - George W. Bush, Crawford, TX, Aug. 21, 2002
2. "The California crunch really is the result of not enough power-generating plants and then not enough power to power the power of generating plants." - George W. Bush, Jan. 14, 2001
3. "In my judgment, when the United States says there will be serious consequences, and if there isn't serious consequences, it creates adverse consequences." - George W. Bush, Meet the Press, Feb. 8, 2004
4. "I would have to ask the questioner. I haven't had a chance to ask the questioners the question they've been questioning." - George W. Bush, Austin, TX, Jan. 8, 2001
5. "Tribal sovereignty means that; it's sovereign. I mean, you're a - you've been given sovereignty, and you're viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities." - George W. Bush, Washington, DC, Aug. 6, 2004 [AUDIO]
6. "Part of having a secure homeland is to have a good airport system, that's safe for people to travel, an airport system that is inspecting bags by inspectors who are qualified to inspect bags." - George W. Bush, Pittsburgh, PA, Feb. 5, 2002
7. "This is a world that is much more uncertain than the past. In the past we were certain, we were certain it was us versus the Russians in the past. We were certain, and therefore we had huge nuclear arsenals aimed at each other to keep the peace. That's what we were certain of. ... You see, even though it's an uncertain world, we're certain of some things. We're certain that even though the 'evil empire' may have passed, evil still remains. We're certain there are people that can't stand what America stands for. ... We're certain there are madmen in this world, and there's terror, and there's missiles and I'm certain of this, too: I'm certain to maintain the peace, we better have a military of high morale, and I'm certain that under this administration, morale in the military is dangerously low." - George W. Bush, Albuquerque, NM, May 30, 2000
8. "The relations with, uhh -- Europe are important relations, and they've, uhh -- because, we do share values. And, they're universal values, they're not American values or, you know -- European values, they're universal values. And those values -- uhh -- being universal, ought to be applied everywhere." - George W. Bush, White House, Jun. 20, 2005 [AUDIO]
  9. "He was a state sponsor of terror. In other words, the government had declared, you are a state sponsor of terror." - George W. Bush, on Saddam Hussein, Manhattan, Kan., Jan. 23, 2006  
  10. "We just had a fantastic and very interesting discussion about problems that affect patients -- patients in North Carolina, health care patients in Nevada, problems that affect our docs. ...Health care costs are up because docs are worried about getting sued and, therefore, oftentimes prescribe unnecessary and costly treatments. ... Because of the system, insurers no longer insure docs. ...And if docs don't practice medicine, it's hard to have good health care. ...[Jill Barnes is] eight weeks pregnant. She talks about the inability to find a doc. ...Lauri Peel had trouble finding a doc when she moved to Raleigh, because a lot of the practices were full. ...Lauri's looking for a doc right now." - George W. Bush, Greensboro, North Carolina, Jul. 25, 2002
-- He never uses the word "doctor" once in half a dozen sentences.
 

 

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