Crazyquotes

In an attempt to demonstrate that Bush is liar, an idiot, or both, Slate has been running a “Bushisms” column for some time. And, to show that they’re fair and balanced, they’ve recently started running a “Kerryisms” column as well, to show that the senator is longwinded and overly-baroque in his rhetoric.

Problem is, as Spinsanity puts it, the Slate writers (Jacob Weisberg and William Saletan) are so eager to maintain the thesis, that they’re seemingly more than willing to strip context and oversimplify situations in their stereotyping of both candidates’ statements.

The most recent example of an inaccurate “Bushism” shows how Weisberg frequently misconstrues the President’s words. At a May 25 event with men who had been given prosthetic hands to replace the ones cut off by Saddam Hussein’s regime, Bush said, “I’m honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein.” Since the men had prosthetic hands, it’s clear what the President meant. But in a “Bushism“, Weisberg presented the quote out of context, making it appear nonsensical.

In the Saletan pieces on Kerry, he often asserts that important (if, perhaps, awkwardly expressed) caveats and embellishments are, in fact, unnecessary — which, frankly, would sometimes lead to statements as (evidently) simplistic as the ones Bush is accused of.

Bush makes a number of amusing verbal constructions. And Kerry makes some, too, in the opposite direction. But it should be enough to point out the ones that actually are worthy of some ribbing, rather than manufacturing some to fill out weekly column space.