Bush Inaugural Malapropism

[Fred Shapiro]

On Wed, 14 Sep 2005, Fred Shapiro wrote:

> Has there ever be any discussion in the media or elsewhere of whether
> George W. Bush misspoke the oath of office when he became president in
> 2001?  The transcripts by CNN, FDCH Political Transcripts, and the Fort
> Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel all have him saying "safely execute the office"
> rather than "faithfully execute the office."  CNN and FDCH also have a
> more trivial error, his inserting the word "the" before "president."

In fairness to Mr. Bush, who has so many other problems right now, I
should note that I have subsequently listened to audio on the web, on
which he delivers the 2001 oath of office without any slip-ups.  So this
ends up being a story about astonishingly sloppy transcription by CNN and
the other sources rather than a story about Bush's malapropism.

Fred Shapiro


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------