Bushspeak

[leslie savan]

Forget for a moment George W. Bush's extra syllables, missing words, and
creative etymologies ("Insurance," he said in the last debate, is "a
Washington term.") What about those words that he pronounces correctly
but rips into like a tariff, uh, terrier? When a big word, usually of
three or more syllables, comes along, he often seems to overemphasize a
syllable and/or bite hard on one of the latter consonants: "America
today is in the midst of an eduCAtion recession." "Our goal is a
drug-free soCIety." "PhiloSOphy" is SO hard. His "authoriTY" almost
sounds like Cartman on South Park is saying it. "PracTIcal" practically
TICKles.
     I realize that some of this may be Bush's way of speechifying, an
attempt to sound like an orator. But, to my nonlinguist ears, he seems
to overpronounce or overremember some words as if to show he can
pronounce and remember them.
     Has anyone else noticed this tendency? Is there a name for (or
research into) this kind of speech? Is it, in part, a Texas thing? Has
anyone heard Bush speak this way in more relaxed conversations? Why does
the man who may be our next president bite those big words so hard?