NP: Herbie Hancock, Possibilities

I deleted a whole post about how it seems that President Bush won't ever even use the word "wrong" in a sentence, based on his mea culpa from yesterday:

"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility."

Unfortunately, my first source on that missed the next line, killing off the whole line of inquiry:

"I want to know what went right and what went wrong."

It had piqued my interest because I recall seeing -- but have been unable to find online -- Bush talking about what went right and what "didn't go right," rather than what went wrong. I found one more instance of him not using the word "wrong" and one where he did in the last week or two.

Upon further reflection, though, it's all about how you parse the statements. If Bush is talking about taking action, about the blame game he insists we shouldn't play, then there's right and there's wrong. This isn't surprising, because he's setting up someone else to be the one who's wrong. If he's saying anything about accountability, which is the first half of yesterday's statement, he still won't even put the words in close proximity.

It's odd that someone who seems so utterly unconcerned about what actually comes out of his mouth would be so careful choosing certain words like that. It almost sounds like he's been trained by some self-help guru to frame his own personal space as positive and not negative. Weird.