How Can They Pillory Him This Way?

Kevin links to Volokh spotting a Slate “Bushism” error. Volokh appears to think that the president is often mischaracterized and that journalists should not take it on faith that he speaks opaquely at times.

As I’ve said before, part of the problem with the Bushisms column is that they often fault the President for things that aren’t much worth faulting. But the broader problem is that once a journalist gets into the mindset of “Let me catch Bush misspeaking,” it’s very easy to start seeing errors where no errors exist. Instead of the normal “Someone says Bush erred, so let’s investigate this skeptically” view that journalists should have, the author falls into the habit of assuming that all claimed Bush misstatements are in fact misstatements. And the consequence is screw-ups like this. Shouldn’t we expect better from the editor of a leading magazine?

Yes we should.

And we should also expect better than this from the president of the fucking United States of America:

Because the — all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There’s a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those — changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be — or closer delivered to what has been promised.

Does that make any sense to you? It’s kind of muddled. Look, there’s a series of things that cause the — like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate — the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those — if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.

Now I am entirely sympathetic to the notion that journalists are not skeptical enough of many things. The president’s social security plan. WMD in Iraq. That 2+2=5. But surely, after listening to four years of that kind of mentally challenged gobbledygook it’s a bit presumptuous to lecture journalists for not being entirely skeptical of accounts that have the president speaking mentally challenged gobbledygook.