Training Wheels
Posted on | September 26, 2007
A draft of a speech by President Bush accidentally made it online:
Apparently, a marked-up draft of the president’s speech popped up on the U.N.’s website as President Bush delivered his remarks this morning before the General Assembly, USA TODAY’s David Jackson reports. The draft included phonetic spellings of some names and countries, and the cellphone numbers for Bush speechwriters.
Press secretary Dana Perino downplayed the incident, and said phonetic spellings are used to help interpreters. Asked if the president has trouble pronouncing some country’s names, Perino deemed it “an offensive question.”
“There was an error made,” Perino said, noting it was not a final draft.
“It was taken down and there’s nothing more to say about it.”
More updates at the link. That uncomfortable question never did get answered; Perino couldn’t even be bothered to lie about it, so sensitive is the issue.
