Difference between revisions 39911848 and 41593643 on enwiki

The following is a list of ''[[faux pas]]'' (a violation of accepted, although unwritten, social rules), [[gaffe]]s (unintentional things said or done that proved embarrassing or humiliating, in one case fatal and in another case potentially so) and unfortunate incidents (those things that were not gaffes or ''faux pas'' yet were nonetheless considered to be regrettable or embarrassing to the party or parties involved) involving [[United States president]]s. Some were(contracted; show full)7;'Presidential Debates: Forty Years of High Risk TV'': "That was a gaffe that took him some time to recover from—mostly because he did not back away from the statement".<ref name="Handwerk">{{news reference |firstname=Brian |lastname=Handwerk |title=U.S. Presidential Debate Trivia: Gaffes, Zingers, More |date=[[October 12]], [[2004]] |org=National Geographic |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/10/1008_041008_presidential_debate.html}}</ref>

In 
[[September]] [[  1975]] Gerald Ford could have been assassinated when an armed individual in a crowd attempted to shoot him as he walked past. It was then revealed that on that morning, even though someone had attempted to shoot him only seventeen days before, Ford had forgotten to put on his [[bulletproof vest]]. Had it not been for the intervention of [[Oliver Sipple]], a bystander who prevented the would-be assassin from shooting Ford, his forgetfulness could have cost him his life.

==[[Jimmy Carter]]==
(contracted; show full)
{{listen |
  | filename = ReaganBeginsBombingRussia.ogg
  | title = "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation<br/>that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes"
  | description = This Ronald Reagan's inadvert
aent radio announcement caused a lowering of the [[DEFCON]] level, and one of the tensest moments of the [[Cold War]].
}}

In a slip of the tongue, where he meant to say "employment", President Reagan told Americans "We are trying to get unemployment to go up, and I think we're going to succeed" [http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/06/1086460157435.html?from=moreStories (Press Association)]

[[Image:Georgebush.jpg|thumb|150px|right|President George H.W. Bush<br><small>The President's gaffes and faus-pas included vomiting on the Japanese prime minister.</small>]]

==[[George H. W. Bush]]==
In January [[1992]], while on a state visit to Japan, President George H.W. Bush became ill and was shown on television vomiting into the lap of the [[Prime Minister of Japan]], [[Kiichi Miyazawa]], who was sitting beside him, during a state dinner.

(contracted; show full)

Under attack and under oath in a senate committee hearing prior to his impeachment hearing he declared that whether he had told the truth hinged on the definition of the word "is":  "It depends what the definition of 
'is' is."

Clinton made the statement "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms Lewinsky."  Referring to Lewinsky as "that woman" was widely regarded as crass and a faux-pas.  Tests performed by the [[FBI]] later show Clinton's DNA on a semen-stained navy blue cocktail dress owned by Ms Lewinsky.<ref>{{news reference |title=Sex, lies and impeachment  |date=[[December 22]], [[1998]] |org=BBC News  |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/12/98/review_of_98/themes/208715.stm}}</ref>

==[[George W. Bush]]==
{{main|Bushism}}

"I've coined new words, like, misunderstanding and Hispanically."—Radio-Television Correspondents Association dinner, Washington, D.C., [[March 29, ]], [[2001]] (probably with the intention to refer to "misunderestimated", a Nov. 2000 Bushism)

"It's amazing I won. I was running against peace, prosperity, and incumbency." [[June 14, ]], [[2001]], to the [[Sweden|Swedish]] Prime Minister [[Göran Persson]] during a [[EU]] summit in [[Gothenburg]], unaware he was still on live TV. 

In January 2002, Bush almost died after choking on a [[pretzel]]. He later appeared to journalists sporting a large red mark, caused by him falling to the carpet while choking. His ''pretzel experience'' became the butt of jokes from comedians and satirists the world over.

In June 2001, he appeared on [[Spain|Spanish]] television and said "It is a great honor to travel to Spain and visit the King and also Prime Minister Anzar. But I have to practise the very pretty language, and unless I practise I am going to destroy this language" He had in fact mispronounced the name of the [[Prime Minister of Spain|Prime Minister]], [[Jose Maria Aznar]]. He called him ''ansar'', the Spanish word for "goose". [http://www.news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/06/13/wbush313.xml (Daily Telegraph)]

On the same trip, he caused offence at [[NATO]] when he called its Secretary-General, [[George Robertson|Lord Robertson]] "Lord Robinson". 

Bush told a televised meeting that "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful - and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people - and neither do we." [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3541706.stm (BBC News)]

[[Image:Bush vs door.jpg|thumb|George W. Bush unsuccessfully tries to dodge a media question.]]
On [[November 20, ]], [[2005]] Bush attempted to exit a room in China, after being asked a question by a journalist, in an attempt to avoid answering the question. The door, however, was locked and so he was unable to leave the room, much to the amusement of the world's press. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4454738.stm (BBC News, with video)]

In a response to a carefully worded comment by Chairman of the [[Federal Reserve]] [[Alan Greenspan]] intended to soothe the financial markets, President Bush commented: "First of all, I appreciate the wisdom of Chairman Greenspan. He uses the word, 'soft spot'. I use the word, 'bumpin along'". The result of Bush's comments, which were interpreted as meaning that the US economy was facing a "bumpy ride", was a slump in confidence on [[Wall Street]] and a weakening in the US economy.
{{wikiquotepar|George W. Bush}}

==Footnotes==
<references/>

==External links==
* http://www.georgewbushsingers.com -  Features presidential linguistic gaffes set to music

==Further reading==
* [http://www.ciaonet.org/book/sca02/ Presidential Debates: Forty Years of High-Risk TV], Alan Schroeder
* Mark Crispin Miller, ''The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder'' (W.W. Norton)

[[Category:Presidency of the United States]]