To our national dismay . . .

Speeches about saving our civilization in the streets of Baghdad or taking sudden interest again in Osama bin Laden roll fluidly from the pens of presidential speechwriters. And the president delivers them so much better than he does his extemporaneous thoughts (or nonthoughts, as the case may be), even though his overtly careful articulation (except on "nuclear") stiffens the delivery.

Just for some wicked fun, I've pasted something from the 2004 campaign below. According to the web site linked at the bottom, the interviewer here, Mark Trahant, is "Editorial Page Editor for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He is a member of Idaho's Shoshone-Bannock Tribe and former president of the Native American Journalists Association."

Bush stumbles and then recovers (sort of) and finally makes no sense at all in answer to the question. I don't want to claim that I could do any better, but, then again, I'm not the President of the United States.

Enjoy . . . or not!

MARK TRAHANT: Most school kids learn about government in the context of city, county, state and federal, and of course, tribal governments are not part of that at all. Mr. President, you have been a governor and a president, so you have unique experience looking at it from two directions. What do you think tribal sovereignty means in the 21st century and how do we resolve conflicts between tribes and the federal and state governments?

GEORGE BUSH: Tribal sovereignty means that, it's sovereign. You're a -- you're a -- you have been given sovereignty and you're viewed as a sovereign entity.

MARK TRAHANT: Okay.

GEORGE BUSH: And therefore, the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities. Now, the federal government has got a responsibility on matters like education and security to help. And health care. And it's a solemn duty. From this perspective, we must continue to uphold that duty. I think that one of the most promising areas of all is to help with economic development, and that means helping people understand what it means to start a business. That's why the Small Business Administration has increased loans. It means, obviously, encouraging capital flows, but none of that will happen unless the education systems flourish and are strong. That's why I told you, we spent $1.1 billion in reconstruction of Native American schools.

You can hear it: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/10/149259#transcript

245.8 NWT