See what he meant to say was...
During his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependency on Middle Eastern oil. To fulfill this goal, Bush vowed to fund research on better hybrid vehicle technology and production of more alternative fuels in hopes of replacing "more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025." He pledged to "move beyond a petroleum-based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past."
"America is addicted to oil" Bush said and vowed to "break this addiction".
But apparently he didn't mean what he said. Less then one day after Bush made this vow, his energy secretary and national economic advisor said Bush did not mean it literally when he said the US would be reducing its dependency on Middle Eastern oil by 75 percent. Rather the hope is that domestic alternatives could reduce our dependency on all oil imports by 2025. When asked why the President singled out 'Middle Eastern' oil, an administration official said that Bush wanted to dramatize the issue in a way that "every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands."
Many may remember a similar 'clarification' last November when Bush proclaimed "We do not torture." The next day, National Security Advisor Steven Hadley had to 'clarify' Bush's statement. He said that because the war on terror could sometimes present a 'difficult dilemma', the use of torture could not be ruled out in order to thwart a terrorist attack.
It would seem that in order for Bush to 'dramatize' the issues so that Americans can understand them, he has to say stuff he doesn't really mean. I wonder if this means we should ask ourselves what he really means the next time we are asked to take him at his word.
"America is addicted to oil" Bush said and vowed to "break this addiction".
But apparently he didn't mean what he said. Less then one day after Bush made this vow, his energy secretary and national economic advisor said Bush did not mean it literally when he said the US would be reducing its dependency on Middle Eastern oil by 75 percent. Rather the hope is that domestic alternatives could reduce our dependency on all oil imports by 2025. When asked why the President singled out 'Middle Eastern' oil, an administration official said that Bush wanted to dramatize the issue in a way that "every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands."
Many may remember a similar 'clarification' last November when Bush proclaimed "We do not torture." The next day, National Security Advisor Steven Hadley had to 'clarify' Bush's statement. He said that because the war on terror could sometimes present a 'difficult dilemma', the use of torture could not be ruled out in order to thwart a terrorist attack.
It would seem that in order for Bush to 'dramatize' the issues so that Americans can understand them, he has to say stuff he doesn't really mean. I wonder if this means we should ask ourselves what he really means the next time we are asked to take him at his word.
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