God Has Spoken

Last Sunday, George Bush appeared on "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" and said, among other things, this:

BLITZER: Let’s move on and talk a little bit about Iraq. Because this is a huge, huge issue, as you know, for the American public, a lot of concern that perhaps they are on the verge of a civil war–if not already a civil war–We see these horrible bodies showing up, tortured, mutilation. The Shia and the Sunni, the Iranians apparently having a negative role. Of course, al Qaeda in Iraq is still operating.

BUSH: Yes, you see — you see it on TV, and that’s the power of an enemy that is willing to kill innocent people. But there’s also an unbelievable will and resiliency by the Iraqi people…. Admittedly, it seems like a decade ago. I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is — my point is, there’s a strong will for democracy. (emphasis added)

Video available at: Crooks & Liars.

So, what the f*&k was he talking about??? As The Carpetbagger Report said, "Even by Bush's already-low standards, it was a stunning comment. We're talking about a war that has claimed 2,700 American lives and seriously injured 20,000 more. It's a crisis that has, by any reasonable measure, made the threat of terrorism against Americans considerably worse. It's a misadventure that has cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, to fight a war sold under false pretenses, and mismanaged with almost child-like incompetence." Right.

Greg Mitchell of Editor & Publisher thinks he discovered the answer with the help of a little research through Google. In Bush's 'Comma': Courtesy of Gracie Allen?, he explains:

This is it: He likely meant to finish it off by suggesting that, looking back, the Iraq war will be viewed as "just a comma, not a period."

Not surprisingly, this is rooted in current Christian teaching, often in reference to Jesus's death, or more generally as "Don't put a period where God puts a comma."

Where does this come from? Not directly from the scripture, apparently. A quote by comedienne Gracie Allen is cited on many religious Web sites: "Never place a period where God has placed a comma."

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Of course, many of us of a certain age remember Gracie Allen, the actual and TV wife of the legendary George Burns. Memo to the president: She was the batty one who often talked nonsense.

Or as a minister at a United Church of Christ in Los Angeles recently put it, admiringly: "She would have said whatever came to her mind in a full voice, and lived out its conviction." Sound familiar?

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An article in the St. Petersburg Times in November 2005, described a new TV commercial by the UCC which featured a large comma. "Weighing in on the commercial," the article concluded, "evangelist Pat Robertson is said to have remarked, 'Never place a comma where God has placed a period. God has spoken!'"

And so has the president. Did he fail to finish his thought -- linking the comma to the period -- for fear of invoking his Christianity in discussing a murderous war? Or did he want to avoid being linked to Gracie Allen?

Bush's own legacy will also look like just a comma -- the perfect marriage of religion and comedy that defines George W. Bush.

UPDATE: Greg Sargent of The Horse's Mouth oberves a second usage of the "comma" line in another Bush speech, in BUSH AGAIN SAYS IRAQ WILL BE "JUST A COMMA." Apparently, the term is used mainly by the United Church of Christ, a liberal Protestant denomination, and "appears to mean that God is in control, that even if humans want to control events, or say something conclusive about them, or have the last word about them, it won't matter, because God is 'still speaking.' "

Based upon the Comments, the UCC members don't appreciate that Bush may have appropriated the term as "Code" for his evangelical base. For more of the interesting and entertaining debate on the issue, see these posts at Language Log: The comma was really a dog whistle and If it's a whistle, the dogs aren't hearing it.

(E&P article via Dick Polman's American Debate and Picture thanks to All Hat No Cattle)

Tags: Bush, Religion, Video