war monger and american emporer also talks funny. well if we have to live with him as he kills women and children in arab countries at least we can make fun of him for talking funny. Original Article Bush dropping his drawl Speech is more precise this term John D. McKinnon Wall Street Journal Mar. 27, 2005 12:00 AM WASHINGTON - At a late-afternoon Paris news conference in May 2002, a jet-lagged President Bush rushed through sentences, mangled some words and teased an American journalist for asking President Jacques Chirac a question in French. Asked about street demonstrations protesting his presence, Bush drawled: "The only thing I know to do is speak my mind. . . . A lotta people on the continent o' Europe appreciate that." Last month, addressing European leaders in Brussels, Bush spoke precisely, with only traces of his twang. He paid homage to the continent's political legacy, such as the Magna Carta, and pronounced the name of Albert Camus. Linguists and watchers of Bush say it is evidence of a subtle but unmistakable change the 43rd president has undergone in speaking style. He is enunciating more clearly and dotting his remarks with more literary references. Gone is much of the verbal swagger, which produced such memorable first-term phrases as "Bring 'em on" (said of Iraqi insurgents) and "dead or alive" (said of catching Osama bin Laden). Some linguists say they detect a dialing-down of Bush's Texas accent, at least in his formal speeches. The more careful speaking style also has meant fewer verbal slip-ups. Jacob Weisberg, who filled four books, numerous Web entries and a calendar series with Bush malapropisms, says his supply of new material has slowed to a trickle. "In a press conference in his first year I might get five" bloopers, says Weisberg, editor of Slate, the online magazine. "Now I'm pretty lucky if I get one or two." In his 2004 and 2005 State of the Union addresses, Bush reported that the "state of our union is confident and strong." But in 2004, the word "our" sounded like "are," a typical pronunciation for Bush. In this year's address, "our" sounded more like "hour." Adding the G's And in a word like "my," which Bush often pronounced somewhat like "mah" in the past, he partly reformed this "non-gliding vowel," as linguists call it. In his 2005 speech, Bush generally pronounced the words ending in "ing" without dropping the "g," unlike in 2004. He largely overcame his tendency to say "hunnerd" for "hundred," and started pronouncing the word "government" more precisely. Still proliferating, though, are pronunciations of "nuclear" as "nu-kyoo-lar." Bush may be weighing his legacy factor. When presidents are mindful of the history books, their style sometimes is different than when they're trying to win elections. His advisers say Bush is speaking with an eye to setting a different tone for his second term, although they say they are not trying to play up his intellectual side. "We made a concerted effort (to change the tone), particularly with the start of the second term," says Dan Bartlett, a senior adviser. After the disagreements of the first term, especially with European allies, "the goal was to say, 'Let's turn the page.' And the president went out of his way to demonstrate that he was willing to turn the page. At different times we find different ways to communicate that." The makeover is far from extreme. In his less-formal appearances, Bush still invokes colloquialisms. The baby-boom generation, he often says in talking about Social Security, "is fixin' to retire." But in a speech Tuesday night, he said "getting ready to retire." Chroniclers of Bush's miscues say there are still enough to keep their cottage industry puttering along. But many are just verbal foot faults, some coming when Bush tires. A slip Weisberg posted on Slate three weeks ago was, "I believe we are called to do the hard work to make our communities and quality of life a better place." Missing for a while have been howlers, such as one in September 2004, when, arguing for his medical-malpractice overhaul, Bush said, "Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country."