Doublespeak is language deliberately constructed to disguise its actual meaning, such as euphemisms.
Euphemisms are used to make something not sound as bad as it is, such as: collateral damage or the Defense (War) Department.
Doublespeak is using words that are deliberately constructed for political purposes: words which not only have a political implication, but are intended to impose a desirable mental attitude upon the person hearing them.
Here are a few actual comments by Bush that demonstrate doublespeak, the world now knows them as Bushisms. Further research brings us another source of doublespeak - Rummisms.
"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."
George Bush - CNN transcript aired December 18, 2000
"Too many good docs are getting out of business. Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country."
President Bush during a speech in Poplar Bluff, Mo. - September 10, 2004
"Thank God we don't have none of that communist kind of health care, like they got there in Canada..." -- George Bush
"I'm the master of low expectations."
-- aboard Air Force One, Jun. 4, 2003
"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."
- George W. Bush, August 5th, 2004
"The world is more peaceful and more free under my leadership."
-- Dubya, President of the World, White House, Oct. 28, 2003
"The Ambassador and the General were briefing me on the -- the vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And we will find these people and we will bring them to justice."
-- Yikes. White House, Oct. 27, 2003
"Iran would be dangerous if they have a nuclear weapon."
-- George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., June 18, 2003
"We had a chance to visit with Teresa Nelson who's a parent, and a mom or a dad."
-- George W. Bush, Jacksonville, Florida, Sept. 9, 2003
"I know something about being a governor, and I know what it takes to get elected."
-- Manchester, New Hampshire, Oct. 5, 2002
"I like to tell people, Laura and I are proud to be Texas -- own a Texas ranch, and for us, every day is Earth Day."
-- "Proud to be Texas", Wilmington, New York, Apr. 22, 2002
"I want each and every American to know for certain that I'm responsible for the decisions I make, and each of you are as well."
-- On "Live With Regis", Sep. 20, 2000
"I said you were a man of peace. I want you to know I took immense crap for that."
-- conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, as reported on Jun. 3, 2003 in the Washington Post
"I was proud the other day when both Republicans and Democrats stood with me in the Rose Garden to announce their support for a clear statement of purpose, "You disarm, or we will.'"
-- Bush, speaking about Saddam Hussein
"If you don't stand for anything, you don't stand for anything!"
-- Gov. George W. Bush said to a packed rally at Bellevue Community College
Nov. 2, 2000, SEATTLE
"This is an impressive crowd, the haves, and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite. I call you my base." - (LAUGHTER)
-- Al Smith Memorial Dinner in New York, 10/19/00)
"First, we would not accept a treaty that would not have been ratified, nor a treaty that I thought made sense for the country."
- George Bush on the Kyoto accord in an interview with the Washington Post, April 24, 2001
"Our nation must come together to unite."
-- Bush in Tampa, Fla., June 4, 2001
"They misunderestimated me."
-- Bush in Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000
"They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program."
-- St. Charles, Mo., Nov. 2, 2000
"My administration has been calling upon all the leaders in the—in the Middle East to do everything they can to stop the violence, to tell the different parties involved that peace will never happen."
-- Crawford, Texas, Aug, 13, 2001
"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"
- Bush at a school in Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000
"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."
--
Bush - Reuters, May 5, 2000
"Actually, I—this may sound a little West Texan to you, but I like it. When I'm talking about—when I'm talking about myself, and when he's talking about myself, all of us are talking about me.""
-- Ibid. MSNBC, May 31, 2000
"Well, I think if you say you're going to do something and don't do it, that's trustworthiness."--Ibid.
"I will have a foreign-handed foreign policy."
-- Redwood, Calif., Sept. 27, 2000
"I mean, there needs to be a wholesale effort against racial profiling, which is illiterate children."
-- Second presidential debate, Oct. 11, 2000
"I don't want nations feeling like that they can bully ourselves and our allies. I want to have a ballistic defense system so that we can make the world more peaceful, and at the same time I want to reduce our own nuclear capacities to the level commiserate with keeping the peace."
-- Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 23, 2000
"I appreciate that question because I, in the state of Texas, had heard a lot of discussion about a faith-based initiative eroding the important bridge between church and state."
-— Question and answer session with the press, Jan. 29, 2001
"We're concerned about AIDS inside our White House—make no mistake about it."
— Washington, D.C., Feb. 7, 2001
"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test."
-- Townsend, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2001
"The best way to help poorer nations and the world is to ignore Kyoto and allow air pollution emissions to be dictated by the polluters."
-- George Bush on the Kyoto Accord
"I'm trying to protect my investors -- my contributors from unscrupulous practices."
-- Houston Chronicle, 7/18/98 - The Governor was explaining why he had resisted having the names of his campaign donors posted on-line.
"There's no question that the minute I got elected, the storm clouds on the horizon were getting nearly directly overhead."
-— Washington, D.C., May 11, 2001
