Ronald Kessler was always in the tank for President Bush, so it’s no surprise to see he still is. But it’s still a bit bracing to see Kessler be so sycophantic to Bush that he’s defending the former president’s mispronuciation of “nuclear.”
No, really. From Kessler’s June 3 Newsmax column:
From the way he walked to the way he talked, Bush was the butt of constant derision by the press. Every action he took to protect America was portrayed as a sinister plot.
Bush’s pronunciation of “nuclear” was cause for constant tittering in the media. In fact, pronouncing the word NOO-kyoo-ler is a Southern rendering similar to Jimmy Carter’s NOOK-ee-yuh. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary lists the way Bush pronounced nuclear as an alternate, even including that version in an audio clip on its website.
Of course, “ain’t” is in the dictionary, but that doesn’t make it correct or proper English.