Funny how dainty and refined the clodhopper always looks on the other foot

Although not everyone agrees with her politics, everyone can agree that she wears 'sexy shoes.' Fuddy-duddies need not apply,"  we captioned this signature Sarah Palin shoe in our September 2008 "If the shoe fits."

Funny how dainty and refined the clodhopper always looks on the other foot:

After years of the cringe-worthy pronunciation of nu-cu-lar during the Bush White House, it seemed like we finally had an administration who had a litmus test in staffing their National Security detail – pronounce the word “nuclear.” Not so. During an interview to discuss Iran’s weapons program with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell today, National Security Chief of Staff Denis McDonough definitely uttered the term Nucular. Gotcha! Critics eager for payback? Go!

Thanks to our imail correspondent for the hot tip (via HotAir).

Update: Instalanche! "The clodhopper's on the other foot."

Comments

[Teresa]

I always love Sarah's shoes, but I have no earthly idea how she can actually stand in them, much less walk... wow! But they do look fabulous... how I wish...

As for the nuclear vs nucular. I must admit the second one is most annoying no matter who does it. For that matter Jimmah Carter couldn't even pronounce it as well as Geoge Bush, I always wondered why because old Jimmah used to work on a nucular boat of some type. Heh.

[goomp]

Well, it's not so hard. If I say it fast and mumble it sort of comes out nucalar.

[KingShamus]

It's more important that you understand the dangers of nuclear weapons in the hands of psychotic regimes than how to pronounce the word 'nuclear'.

I'd like people to enunciate the word properly. Then again, I'd like Barack Obama to do something about Iran.

[JorgXMcKie]

I seem to remember Jimmah pronouncing it "nooklehr".

[M. Smith]

Saying "nukular" is no stupider than pronouncing karaoke "carry-ookee". It's just an alternative pronunciation.

[mcg]

Karma's a bitch.

[Kelly]

I coulda sworn that Dr. Utopia himself pronounced it "nukular" in the State of the Union address a few weeks ago.

[Varifrank]

Its not just on the other foot, its trailing toilet paper on the heel.

[LarryH]

Dubya was not the 1st POTUS to pronounce it "nucular," it was Dwight David Eisenhower. For those two persons, I think it reflects a somewhat regional pronunciation. Ike grew up primarily in Topeka, Kansas, and George W grew up in west Texas. Today nearly all citizens in that region go with the classic "nuclear," since we're all now primarily exposed to these terms via national television... in our formative years. I think George Herbert Walker Bush displays "nuclear" ... his formative years were in the northeast, I beleive.

[Pink Pig]

Jimmy Carter always pronounced it nuclar.

[Noah Nehm]

@M. Smith:

Not to mention that everyone says "Ven-tay" latte at Starbucks instead of "Ven-tee" (Italian for 20 as in ounces). This pertains especially to those who inhabit the Whitehouse at the moment...

[Captain Ned]

No, the Peanut Farmer was all over the "nookular". How he passed a Rickover interview with that speech defect astounds me.

I only wish that Hulu would put up old SNL stuff so I could link to a video of "The Pepsi Syndrome" skit.

[tim maguire]

It's called a regionalism. Why do so many big city types have such a hard time with what is really a very simple concept?

[Teresa]

Ha - thanks Noah! I had no idea I was saying Ven-tee the right way all these years. I never took Italian lessons. ;-)

[Nick Reynolds]

"... really a very simple concept?" Bcuz . . . thay think thayer reegin is smarter un ur reegin. Thay think MAH reegin is reel dum cuz weer in fliover cuntry.

[Ellen]

I don't trust a politician that says newk-you-lur any further than I'd trust a psychiatrist who calls Freud, 'Frood'. Such mistakes show you haven't been around the subject long enough to know what's going on.

[Larry Sheldon]

Then as now I thought there were a lot of BS about that.

I worked for a while for a company that called itself "U.S. Nuclear" (801 South Lake Street in Burbank if somebody want to check it out).

Everybody there said the name of the place was Ewe Ess newcular.

I wonder of there is a tape of the Carl Sagan advertizement about "Nuclear Winter"

If ever there was a leftist he was it, and I'm pretty sure he said over and over again in his inimitable way "newcuelar winter".

[Junk Science Skeptic]

Worcester =/= Wuss-ter
Worchestershire =/= Wuss-ter-sheer
Gloucester =/= Glow-ster
Houston =/= How-stun
Aluminum =/= Al-you-ninny-um

Need I continue? I don't think the DC-to-Boston crowd is in much of a position to be throwing stones.

(For the noobs, =/= is ascii for not equal to.)

Carter never finished his boiler training, much less the modest physics training given to prospective submariners, so the claims of his being a nuke-ler engineer are about as valid as Obie-Won's claim of being a "Constitutional Law Professor" when his highest academic position was as an un-tenured senior lecturer, with the "senior" designation being strictly honorary, not earned by virtue of seniority.

[Junk Science Skeptic]

Ellen,
I forgot to ask, what is your take on a Commander in Chief who calls an army medic a corpse-man? Several times?

[Daniel in Brookline]

Good point, Junk Science Skeptic. But any Bostonian could tell you -- it's not Wuss-ter, it's Wiss-tah. (Ya know, the place a few miles west of Bahstin. Wicked cool.)

First we take away all the street signs. (Unofficial Boston motto: "if you don't know where you are, you don't belong here.") Then we make sure that, even if you can find the signs, you won't be able to pronounce them correctly.

In re the Obama administration: it has yet to be proven, by anyone, that President Obama is as smart as we were told he is. But we knew long ago that his hand-picked advisers weren't too bright... which, of course, reflects poorly on him for choosing them.

Not that I think "nucular" is a sign of poor intelligence, although I always cringe, no matter who uses it. In this case, I think it's a sign of the Obama administration knowing that the press will cover for them regardless. (Or "irregardless", as they say in Chicago...)

respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline

[Ellen]

Junk Science Skeptic -

For a long time, the slang for a doctor was 'croaker'. 'Corpseman' is just more of the same.

[Astroprisoner]

All I could do was laugh sadly when I saw the left criticize Bush’s pronunciation of "nuclear." And yet these were the same people who lionized a political family: a former President, his two brothers who were Senators…who thought that Havana was the capitol of an island named "Cuber."

[Kevin Hall]

The thrash over how to say the word nuclear is
just stupid...If you want to hear a country
hick talk just listen to Socialist Sen. Bernie
Sanders....Has he any kind of an education?

[Fausta]

The ones above are nice, but my favorite Palin shoes are these. I actually bought a pair for myself.
Thanks for the link!