New-Clear? Palin Speechwriter Still ‘Hooked on Phonics’

If you think about it, “manure” is really not that bad a word. I mean, it’s “newer,” which is good, and a “ma” in front of it, which is also good- “ma-newer.” - George Costanza (1990)

In what is either another sign that the McCain camp is angling for more distance from George W. Bush or that strategists are trying to reframe the nuclear issue in a more positive light, speechwriters for Alaska Governor Sarah Palin inserted the phonetically modified neologism, “new-clear,” in place of the word “nuclear,” at the vice-presidential nominee’s acceptance speech on Wednesday night. I should also mention that Ms. Palin’s speech was written by one of President George W. Bush’s speechwriters, Matthew Scully. Perhaps Mr. Scully was so accustomed to writing for the President - whose pronunciation of the word “nuke-u-lar” has become stuff of legend - that he forgot to ’smarten it back up’ for a person who can pronounce such tricky words.

>>More on the Republican National Convention at RG&B

In a piece about the words Gov. Palin did not say in Wednesday night’s speech, Michael Kraskin at Indecision 2008 points out that the original text the of the speech the RNC released to the media still contained the phonetic spelling.

“Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America’s energy problems - as if we all didn’t know that already.

But the fact that drilling won’t solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all.

Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we’re going to lay more pipelines … build more new-clear plants … create jobs with clean coal … and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources.”

The text of Palin’s speech has now been cleaned-up at the GOP 2008 Convention Portal, to represent what the words in the speech actually intended, not the Bush-friendly phonetically-remastered ones.

And in case you have no idea what the Geoge Costanza reference is to above, or you just want a good laugh, watch this 1990 clip from Seinfeld:

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