I'm sure ya'll have noticed how junior talks...answer me something....

He says 3-8 words........and then pauses...... for about 2 seconds. Over....and over.....and over again.

When he pauses he looks off to the side at someone or something like he's about to call 'em out. As if he's going to say "Hey punk-ass......can't you sit still during the speach wrote for me ah'm sayin'? WELL THEN BRING 'EM ON!"

It's a very strange method. I have to wonder if it's designed for those with short attention spans (repukies...FReepers of course being at the top of that list....lowest common denominator and all that).
The pregnant pauses spent staring at someone or something off camera could be some advisors idea of a tough-guy effect.

Question is........what's intentional.........and what is a product of birth............ and poor environment.......................... that's what the American people need to know............and this administration will do just that.

Whaddayathink? Is it intentional and if so what parts are intentional (pause and/or bring 'em on stare).

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I never thought of that, but it makes perfect sense.

So maybe I'm confusing his concentration - needed for him to listen, process, and repeat - for a bring 'em on stare.

It was when he gave the speech in the evening. I only got ABC that day (no cable). You could HEAR the prompter for like the first 30 seconds. Did you hear it?

Maybe it was feedback....signal feed to your T.V. out of sync?

I know they use visual prompts, but I would never have guessed audio.

I remember it distinctly. It sounded like simultaneous translation, only the other voice was first and in English. Bush looked disconcerted by it. It was definitely an audio glitch in the confusion of the day. I really heard it, and a friend in Boston heard it too. She tried to get a tape but couldn't locate it. I know I was watching ABC because that's the only station I could get for days - they were the only ones who had back-up transmission on the Empire State.

I heard other people talk about it, though.

I really feel that is what is going on during his pauses. However, I agree with a poster below who says there are times when Bush waits for praise, recognition, admiration for having pronounced a word correctly, or having accurately identified another country's leader.

Most pauses, I believe, are waiting for the prompter.

:bounce: I so cannot wait for the day when it falls out of his head, on camera...

... that he's waiting for someone to give him a gold star for getting the phrase out correctly -- especially if it contains something difficult like "IAEA" or, I dunno, "Prime Minister Chretien." See? I know he's prime minister, not president! And I remembered his name!

I recal NPR doing a spechal on the brain sevral years back, and this type of speach behavor feachered promintly in one of the explorations that they looked at.

They explaned that we don't have one brain, but hundreds of smaller parts, each speculized in perfomring a spisific task, such as the speach center that controles the vocal cords.

But the speach center dosn't decided what to say, only how to say it. And they think the speach center has a problem with "pulling a blank." That is, the speach center is going to say something, unless told not to. So it goes into a kind of stand by mode where it just tells the vocal cords to be ready, and you say "ahhhhhhh" and "ummmm" between your words, as it waites to be told what to say.

Its a traite all of us have aprintly. One has to be trained NOT to do this. And you do this by litterly "thinking before you speak." That is the higher levels of the brain will not send the speach center a word at a time, but will in effect reherse full paragrafs, and send string of words to the speach center. And you can see this too as the speaker will tend to "ah" and "um between thoughts, rather than words, or pause as the speaker choses his words, and reherses in his head.

Ir course, alchalall slows down the higher functions, and thus the speach center is in standby mode a lot more. Speach also tends to be more "random," resulting with contradictions and giberish. What we now call the Bush-lexicon.

his trainers - realizing they couldn't cure the pause - tought him to focus on something intently and squint a little while keeping his mouth open slightly, thus making use of his involuntary pauses to support the bring 'em on tough guy persona attempt.

but Blair makes heavy use of pregnant pauses too. If this affectation is recent perhaps it's a poor attempt to ape Blair's superior (albeit annoyingly predictable) style of oration.

For sure, Blair has adopted the arrogant cowboy swagger of late.

That's the first thing I thought of when I saw Georgie on TV (during the 2000 election) -- the stop-motion-animation movement, and the unexpected pauses.

?

And what's with the flag? Are you gay or are you expressing solidarity with gays?

A mass murderer, claiming to be on a "mission from God"

I can see the parallel...although Shat was much more engaging.

The captain was not so stone-faced and rigid during his pauses.

Seriously though...after reading all the answers here and thinking about it I'm pretty sure he does it on purpose.

We'd all like to think that he's just kinda goofy like that...like Lenny from "Of Mice And Men", but he didn't become President by being totally stupid and devoid of acting skills. He's an actor, no question.

Cheney's or Rove's remote control temporarily loses signal strength from time to time.