Strategery
|
|
"Strategery" was first used in a Saturday Night Live sketch aired 7 October 2000, satirizing the performances of Al Gore and George W. Bush, two candidates for President of the United States, during the first presidential debate for election year 2000. [1] (http://www.kencollier.org/classes/PSC448/readings448/SeriousStrategery.html). Comedian Will Ferrell played Bush and used the word "strategery" (a play on "strategy") to satirize Bush's tendency to mispronounce words. The episode was later released as part of a video tape titled Presidential Bash 2000 [2] (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00004UEDY/102-1769858-4596109?v=glance).
After winning the 2000 Presidential Election, people inside the Bush White House reportedly began using the term as a joke, and it later grew to become a term of art among them meaning oversight of any activity by Bush's political strategists. Bush's strategists also came to be known within the White House as "The Department of Strategery" or the "Strategery Group".1
A February 9, 2001, transcript of a CNN interview attributes George Bush using the term [3] (http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0102/09/ip.00.html). Affectionately embracing satirical portrayals has been a Bush tactic at other times as well, such as when he quipped with a broadcaster's association about looking for weapons of mass destruction in the oval office after the political comic strip Doonesbury satirically portrayed him on a similar bizarre search.
The term is now widely used in popular discourse, often by Bush's critics to ridicule his oratory skills. Damaging quotations like "strategery" have sometimes been dubbed "Bushisms" by Bush's political opponents. However, many supporters of Bush also use the term in endearing fondness of their leader's quirky way of talking.
Note 1: See Why Are These Men Laughing?, Esquire, Jan. 1, 2003.