"Stay the Course" now defined by Admin as "constant change" says * Press Conference

[Land Shark]

The Washington Post reports some "semantic backtracking" in the recent * press conference. Without direct comment, the Post via Dan Froomkin's "White House Briefing" reports the following paragraph:

As for "stay the course"? Said Bush: "This stuff about 'stay the course' -- stay the course means, we're going to win. Stay the course does not mean that we're not going to constantly change."

More than "semantic backtracking," this constitutes the culmination several rounds of musical chairs regarding the administration's outlook on Iraq, except that all of the chairs apparently have whoopee cushions on them.

SOURCE: <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html>

[Igel]

1. Defending the dictionary, here.

What's the opposite of "stay the course"?

"Leave the course."

I'm not sure what the several rounds of musical chairs are--I try to avoid reading *'s and Rumsfeld's pronouncements on the war.

The new meaning of 'stay the course' (maintaining the same course of action unchanged) is almost certainly too well embedded in American English to be disposed of. But that doesn't mean that it's the only meaning.

Can we discuss something useful now instead of ranting over little more than misunderstandings and the absence of people's willingness to consult a dictionary? Such as the question that's actually entailed by "stay the course", and the inability of the * administration to actually enunciate an answer to that question.

[Land Shark]

6. your confusion seems to stem from your admitted lack of knowledge

about prior posts (some of them by kpete, replying below) regarding administration statements reflecting widespread MSM news coverage of the same, combined with a focus on dictionary-definition when the real test is the specific context in which these statements are made.

it's at best a wiggle and a flip to go from "stay the course" which with regard to Iraq means keep troop levels about the same or at similar rates of increase, to "constant change", most particularly in light of the very recent statement by Bush that he was NOT a "stay the course" guy.

Overall, it just shows the waffling and wiggling for rhetorical room to attempt to justify an untenable position.

[Igel]

8. I'd argue that

the previous statements have usually been ambiguous. "Keep on until we're done" is at least as applicable to their statements as "keep doing what we're doing". In some instances, "keep doing what we're doing" doesn't fit the utterance at all, but "keep on until we're done" does.

Again, I was surprised when I read reporters' interpretations of "stay the course" in 2004 and 2005. They were simply at odds with what was probably intended.

[kpete]

2. Did you mention chairs?

WHOOPEE!

[mtnester]

3. One thing you can count on, is for Blivet to Constantly

fuck up.

[Land Shark]

7. Yup.

[autorank]

4. Land Shark, eureka! We have found it!!! KR

It's the Bush vision of a "Whoopee Cushion Nation." It's all just a joke to him, nicknames, smart
aleck remarks about "he's finished" referring to Hussein (like he actually gets to make that decision),
the absurdist garbage he's putting out about Iraq...he's always amusing himself. Now he will thrill us
too with the Whoopee Cushion approach, which is quickly turning into our national bed of nails.

My understanding of a double negative like this is that it translates into:

"Stay the course does not mean that we're not going to constantly change."

MCM was right...more of the * dyslexicon game.

[Land Shark]

5. dyslexicon by cons, it does compute, in a way