WP:'Just a Comma' Becomes Part of Iraq Debate

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Opponents See Bush's Words on War as Insensitive or as Code for Religious Right
When the president speaks, every word can be subject to scrutiny. Even the punctuation marks.

As he heads out on the campaign trial, haunted by an unpopular war, President Bush has begun reassuring audiences that this traumatic period in Iraq will be seen as "just a comma" in the history books. By that, aides say, he means to reinforce his message of resolve in the struggle for Iraqi democracy.

But opponents of the war have seized on the formulation, seeing it as evidence that Bush is indifferent to suffering. To them, it sounds as if the president is dismissing more than 2,700 U.S. troop deaths as "just a comma." And a lively Internet debate has broken out about the origins of the phrase, with some speculating that Bush means it as a coded message to religious supporters, evoking the aphorism "Never put a period where God has put a comma."

Presidential utterances have long drawn enormous notice. But instant transcripts and the Internet have focused an even more powerful microscope on the nation's leader. The approaching midterm elections have intensified the already close scrutiny of the president's words as he sharpens his rhetoric.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100401707.html