For Bush, a Powerful Lesson in the Peril of Negative Thinking

There was a lesson for President Bush Wednesday on how perilous it can be to attack a political opponent.

Citing a speech by Bill Clinton, Bush suggested that the Democratic presidential candidate had called the United States “powerless.”

The President told students at Penn State University: “I will ask him what the heck he’s talking about when he describes a President’s--quote--here’s what he called it--a President’s ‘powerless moments when countries are invaded, friends are threatened, Americans are held hostage and our nation’s interests are on the line.’

“Well, let me say, Gov. Clinton . . . . My America is not powerless. My America takes care of its interests. And when we have to fight, we’re willing to do it if the cause is just.” His statement was met with a welling of applause.

But wait a minute: The word Clinton used, according to a reporter who attended the Aug. 13 speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, was not powerless, but perilous.

The Federal News Service, a private transcription service, misunderstood Clinton’s Arkansas drawl and made perilous into powerless-- changing the meaning of the sentence and luring Bush into a misdirected jab.

Told about the error, a White House spokesman said only: “Oh.”