Bush's latest gem: Leave before the job is done

US President George W Bush has added more gems to his long list of unintended gaffes including a claim that the fiscal year ended on February 30, and the remark: "The only way we can win is to leave before the job is done."

The list of famous "Bushisms" for 2006, released by the Global Language Monitor, which analyses and catalogues language trends, has listed "I'm the decider" (Bush's rejection of the request from seven former generals for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to step down) and "I use the Google" (in reference to the popular search engine) as the top two gaffes.

"Bushspeak" seems to be getting funnier by the year giving enough fodder to the "Bush industry" that writes books, compiles dictionaries, hosts websites, runs quizzes and games on what is jocularly referred to as "Bush wisdom".

Bushisms from two years ago like "We are ready for any unforseen event which may or may not happen" have been matched by equally dyslexic ones in the year gone by: "I want to be a war president; no president wants to be a war president."

Paul J J Payack, president of Global Language Monitor, said: "With fewer that 24 months remaining in the Bush presidency, word watchers worldwide are in a mad scramble to find a substitute for the near weekly faux pas presented by the president."

The rankings are nominated by language observers the world over and ranked with the help of Global Language Monitor's Predictive-Quantities Indicator (PQI).

The PQI is a proprietary algorithm that tracks words and phrases in print and electronic media, on the Internet and throughout the blogosphere. Words and phrases are tracked in relation to their frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets.

Other Bushisms on the list include "It was not always certain that the US and America would have a close relationship"; "Ive got an ek-a-lec-tic reading list"; "When the final history is written on Iraq, it will look just like a comma"; "The Congress was right to renew the Terrorist Act".

Bush has so far not disappointed those who are tracking Bushspeak-2007. He has already delivered a few gems that have been recorded for posterity on the many Bush websites (like toostupidtobepresident, the truthaboutgeorge, bushspeak, dubyaspeak, politicalhumor), in Bush games, in Bush quizzes and Bush blogs.

Here are a few samplers from 2007: "One of the common denominators that I have found is that expectations rise above that which is expected" (in the Los Angeles Times); "I don't care what the polls say. I don't. I'm doing what I think what is wrong" (New York Times); "Even if our strategy works exactly as planned, deadly acts of violence will continue, and we must expect more Iraqi and American casualties" (MSNBC).