Going Nucular

"You can't say nuclear; that really scares me," sings the cartoon Kerry to the cartoon Bush in Gregg and Evan Spiridellis' satirical short This Land. It bothers me too. But as Nick mentions, Jimmy Carter, a featured speaker at the Democratic convention yesterday, has the same problem, despite his service as a nuclear engineer in the Navy. (Maybe it's a regional trait; do all Southern politicians have trouble pronouncing the word?) While Carter was generally regarded as smart (though ineffectual) despite his tendency to say "nucular," Bush's mispronunciation is widely seen as a sign of his stupidity.