I noticed this on Sunday, and so did Jim Hoft, but I didn’t note it in my post because I figured I’d circle back to it in the OOTD list.  A few commenters noted it immediately, though, so we weren’t alone in finding that the President didn’t read through Psalm 46 carefully before reading it aloud at the Ground Zero commemoration of 9/11:

“Bow” is pronounced with a long O when discussing the weapon, rhyming naturally with “arrow,” which is the context for God breaking the bow and spear. “Bow” in the way Obama pronounces it here means a gesture of bending at the waist, or the front of a boat. (One could include the homophone for a tree branch, but “bough” is spelled differently.) Had the President read through the Psalm for comprehension before addressing the crowd, he would have known which context of “bow” to use, and pronounced it accordingly.

As Jim says, “It sure is a good thing his last name isn’t Bush.”

Update: Homophone, not homonym.  Thanks to reader Bobby R for the reminder.

Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at [email protected] with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I’ll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I’ll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.

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