A study of the words which American President George Bush uses to browbeat Congress shows that his language becomes most categorical when he is dealing with “the culture of life”. The mother of all threats is “veto”, a word which Mr Bush mentioned 41 times in his first term. However, most of these involved merely “recommending” a veto over various budgetary concerns. All but 5 of the 17 times when he stated unequivocally that he would veto something dealt with just 3 topics: lifting sanctions on communist Cuba, allowing Federal funds to support abortion abroad, or expanding federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

Reading the tea leaves of Mr Bush’s statements has suddenly become significant since he may have to veto a stem cell research bill which passed the House of Representatives recently. Up until how he has never vetoed a bill.

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