President George W. Bush was supposed to be coasting his way to this week?s acceptance speech in New York, but is instead stirring up lots of political chatter with his trademark malapropisms.

Or, at least, that?s the gist of several news stories I?ve read so far today, including this one in The Washington Times that bears an odd mixed metaphor for a headline: ?Bush?s loose lips give Democrats more firepower.? What, is Bush a fire-breather? Does he spit bullets?

Anyway, the president?s statements that ?I don?t think you can win? the war on terrorism, that the coalition had a ?miscalculation? about post-war Iraq, and that the military campaign in Iraq had been a ?catastrophic success? have fed John Kerry and the Democrats some talking points. The Bush folks have explanations, of course, and not implausible ones: he meant that the war on terror won?t be won in a conventional sense, that the ?catastrophic success? was a better-than-anticipated military advance that left Iraqi soldiers disperse rather than crushed, thus leading to a ?miscalculation? about how the post-war insurgency would development, and so on.

Here?s my prediction: just as the term ?misunderestimated? originated in derision but then become proudly used by Bush?s supporters to indicate his ability to outmaneuver foes, so will terms like ?catastrophic success? end up being weapons in Republican pundits? arsenal, used in ways such as ?John Kerry?s efforts to put government in charge of your health care will be catastrophically successful unless you stop him.?

In other words, Bush?s loose lips may give the Republicans more firepower.