Agonist (via Melissa and Amanda) reports that "comma" is a dog-whistle code word that Bush used to signal to the Fundies:
The phrase is: "Never put a period where God has put a comma." Which is to say - it ain't over yet, and God may well make it better. So Iraq's bad, but if we trust in God, he'll make it better.
Mark Liberman of Language Log, after a couple of funny riffs on "comma", starts digging into the dog-whistle theory and uncovers the antcecedents here and here.
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I think that Gawd ain't gonna make it better until Bush offers up a little sacrifice. Something like shipping off his twin daughters to Fallujah to replace my brother and his son.
I mean, it's not like they're employed or anything.
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I'm puzzled by the whole comma thing: isn't that a UCC call for tolerance? I wouldn't associate with fundamentalism.
As Mike said, this still doesn't add up. The UCC is the religious LEFT, not the religious right.
And I have no idea what Gracie Allen's religion was, but I'll bet she wasn't a fundie.
You know - maybe it's because I'm a language teacher, but I couldn't understand the puzzlement over that figure of speech. He probably got it from Miss Reading Fool Laura, true, but it seemed clear to me. I don't think it's a dog whistle, because the people he whistles at (how apt that they're dogs) are very fond of periods. And the UCC isn't exactly on their friends list.
On the other hand, Little Lord Pontchartrain did misappropriate "No Child Left Behind."
The fundie catch-phrase, IIRC, is "never put a question mark where God put a period" or something very close.