science

Strategery

Strategery is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Strategery rather than just read about it. In short: The word "strategery" ( strə-TEE-jər-ee) was used in a Saturday Night Live sketch, written by James Downey, airing October 7, 2000, which satirized the performances of George W. Bush and Al Gore, two candidates for President of the United States, during the first presidential debate for election year 2000.

Key takeaways

Strategery belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Strategery to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Strategery from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The word "strategery" ( strə-TEE-jər-ee) was used in a Saturday Night Live sketch, written by James Downey, airing October 7, 2000, which satirized the performances of George W. Bush and Al Gore, two candidates for President of the United States, during the first presidential debate for election year 2000. Bush, played by comedian Will Ferrell, when asked by a mock debate moderator to "sum up, in a single word, the best argument for his candidacy", replied "strategery" (a mock-Bushism playing on the word "strategy"), satirizing Bush's reputation for mispronouncing words. SNL later released the episode as part of a video tape titled Presidential Bash 2000.

Becoming a Bush catchphrase After the 2000 presidential election, people inside the Bush White House reportedly began using the term as a joke, but it later became a term of art meaning the oversight of any activity by Bush's political consultants. Bush's strategists also came to be known within the White House as "The Department of Strategery", or the "Strategery Group". Affectionately embracing satirical portrayals has been a Bush tactic at other times as well, such as when he presented a self-parodying slide show at the May 2004 Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner about looking for weapons of mass destruction in the Oval Office after the political comic strip Doonesbury satirically portrayed him on a similar comical search. The term became widely used in comic and popular discourse across the political spectrum. Rush Limbaugh picked up the usage soon after the SNL airing. A trial exhibit from the 2007 "Scooter" Libby trial included the term, in Libby's daily schedule for June 10, 2003, which showed that Libby had a 6:00 pm "Strategery Meeting" scheduled to last 90 minutes. In a 2017 interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Bush recalled a joke argument with SNL's Lorne Michaels about whether an SNL writer or Bush himself had actually coined the term.

Other uses Sarah Palin used the term in a 2010 interview with Bill O'Reilly on his television show, The O'Reilly Factor. Speaking of Charles Krauthammer and his political contacts, Palin commented "they're meeting people and they're doing their strategery". The term is also a centerpiece of the fictitious firm Strategery Capital Management, LLC, a satirical website, which mocks the Treasury's $700 billion "Troubled Asset Rescue Plan" (which itself is a spoof of the real-world Troubled Asset Relief Program, which Bush signed into law in 2008). A White House reporter, during a September 29, 2009, press briefing, began a question for press secretary Robert Gibbs with "From the standpoint of leverage or strategery..." The question, about Iran, drew laughs and a quip from Gibbs. Shepard Smith, on his evening news program The FOX Report with Shepard Smith on July 10, 2012, described London officials' quoted "overall strategery" in placing anti-aircraft missiles on apartment buildings during the London Olympics. The official podcast of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas is called The Strategerist.

See also Bushism U.S. Presidents IQ hoax History of Saturday Night Live

Notes

References Itskoff, Dave 'SNL' Writer Narrows The Gap Between Politics and Farce, New York Times, March 3, 2008 Saturday Night Live: Presidential Bash 2000 at IMDb

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Strategery

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Strategery claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Strategery before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Strategery ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Strategery

In research: Strategery appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Strategery in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Strategery is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2000s neologisms, American political catchphrases, George W. Bush 2000 presidential campaign, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Strategery outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Strategery in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Strategery means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Strategery out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Strategery in simple terms?

Why does Strategery matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Strategery?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Strategery.