Mo on the Media

Spurred on by this post by mark_argent I have decided to do an analysis of the quote's presentation on the various transcripts. Here is the original quote, sans punctuation and capitalization of non-proper nouns:

the truth of the matter is if you listen carefully Saddam would still be in power if he were president of the United States and the world would be a lot better off

A. Here we have the Commission on Presidential Debates, the Washington Post, and CNN.com:
The truth of that matter is, if you listen carefully, Saddam would still be in power if he were the president of the United States, "And the world would be a lot better off."

B. Next is the New York Times:
The truth of the matter is if you listen carefully Saddam would still be in power if he were the president of the United States. And the world would be a lot better off.

C. The Sacramento Bee, as transcribed by e-Media Millworks, Inc.:
The truth of that matter is, if you listen carefully, Saddam would still be in power if he were the president of the United States, And the world would be a lot better off.

D. Both the PR Newswire and Yahoo News do this:
The truth of the matter is, if you listen carefully, Saddam would still be in power if he were the President of the United States, and the world would be a lot better off. [sic]

Version A punctuates Bush's statement as if he meant it. With the quotes around the last clause those news sources cause the reader to understand the Bush using sarcasm to illustrate a point. However, it is awkward, even in context, since those sites had Bush quoting Kerry just before. Versions B and C present the quote as a mistake, and even call attention to it by having the last clause be a stand-alone statement. Although version C is grammatically incorrect, because it is written with either the comma instead of a period or an accidental capitalization, the effect is most similar to version B.

The most striking of these transcripts is Version D. This one actually calls attention to the mistake with the "[sic]" which was most used by most of the sites when Bush said "internets" and called Kerry "Kennedy" and when Kerry said "OGBYNs."

I would like to suggest the following examples for punctuating the quote:

The truth of the matter is! If you listen, carefully Saddam would still be in power if he were president of the United States, and the world would be a lot better off.

The truth [sic] of the matter is, "If you listen carefully." "Saddam" would still be in power if he were President of the United States and the World. Would be a lot better off?