How much does George Wubblewoo Bush love the word “awesome”? Awesome.

On Memorial Day, President Bush paid tribute to the troops and their families at Arlington National Cemetery. Of the men and women buried there, President Bush declared, “They’re an awesome bunch of people, and the United States is blessed to have such citizens.”

What else is awesome? Just about everything. “Thank you, Your Holiness,” the president publicly said to Pope Benedict XVI in mid-April when he became only the second pope in history to visit the White House. “Awesome speech.”

Not that it wasn’t, but really. Awesome speech, Mr. Pope? It’s one thing to hear Ellen Page, the young and radiant star of “Juno,” saying, as she did in a December New York Times piece: “I always want to dress up like an animal or something really obscure, like a carrot or a wrench. That would be awesome.” But it’s quite another to hear the president of the United States use the word. With the freaking pope.