It would have been portrayed as stupid.
***
And speaking of stupid... on Leno, Obama made a joke at the expense of the mentally challenged.
“[Your bowling score was] very good, Mr. President,” Leno said sarcastically.What a fabulously lame excuse! On that theory, when you do or say something stupid, "I'm retarded" is an acceptable witticism. That theory is so...
It’s “like the Special Olympics or something,” the president said.
When asked about the remark, the White House said the president did not intend to offend.
“The president made an off-hand remark making fun of his own bowling that was in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics,” White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton said.
ADDED:
ADDED: Angolans give the Pope a turtle.
पोस्ट्स
१०० टिप्पण्या:
Wow, for someone who's supposed to be so eloquent - as we are preached to about daily by the Main Stream Press - one still gets the feeling from watching the President on Leno last night that he's Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time.
I can't help but think how the Special Olympics line would have been played by such as AlphaLib and hdhouse and freder and Zachary and Dtl and every other well meaning but knee-jerk liberal if the exact same thing was said by George W Bush.
Yeah - I'm calling your lovable but hypocritical asses out. 7 years of your Bush is "dumb and soooo embarrassing" shit. You boys just got served.
Oh and for the Jon Stewart Dittoheads:
Looking forward to the hay the noble and so very smart Mr Stewart will make of Obama and his bowling/Special Olympics remark.
Oh that's right. Stewart can't - no real balls. His are plastic and have a string tied to the DNC.
Too bad.
I think the Host covered everything that was on my list.
OK, I'm normally not big on political correctness. But that Special Olympics crack was beyond the pale. Really. I cannot believe he said that.
I'd love for a bowler with Down Syndrome to challenge him to a match and kick his butt.
And furthermore, when did the lack of intent to offend EVER get anyone off the hook? Ever?
Wow. We've elected one of the few people in America who can make Bush look like a genius. Good job, Democrats!
The Special Olympics line was a weak attempt at self-deprecating humor on the President's part. With his massive ego, I'll take all the self-deprecating attempts we can get. It appears he was relaxed and talking to Leno as one guy to another. Cut him some slack.
By jumping on him you're letting the libs set the rules of the game. Certainly they'd have been all over Bush for this and it would've been just as wrong. Why sink to their level?
Two of my brothers are retarded, so I can say this:
Obama bowls better than he presidents.
Special Olympics is about making huggers feel hugged.
There's nothing wrong with that joke.
Don't lie to kids.
"Imagine the reaction if Bush had given some world leader a set of DVDs that would only play on American DVD players."
Well, yes, Bush would have been tarred with it like that. But Obama is only partially to blame, like Clinton with the stupid button in Russia. Yes, Obama and Clinton are at fault for not stepping back and realising that a bargain basement collection of DVDs / a reset button in a box with a bow is not the best tool of international diplomacy. But the ones that really screwed it up -- changed it from uncomfortable and mildly embarassing to humiliating us all on the world stage -- are their idiot staffers. It's not like the bosses should have to check translations or DVD regions -- that way lies Carterism. Obama and Clinton were only a month into the job and can be excused for failing to realise the administration had been staffed up with morons.
No eloquence, no teleprompter.
Stupid comments, no teleprompter.
Stumbling, meandering dialogue, no teleprompter.
Is anyone on the sinister, er left side of the equation seeing the trend. I can't wait for his first big conference when he has to mingle with other leaders.
"Yo Blair", may seem like the wit of the soul, when compared to the One's Special Olympics bad attempt at self deprecation.
Low standards and double standards - they are democrat traditions.
Balfegor, who vetted and hired those stupid staffers you so quickly want to throw under the bus?
Why sink to their level?
You're confusing recognition of a general faux pas and the uneven response among the Main Stream Media and political liberals with the seriousness of this particular gaffe.
The President has done several things that - in the identical situation done or said by the previous President - are today getting the kid glove treatment. To observe that is to address the issue of fair and balanced treatment in journalism and that's fair game.
The substance of this particular comment by this President is an additional, separate issue. The thoughtlessness of what he said should be offensive to all good people. That doesn't mean he shouldn't be forgiven. He should be, especially because he obviously means no ill will towards the disabled. He simply made a poor judgment call on an attempt at humor.
But to discuss the treatment of his thoughtless remark is more than fair. In fact - it's a community service.
Dudley Do-Right it seemed to work very well for the left, why should we not pursue the same scorched earth policy when it comes to the One's gaffes?
Once again, we must now think about how Obama's faux pas will play to the rest of the world.
That he's given an automatic pass by many of his followers, is predictable.
President Barack Gump quotes:
"The best thing about being the President is the food! Now, since it was all free, and I wasn't hungry but thirsty, I must've drank me fifteen Dr. Peppers. Now I gotta pee.
Vice President Jooooe. Iiiiice creeeam!
Michelle always has a way of explaining things so I can understand them. Me and Michelle goes together like peas and carrots.
obama wants the olympics in Chicago.Actually chicago is doing a good job on olympic awareness. The posters are rather motivating to me to get moving and that is what the olympics should be about to everyone, if you are special or not.Obama is to mention the word olympics in someway. You know that is how it goes, ann, for advertising in blogs. Or don't you have a pr arrangement where you mention the brand of a chair, or the restaurant you are eating at.
This is how modern day, let's just call it word of mouth, works. You are doing the very same thing on your blog.
Judge not, for least you shall be judged or just the law professor.
The fact that he gave the man DVDs in the first place is embarrassing add the fact that the world leader was treated like a second class tourist makes the Messiah look reay retarded. Then the blessed doormat gives another world leader a cheap plastic button. Talk about stupid. Worse, they actually defended their actions.
Of course then we have the bailout bill that the Democrats wrote in secret, passed and the Chosen One signed; the bill that allowed the bonuses to AIG. The bonuses that everyone who passed the bill and the Messsiah who signed are so outraged about. Now they are denying the whole thing and pointing fingers in all directions.
Retard is to kind a word to describe these people and their actions. Hey, since a these retards are so infatuated by Hollywood, maybe Jerry Lewis can hold a telethon in Washington.
They could all be Jerry's Kids.
"Special Olympics is about making huggers feel hugged.
There's nothing wrong with that joke.
Don't lie to kids."
RH Hardin, people with intellectual disabilities are confronted with that fact every day of their lives. It's kind of bad if one of the only venues that they have where they are competing against each other as people and where they have some chance of success, such as you and I can take for granted, is used by Pres. Obama as some kind of joke to describe his poor bowling skills. What would you consider "not lying to kids" to be? "You are a worthless joke whose life can be used to illustrate incompetence"?
I missed all the drama fellow republicans.
There is quite a bit to be angry about today, and dismayed too.
But I can't. I did an Iranian cab driver last night. He was hot. It was hot. I was hot. I need a nap.
Love you all to death.
"Imagine the reaction if Bush had given some world leader a set of DVDs that would only play on American DVD players."
They gave a Region 1 set? To a person living in Great Britain???
Someone in Obama's staff needs a swift hand to the back of their head. I agree with Balfegor: Obama's White House is staffed with morons.
Balfegor, who vetted and hired those stupid staffers you so quickly want to throw under the bus?
I expect most of them were just taken out of the general pool of Democratic political hacks and operatives and so on. We know the Obama administration has possibly the most ineffective and incompetent vetting team of all time. But is that Obama's responsibility? Kind of yes, but in a real way, no -- he's reliant on the Democratic party elite to filter up the people who can do the job. The man isn't a Bush or a Kennedy or a Clinton -- he doesn't come with his own faction of the party, full of people he knows and trusts, who've worked with his family for years (for better or worse). He needs to turn to his party, and the better connected people in his party to filter up competent personnel, since he can't just staff everything up with goons from the Chicago machine. Clearly, the Democratic party bosses have failed him.
"But the ones that really screwed it up are their idiot staffers. It's not like the bosses should have to check translations or DVD regions -- that way lies Carterism."
Bullshit. "Ready from Day One" was the mantra. The Executive can't be judged by the quality of his staff now? Is that "the rules have changed" item #782 on the list?
Hell, didn't I just hear "The buck stops here" from The Man yesterday? Do those words even mean anything to him, or was it just another self-serving platitude?
The man is an accident waiting to happen. And I don't mean these little accidents. I mean a big-ass one. The Rosie of accidents.
God help us.
David G,
What he actually meant was the campiagn buck stops here.
Cut him some slack folks. He obviously cares deeply about retards.
Look who he picked for his Vice President.
Hell, didn't I just hear "The buck stops here" from The Man yesterday? Do those words even mean anything to him, or was it just another self-serving platitude?
Since he denied responsibility right after taking it, I'm opting for self-serving platitude.
"I agree with Balfegor: Obama's White House is staffed with morons."
The ACORN bench is not very deep.
It was elementary school humor.
He's just a little boy.
I agree with Peter: Who gives DVDs to a world leader? Bizarre! Ignore the fact that they only play on American DVD player. Seriously. DVDs?
Should have given 'em 8-track tapes -- at least that would look retro.
Where are the "he's ony been in office x amount of days folks now? Are they wiping egg off of their faces?
Actually we should be very proud as a tolerant nation. We have made history and a legacy is in the making. We have elected the first retards as President and Vice President. It was a "Special Election".
RH and Dudley, I'm the father of a physically handicapped son, and in my past life I've been a timer and hugger at Special Olympics from before he was born. I have never viewed the current President with any respect, but after these moronic gaffes I have a level of contempt for the man that I doubt either of you have enough working brain cells to comprehend.
And now that goes for the two of you, too.
Someone in Obama's staff needs a swift hand to the back of their head. I agree with Balfegor: Obama's White House is staffed with morons.
There has to be a lot more to the DVD story than we know. Rationale?
There are a number of world class functions that go on behind the scenes at the WH. The WH Communications Office, staffed by DoD for example. The Travel Office :) The House Keeping Staff, The Secret Service. And
Lastly the WH Protocol Office. The folks that do the seating charts for State Dinners, engraved Invitations, haul out the Flag of Upper Volta of the PM's visit, etc. They are either long term staff or loaned for State.
I can't believe that the people (non-politicals) who gave thousands of offical gifts to dignitaries during the Bush years, and received thousands from visitors all of a sudden decided to use Walmart and the WH gift shop as the source for State Presents.
I suspect that there is a back story here. Perhaps like the Clinton Travel Office fiasco.
Nobody is that dumb at the Protocol Office. Rahm or Michelle must have some fingerprints on a staffing change here.
If you listen very very carefully you can actually hear Bush laughing his ass off.
Hoosier Daddy said...
If you listen very very carefully you can actually hear Bush laughing his ass off.
Changing the subject slightly, the MilBlogger community is fairly incensed by the MSM carrying water for the WH over the fact that Michelle has made Military Families (a cause she says she discovered last year) one of her First Lady causes.
Team Obama even went as far as to suggest that military families "had probably have never been invited to the White House."
Didn't Obama learn anything from McCain about what happens when you gratuitously insult your base?
No, giving American DVDs was actually very gracious. Obama's way of saying, "We're SUCH good friends that I want you to come back over and watch these with me!"
Here's a story for everyone who's so surprised at President Obama's behavior.
On Nov. 3, 1993 I spent the entire day in traction in a hospital bed with a broken hip. All day long, the TV had commercials for personal injury lawyers. The message, all day long, was "You're hurt! Somebody owes you money! And I'm the one to get it for you!" After 12 hours of this, I was ready to sue someone for my own stupidity in falling off a ladder. For my own stupidity! I'm against that sort of thing on principle, but it really started to sound good after a while.
The message: One CANNOT, I repeat, CANNOT listen for 20 years of Sundays to "God damn America!" and not be affected by it, or start to believe it. One CANNOT, and again I repeat, CANNOT be friends with an unrepentant, terrorist radical and not share at least some of his beliefs.
Those who do not understand that principle are very poor judges of human character.
I couldn't help but think of the contrast with what Palin talked about during the campaign, with her child.
Obama comes off, as usual, as the high-school class president rather than the nation's president. It's all a popularity game to him.
Obama is a man of his times. He definitely has the mentality of a twenty-something. Anybody disagree?
How pathetic...but funny in a "we told you so!" way.
And good to see you back, Pogo. :)
"30 Rock" fans know that there is a very rationale explanation for all of this: Obama has lived his whole life "in the bubble."
http://hesgotallkindsoftime.blogspot.com/2009/03/obama-in-bubble.html
And to think they have ostracized Crazy Uncle Joe for fear of embarrasment...
Dudley Do-right said...
By jumping on him you're letting the libs set the rules of the game. Certainly they'd have been all over Bush for this and it would've been just as wrong. Why sink to their level?
Pointing out the disparate treatment Obama enjoys is not "jumping on" Obama, it's calling out his hypocritical synchophants in the press and elsewhere.
Anyone who suggests that Obama has ever made a mistake is a racist.
I don't think Bush is laughing. I think he is scared. As we all should be.
Thanks for the "acceptable witticism" comment. My own personal quest is to make "Retarded" as culturally unacceptable as "Nigger".
"My own personal quest is to make "Retarded" as culturally unacceptable..."
It's a fine word.
My two brothers are retarded. I have no problem with that word at all.
PC is fascism.
Dudley Do-right said
By jumping on him you're letting the libs set the rules of the game. Certainly they'd have been all over Bush for this and it would've been just as wrong. Why sink to their level?
Yeah and we'll polite ourselves to extinction. This is not about getting even for the left's rhetorical excesses and nuttiness, although a certain amount of schadenfreude is inevitable for those of who did not drink the koolaid.
To use the left's favorite phrase; it about speaking truth to power. These ass clowns are bumbling our future away.
Randolph Duke: He bowled a 128? That's pathetic.
Mortimer Duke: Of course it's pathetic Randolph. He's a Negro. Probably been playing basketball since he could crawl.
Trading Places, The Deleted Scenes
It is only the "Extra Chromosome Republicans"* That are hitting Obama for this.
* Remember Al Gore?
* Remember Al Gore?
Trying to forget. Thanks.
Pogo,
It's a fine word, as a diagnosis, not as a slur.
Dee dee deeeee.
It was a dumb remark and certainly was not meant in a malicious way. I say something stupid every day of my life, and my first impulse was to give Obama a pass on it. But what bothers is not the stupidity of the remark but the ineptitude of it. A President simply should not be this clumsy. It's bothersome.
Am I the only person who thinks that the the whole Special Olympics thing was set up?
Think about it- he worked this not really all that bad "gaffe" into the discussion for no apparent reason, then called the chairman of the organization to apologize before the show even aired- Bingo- it's all anyone's talking about today (avoiding all focus on, you know, the actual job he's doing).
There is a necessary learning curve for the job. I pray that Obama is willing to learn the new tricks of being the American President. The staff he runs with seem to think that tearing down our Government is a first necessary step to creating a new just world for all of us Socialist Workers. Their targets are (1)private property, and (2) voting rights honestly counted in the hands of an armed citizenry. I pray Obama learns more tricks than a Chavez style of Leadership.
Am I the only one to find some humor in the fact that after Obama compared himself disparagingly to an organization that benefits those who are mentally challenged, representatives of that group take offense at the comparison, as if to say, "well we may represent the mentally challenged, but at least the mentally challenged are not Obama (without a teleprompter)!"
"Imagine the reaction if Bush had given some world leader a set of DVDs that would only play on American DVD players."
Hey, I'm with Obama on this. If that limey wants to watch American movies he can damned well buy an American DVD player to do it. We need all the stimulus we can get.
You know who really doesn't like jokes about retarded people? Women.
Christopher Hitchens is/was right that women don't have a sense of humor.
...also, all the outraged female posters here (and at hotair) keep talking about children as if Obama singled out mentally handicapped toddlers.
Women are the reason clint eastwood tell a joke anymore.
This really doesn't deserve an "Obama is like Bush moment" tag.
I don't know if you have one (as I'm too lazy to check), but a better label would probably be "Imagine if Bush did it".
Sorry, just drop "moment" from my previous post.
William said: "It was a dumb remark and certainly was not meant in a malicious way. I say something stupid every day of my life, and my first impulse was to give Obama a pass on it. But what bothers is not the stupidity of the remark but the ineptitude of it."
I partially agree.
But what bothers me about the comment isn't its ineptitude, but the underlying hatred and contempt for his fellow man. No, it wasn't meant to be malicious -- but it's the inadvertent acts of malice that are more telling.
He was attempting self-deprecating humor, and this is so unnatural on his part, so forced, that he ended up subconsciously short-circuiting his own attempt. Inside, Obama knows that he's superior to everyone else; and he feels a mingling of contempt, disgust, and pity for everyone else, save a few leftist intellectuals that he might consider his near-equal.
He did the same thing when he "took responsibility" for the AIG mess, by saying we "will" take responsibility, "even if I'm not responsible", and that it's his job to clean up the mess, even if he didn't make it -- a non-apology apology: "I'm sorry that you were offended." He's incapable of admitting error, and he's incapable of self-deprecating humor.
In short, he's an asshole.
And the fact that the left savaged Palin for having a child with Downs, instead of aborting him, makes this sort of "joke" all the more sickening.
Haha, I get it. First Rush Limbaugh is the face of the Republican party. Now, It's all about Sara Palin again (ohhhh babies with disabilities!). How's Bristol's wedding going guys?
UWS Guy said: "You know who really doesn't like jokes about retarded people? Women."
I don't much care for them either, and the last time I checked, I possessed a set of testicles. My sister has a mild mental disability, but even if this weren't true, I don't think I'd find Obama's comment amusing.
Part of this is who it's coming from: A POTUS (or TOTUS) can't really get away with using the same material as Redd Foxx or Cheech and Chong. It doesn't really play the same. And the fact that it's coming from one of the most arrogant, disdainful, contemptuous pricks I've ever seen really turns it sour in a big hurry. Combine that with the whole Palin character assassination, and it makes me want to beat the shit out of him.
And speaking of stupid . . . on Leno, Obama made a joke at the expense of the mentally challenged.
Maybe there’s a business opportunity in all this.
Maybe someone can print up a batch of this patchwork thingy bearing the Presidential Seal. Link.
Pastafarian just had got the vapors because POTUS made a funny about bowling in the special olympics.
Sickening! Shocking! If the camera had panned around , A-murrica woulda seen dainty types fainting in the Leno studio!
Obviously painting the President as a moron (telepromter) or evil (retard jokes) worked for democrats last time around.
Keep it up and Obama will get a second term.
uh uh uh so uh but uh uh and uh uh uhhh uh uh
(Barak's response to this fucking thread.)
UWS guy said: "How's Bristol's wedding going guys?"
Huh?
Wow, ziiinnnggg -- you really nailed us to the wall on that one. In light of her teen daughter's failed romance, I'm so grateful and relieved that we dodged that whole Palin bullet. I mean, she was unqualified, and inexperienced. Think of the mistakes that she might have made, like giving a cheap set of US-only DVDs to the leader of one of our most important allies; crushing future generations under mountains of debt; putting ACORN in charge of the census; and on and on and on.
Oh, and she shoots moose, too. That bitch.
You forgot uppity pastafarian in your list of attributes Mr. Obama has that you don't cotton too.
Does anyone have the video of Obama's gaff with thanking himself? Surely someone is taping CNN to prevent this kind of whitewashing.
UWS, if we can hold him to just 2 terms, I'll be satisfied (and amazed). At that point, we can begin straggling out of our bunkers and start rebuilding the economic post-apocalyptic wasteland that will be left for us.
And no, I don't think that I have "the vapors" -- I think that this is an imaginary and antiquated affliction of women, some variation of hysteria, isn't it? Again, although I'm not sure what this has to do with this discussion, I have external genitalia. Why you have to keep returning to this thesis that only women find this sort of humor offensive is...puzzling.
UWS guy said: "You forgot uppity pastafarian in your list of attributes Mr. Obama has that you don't cotton too"
You're calling me a racist now?
Go fuck yourself, UWS guy.
You don't know me. You don't know what race I am. I've said nothing here that can be remotely construed as racist; and all that you know of me is what I've written in these comments.
I'm going back to work now, to earn money for my betters to funnel to ACORN, so that they can use it to create imaginary voters in Ohio to cancel out my vote. Please continue to lob ad hom attacks in my absence.
Chill chill it's all in good fun. As was Obama's joke.
Just remember everyone, George Bush doesn't hate black people. Obama hates the handicapped!
I'm sure his teleprompter was out on the wings of the stage waiting with baited anticipation at wanting to leap out and give him the right thing to say. Mr. Barely has completely cemented his incompetence on light night television and his sycophantic cock-sucking ladies-in-waiting are all ready to get on their golden knee pads and show him how grateful they are that he is their little black jesus and swallow his junk in apt appreciation.
In other news, Andrew Sullivan is sullen and dower.
Just remember everyone, George Bush doesn't hate black people. Obama hates the handicapped!
Obama doesn't hate the handicapped -- he's just a bit of a socially insensitive ass is all.
Balfegor said...
Obama doesn't hate the handicapped -- he's just a bit of a socially incompetent ass is all.
Fixed for truth.
Special Olympics Champ to Barack: Bring it On!
The WH had no comment.
So he DID give them the DVD's from the wrong region. Damn, dude, weren't you the one saying we're all a bunch of uncultured bufoons?
Well, I can say more than Merci Beaucoup en francais and I knew that england needs different dvd's.
Absolutely pathetic. It would be funny if it didn't make us all look like idiots.
So he DID give them the DVD's from the wrong region. Damn, dude, weren't you the one saying we're all a bunch of uncultured bufoons?
I think he could redeem himself if at his first meeting with Dinnerjacket he presents him with the Director's Cut of the 300.
Liberals have a history of mocking retards:
Voting for Bush is Like Running in the Special Olympics...
Keep it up and Obama will get a second term.
If he keeps lying and covering up for the rest of the Democrat poltroons, he may not last one term.
@Host:
"But to discuss the treatment of his thoughtless remark is more than fair. In fact - it's a community service."
It's more than that. It's The Highest Form of Patriotism (TM).
Balfegor,
As Harry Truman said, the buck stops here. No matter what the staffer did or did not do, it was up to Bambi to make sure the arrangements were carried out right. He did not and then he blames the staff. He takes no blame himself. Very much unclassy of him. He should have taken the staffer aside and chewed him out but he should have taken responsibility himself. I would never have voted for this turkey and this is just another example of why I would not have.
As Harry Truman said, the buck stops here. No matter what the staffer did or did not do, it was up to Bambi to make sure the arrangements were carried out right. He did not and then he blames the staff. He takes no blame himself. Very much unclassy of him. He should have taken the staffer aside and chewed him out but he should have taken responsibility himself. I would never have voted for this turkey and this is just another example of why I would not have.
I'm not thinking about this as one of situations where one is expected to man up and "take responsibility." I'm thinking about whether he's actually responsible here, as in, whether he caused the problem somehow. And I don't think he did. Even if the man were brilliant and hard-working -- something for which I see precious little evidence these days -- what could he do about the fact that the pool of talent he's drawing from seems to be filled with fools, knaves, and halfwits? You might say he ought to start drawing from a different pool, viz. a pool of competent, serious people -- and it's not like there's no Democrats who would have fit the bill just fine. But he's operating within tight constraints here. He owes favours to the particular interest groups that got him elected. He owes favours to the people who supported him. And he doesn't actually have much of a power base of his own, with trustworthy (to him) people he's worked with for years who are actually qualified to do this kind of thing -- the people he's worked with for years are all small-time Chicago fixers and politicians, and can't help him here. How's he going to get access to a competent pool if his more experienced handlers don't help him out? Sure, he's "responsible," but it looks like circumstances -- his party and the factions of the party that supported him -- have set him up for failure. I find it hard to really blame him for it. He had no idea what he was getting himself into. How could he?
So the man spent 2-1/2 years campaigning for an office and disregarded the duties of the office he had been elected to and now because his staff lets him down after he has promised to be responsible I am supposed to say he just didn't realize so he is not responsible? At what point then does he take responsibility for what is happening on his watch?
We have just spent 8 years blaming Bush for everything that went wrong. Hangnails? Bush. Floods and the gov didn't release the NG? Bush. Buses left to be flooded when they were supposed to used to transport people in emergencies? Bush. Wife or husband dumped you? Bush. Congress disregarded Bush's request to tighten up the regs on mortgages and the bankers got stuck with bad loans? Bush.
Yet now, new president in office. Stupid gifts that won't work for Brit PM? Staff. Bad vetting for appointments? Staff. Terrible remarks about Special Olympics? Staff didn't tell him. Teleprompter out of sync? Staff.
Sorry but after 8 years of seeing the president blamed for everything, even things he had nothing to do with at all, I think this new guy, even though I cannot fathom why anyone voted for him, has to take his lumps for what his staff has done. They screwed up, true, but at the time of the actual presentation of the gifts, Obama was the one who handed them over and he did it as if it were a great gift and just what the PM should want. He could have stopped the process right there, and with something as chintzy as a set of 25 movies he should have done just that. He chose not to. He also chose to give a gift from the White House souvenir shop for the kiddies. Unbelievable chutzpah.
Stupid gifts that won't work for Brit PM? Staff. Bad vetting for appointments? Staff. Terrible remarks about Special Olympics? Staff didn't tell him. Teleprompter out of sync? Staff.
Is anyone seriously surprised?
During the campaign this was the pattern. One case -- *He* didn't write the answers on the questionnaire issued in his name. Some staffer scribbled answers in Obama's handwriting.
Ann - Why do you get so upset about DVD's, but not one post on how they never found WMD's in Iraq? Not one post condemning torture.
Strange set of priorities.
I also have no problem making fun of retarded people. If a friend of mine was carrying a fetus with Down Syndrome and they wanted my advice, I'd say abort it.
Sorry but after 8 years of seeing the president blamed for everything, even things he had nothing to do with at all, I think this new guy, even though I cannot fathom why anyone voted for him, has to take his lumps for what his staff has done.
See, I'm not sure why two wrongs make a right. I have, as is pretty obvious, I should think, a rather low opinion of Obama and his abilities. He's lazy, lacks leadership, and appears to be totally uninterested in the needs of his office -- he prefers to daydream about universal healthcare and punitive taxation or whatever, rather than addressing the problem that actually faces him, viz. a broken financial system and an imperiled economy.
But I don't think it's fair to tar him for things he really doesn't have control over. The decision to hand over DVDs in a state exchange of gifts with one of the USA's closest allies? Sure. That was dumb. But blaming him for his lackwit assistants not knowing about DVD region codes? That's something so obvious you wouldn't even think to check. It's dumb and it embarrasses us all, but it's not something I think he's responsible for. It really is a problem of idiot staff.
Balfegor,
Whether it is something you should have checked but didn't or not because it was so obvious. The fact is that the gift was handed over and the Brits are still up in arms about it. It is still being reported there as an indication of how they are considered by this administration. He can take his staff aside and chew ass all he wants. It is still his name that is involved and his gift to the PM, not the staff's. He is the primary one responsible for it.
As I said, for 8 years we have heard from all the wonderful not-so-loyal opposition whenever they could that it was Bush's fault. Now all of a sudden we have to start blaming the staff? Who picked the staff? Who is responsible for seeing to it that the vetting is properly done? The Big O holds the ultimate repsonsibilty and the Big O is the one who should be blamed.
Who picked the staff?
It's not clear to me that this is Obama. In fact, I'm pretty sure that, operationally, it's not Obama.
Who is responsible for seeing to it that the vetting is properly done?
His incompetent vetting team. But for lower level staffers, I don't see why there would be the same kind of vetting going on. No idea where the problem here originated specifically, but I would not be surprised if these were hires that wouldn't even cross his chief of staff's desk.
Again, the fact that Bush was unfairly tarred for this and that does not make it appropriate to tar Obama for this and that. Turnabout is not, in fact, fair play.
I'm starting a "What if Bush/Palin had said that?" file to go with my "Name That Party!" file.
"Obama and Clinton were only a month into the job and can be excused for failing to realise the administration had been staffed up with morons."
Total steaming bullshit. Respondeat superior, look it up. I have to live up to it in my own job. I expect no less from the man who would presume to lead my nation.
downtownlad said...
I also have no problem making fun of retarded people. If a friend of mine was carrying a fetus with Down Syndrome and they wanted my advice, I'd say abort it.
Oh, you just wait until the day that someone finds the 'Gay' gene and they can test for it in utero just like Downs and then your friend asks you for advice on what to do. What will your answer be then tough guy? Your particular type of genocidal insanity is dangerous not because it comes from an alleged hysterical queer, but because your probably believe your own line of bullshit. All the little flitty, lisping, arm-waving, derangement of it all.
I think what we're really seeing is more reporting of government mistakes. The media got into the habit of reporting every tiny mistake a President or his staff makes. That habit didn't go away once W. left, and it's simply continuing to function.
I don't think Obama or his staff is particularly incompetent. I think that a media used to criticizing every mistake W. made is simply continuing to tread on the same well-worn path.
Granted, the liberals aren't reporting it they way they would if Bush did it. Is this surprising? Why should they? I don't remember conservative media harping on Bush every time he mispoke. But the story still exists in the first place, which means someone noticed and decided to report it. That didn't used to happen to the extent it does today.
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