So much good will squandered:
[David] Axelrod's daughter, Lauren, is a longtime Special Olympian who has competed in swimming and track and field events. His wife, Susan, was part of a delegation led last month by Vice President Joe Biden to the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Boise, Idaho.One punchline tossed on Leno far overshadows all that real connection that his administration had here. And it's especially sad because (I don't think) Obama was just spouting a new joke that sprang into his head. I think it was a scripted punchline.
AND: He gave Sarah Palin a big opening:
"This was a degrading remark about our world's most precious and unique people, coming from the most powerful position in the world," fumed former GOP veep pick and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose youngest son, Trig, has Down syndrome.
"These athletes overcome more challenges, discrimination and adversity than most of us ever will," she added.
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139 comments:
Who cares if it was scripted? It was dumb. Period.
George Bush, as President and Commander in Chief, would not have made the mentally disabled mistake of going on a comedy talk show with the nation in midst of war and economic crisis.
I cut him lots of slack on it.
And who wants to be part of a PC mob.
Obama is horrifying for lots of good reasons, but not this one.
Who cares if it was scripted?
Another insight into the quality of his thought process.
As president of the United States he is held to the highest standard of behavior and thus far he has been severely lacking.
In 4 years he may emerge as a good president (and less arrogant individual) but it will be a very cold day in hell before voters elect another untested person to hold the highest office.
@Meade +1.
LD kids are taught how to manage their money, something else they probably do better than Obama.
"Just words."
Well, Obama is President now and he needs to realize that it's his damn job to be presidential all the time. That is really the issue more than the insensitivity of the remark itself.
Why is the President of the United States going on Leno and cracking one-liners like some has-been celebrity? It diminishes the dignity of the office.
Obama seems to think that he should just continue doing the things that worked for him during the campaign, which is a big mistake.
The Obama campaign continues for what reason? That is his only known skill. But now the news about his gaffes is not hidden anymore. It appears that some of the news media wants to play fair in public a little to redeem their total partisan effort for Obama 24/7 over the last 18 months. Will Michelle Obama permit this to go on for long? Who will begin to discipline these free thinking reporters? The Journolist knows. Stay tuned.
Hi Ann,
I would agree this did not look like a moment of spontaneous free flow. He said it as Jay was getting audience laughter on his somewhat sarcastic, "oh that's good" and putting his hand to his mouth and making big eyes. You can sense the audience laughter at Jay's physical comedy threw the One's timing off, as you can see it at play when he tells Jay and the audience, he bowled a 129.
He started to say it, but stopped at the audience laughter and then said it during the laughter, or in comedic sense he lost his timing.
ahhh the same Ms. Palin who cut off funding for the local program to benefit the same kids? that Ms. Palin?
The whole 'interview' was a rehearsed conversation. It was a joke played on the viewers who thought they might actually see a real interview.
hd - prove it. If I recall Sarah cut the percentage of increase not overall funding.
ahhh the same Ms. Palin who cut off funding for the local program to benefit the same kids? that Ms. Palin?
Irrelevant. Dignity and respect for handicapped persons is a separate issue from whether this or that gov't program aimed at the handicapped should be funded.
Dignity and respect for handicapped persons
Differently abled persons, surely.
Such dignity and respect is itself a joke.
A class of persons has no dignity. Just the opposite.
With the endlessly complex and overwheming issues facing the American people today, this one is actually amazingly simple.
Scripted or not, the President's remark, while regrettable and childish, is forgivable. It is obvious to every person of good will that Obama bears no ill will towards the disabled or their families or supporters of the Special Olympics. The awkward appearance and uproar are sufficent chastisement for a man new to his position.
The only real issue that matters here is the unexpected national reminder of the irrational hatred of President Bush, aided and abetted by the press. The treatment of Bush in an exact same situation would be fodder for their hatred, endlessly repeated and enshrined in a Michael Moore documentary. The surprise exposure of their hypocrisy and obvious discomfort being experienced by Bush haters is supremely delightful to those of us who called them out over the previous 8 years.
AlphaLiberal. hdhouse, garage, downtownlad, Freder, UWS . . .
Olberman, Maddow, Matthews, Milbank . . .
Helloooooooo?
So that's what your legs look like with your pants around your ankles!
Now, even the mentally disabled are taking their shots.
Some would say only the mentally disabled would dare criticize The One.
The Mongolian Candidate?
Special Olympics are huge, beyond the friends and family of the Special Olympians. Practically every friend I have has been coach and none are the parents or sibling of a participant. This was a bad slip indeed.
Obama is a retard. As in "to hold back".
He will retard our progress towards prosperity and freedom. With luck we will get him out of office in 2012 and be able to set right all of his retardedness.
Host is right.
The only reason that I care about this story is that it stands as clear evidence of the double standard in regards to media treatment.
Or put simply: Imagine if Bush had done it.
Oh, and as to the poll, it had to be planned as Obama doesn't do a damn thing extemporaneously.
hdhouse,
you are completely discredited on this issue unless you call out the President on his remarks.
Put up, dude, or shut up.
He gave Sarah Palin a big opening:
Which would actually be in his interest. Of all the possible Republican opponents he might face, Palin would be relatively likely to lead to a second Obama term.
President Obama can't do self-deprecation, he shouldn't even try. He's just not humble enough to pull it off.
Rather, he should just stick to his "No Drama Obama" schtick, and project the image of a likable, intelligent bore.
And it wouldn't hurt if he remained off camera for at least twelve hours. The more he talks, the more he appears to be a likable, intelligent incompetent.
If that was scripted, Obama is disappointingly stupid. It's only the idea that it was a cast-off, thoughtless remark that makes me wish to cut him some slack.
Let's see, the economy is a disaster and we are in two wars.
So let's worry about a dumb comment, scripted or otherwise.
Bush wouldn't have been on Leno, I think he had been medicated and put to bed by 9:00 pm.
Obama has made a long series of blunders, apparently the Boy Wonder needs some better staff work.
And God help the GOP is we nominate Palin in 2012.
Host with the Most said...
"The only real issue that matters here is the unexpected national reminder of the irrational hatred of President Bush"
irrational hatred? hello? do you hand out bonuses for AIG or something? you must to be that tone deaf.
and incidently, Ms. Palin needs a bigger hole to drive her SUV through than Mr. Obama gave her if he didn't just open up a trap...
Don't distract from these kids though with roughhouse political arguments. They are more important than anything said on this blog or on the airwaves and particularly in the political arena.
I've got two retarded brothers, and this remark doesn't mean jack to me.
All I wondered was What the hell, dude? Your calendar ain't full? Not enough to do, trying to arrest a horrible economic slide?
The unseriousness of this man and the Democrat majority makes me actually quite afraid that we are now being led by lunatics, criminals, and idiots.
Many tards are living kickass lives now while being POTUS and living in the White House
I think I myself commented last fall that this was a special olympics election, given the two candidates.
It's a natural comparison.
PC is not a funny language, as Wm. Kerrigan remarked about the new censorship in dictionaries.
Her mother, Suzanne Thompson, told her that Obama had made a joke about the Special Olympics on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" on Thursday and that it might have hurt a lot of people
Thanks, Mrs. Thompson, for teaching your daughter that intent doesn't matter, that President Obama wanted to insult her and many others, and that he succeeded.
No problemo, fls, and you can thank the liberal victim-class-gender-race pimps for this widespread success.
Congrats! You won!
Now everyone's a pussy.
I said this in an earlier thread, but I'm going to guess that not only was it scripted, but it was designed to have exactly the effect that it is having right now. Note that he called the S.O. chair to apologize before the show even aired.
Result- we're all talking about this, and debating it's merit (and lefties get a good chance to jump in a defend him), rather than discussing the actual job he's doing.
My apologies to pussies everywhere for my unintentionally intolerant remark.
Along with "Obama is like Bush," Althouse needs a new tag: "Bush is too smart to have done that."
"This was a degrading remark about our world's most precious and unique people, coming from the most powerful position in the world," fumed former GOP veep pick and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose youngest son, Trig, has Down syndrome.
Now Palin has to explain to Bristol and Willow and Piper why they're not as precious to her as their baby brother is. My parents believed that daughters were the special snowflakes with which God blesses the home. So I feel bad for the girls.
Plus, unless the Daily News knows something we don't, Trig is Palin's younger son.
SG hit the nail on the head--it was an attempt at self-deprecation that fell flat because Obama isn't inherently self-deprecating--at all.
That's what makes me think the remark was only partially scripted. The bowling joke was almost certainly written for him; it's not something Obama himself would ever have said. The Special Olympics remark, however, could never have been inserted by a thoughtful scripter (especially Axelrod). I think Obama stuck in that remark to sound like "one of the guys."
Sad that his appraisal of the electorate is so dismissive.
Would it have been different had Obama said, because of his score, "the Special Olympics might let me compete."
The slightly different message would have been "I'm not quite good enough to compete with those amazing kids," rather than "I'm so bad I'm just like them."
Subtle but important difference, no?
Or is the subject just too hot to joke about, particularly as president?
What say you?
Melissa -- we ARE noticing what he is doing and not doing.
Meanwhile JouroLists is consensing about how it doesn't matter who knew what, when, and how about AIG bonuses. We're not supposed to care about that, you see. Or the bonuses that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae folks are getting (that one has me really puzzled).
The question is why can Congress make a law targeting a specific number of specific people -- when they, Congress, voted to give them their bonuses to start with? Isn't there something not right about that kind of power?
Does my Senator (one of whom I did NOT vote for) think this is what they are elected to do? Maybe the Senator should think about the rule of law and what their responsibilities really are.
Read the damn bills to start with. Explore and debate the issues. Listen to the consituentcy (Who? Them?? Poor ignorant idjits. We need to help them Shhhh now, don't you worry ....)
The sloppy, irresponsible, immature, unprofessional way the Congress and the Senate of the United States of America have behaved in the last 2 1/2 months is horrifying.
So yes, we have noticed. And will continue to notice.
And Obama is still flaunting his training wheel presidency and it is pathetic. And we will notice.
And 2010 is coming. Soon.
Because it is going to be a long 4 years otherwise.
Would it have been different had Obama said, because of his score, "the Special Olympics might let me compete."
Basically there's no joke whose punchline refers to the Special Olympics that won't hurt someone's feelings, if only by proxy.
The only similar joke that works is the one where the TV comedian insults the Amish, "because they will never see it."
Read the damn bills to start with. Explore and debate the issues. Listen to the consituentcy (Who? Them?? Poor ignorant idjits. We need to help them Shhhh now, don't you worry ....)
The sloppy, irresponsible, immature, unprofessional way the Congress and the Senate of the United States of America have behaved in the last 2 1/2 months is horrifying.
Not as bad as they acted in December 2000, when Phil Gramm piggybacked his Commodity Futures Modernization Act on top of a 10,000 page spending bill, when most politicos were watching the Bush-Gore drama play out. This merely insured that the credit default swaps that took AIG down would go unregulated -- this after the swaps-induced failure of the Long Term Capital Management hedge fund.
But the sloppy, irresponsible, immature, unprofessional Congress and the Senate of the United States of America did not read the bill, snd did not debate the issues, so we are now facing an economic 9/11.
1. Obama is beyond stupid for saying it, scripted or not. How someone so savvy can be so inept at the same time is a mystery.
2. It was in no way an offensive remark. People who are acting offended by it need to grow the fuck up.
3. Re: Palin and "our world's most precious and unique people"......oh jesus fucking christ. Go shoot a wolf and stfu.
I find it unlikely that Bush would have insulted his own base in such a crude manner as well.
In addition to not cracking self-deprecating jokes, President Obama might also wish to refrain from announcing his basketball game picks.
The Bracketologist in Chief correctly picked only 19 of 32 first round NCAA mens tournament games.
By comparison, if one mindlessly picked the higher seeded team in each game, one would have gotten 22 games correct.
1. Obama is beyond stupid for saying it, scripted or not. How someone so savvy can be so inept at the same time is a mystery.
How can you be savvy and inept at the same time? Maybe he's just inept.
"People who are acting offended by it need to grow the fuck up."
Says the man outraged by any and every remark he perceives as intolerant to gays.
Heh. Yeah, I'm sure if Obama had flicked a limp wrist and said "Yeah, I kind of bowl like a fag" that would have been cool.
hdhouse,
obviously you don't have the balls to address the real issue.
Thought better of you. My mistake.
Not only are your pant down, we can all see your unwashed asshole. Ewwwwww!
Was his sarcastic comment about Jessica Simpson's weight scripted?
The guy is a sarcastic jerk with no sense about how a president should act. He acts like a character on SNL.
The guy is a sarcastic jerk with no sense about how a president should act.
Oh, please. Tell us how a president should "act," then. Enlighten us.
While it was only stupid of him to make the remark because of the sideshow reactions from people like you, there was nothing sarcastic or jerky about it. If anything, it was incredibly self-deprecating and humanizing.
Perhaps now we'll start to see his real character a bit as the unscripted moments appear.
I think after four years he'll make Bush II look like one of the sensitive haunted ones.
God bless Sarah Palin. I thought of her when I heard what Obama said and I'm glad she got a chance to throw some mud. She has a right to point out his unpresidential behavior after what was said about her.
Don't forget, regardless of what anyone thinks about Obama's Special Olympics comments, the entire Leno appearance was unpresidential.
I don't like Obama or his droids but he shouldn't be attacked for his comments.
He didn't mean harm. Let him apologize and let it go.
Sarah Palin should have shown more class and not gotten all moralistic about it.
Strikes me we are stuck with a president who suffers from Asperger's. Just think of all the stupid things he has done in social situations and the way he has to be fed his lines on the teleprompter all the time or else he is lost. Not good to have someone that totally delusional in the position he holds. In fact, downright scary.
There is a political reason for the delay in finding a dog for the Obama children. The Obama Perpetual Campaign is actively seeking out an adorable wolf cub recently orphaned by Palin's policy of lupine genocide. They wish to have plenty of pictures with the adorable children posing with the adorable puppy. In a subtle dig at Palin, the children will name the puppy Please Don't Kill Me Sarah. Such pictures will bolster Obama's image as the kindly protective father of us all.....The down side is that fully grown wolves tend to treat children as prey. But that's why we have a secret service.
I understand why you guys were so offended, seeing as how most Sarah Palin supporters are fucking retards.
But in all seriousness, it was an unfortunate gaffe because he is President of all people including the mentally handicapped and special needs citizens, they don't deserve to be a punch line.
Jackie and Dunlap at Red State Update bring some perspective to the controversy.
Sort of an unfortunate freeze frame for Obama on that YouTube clip.
Scripted or not, the President's remark, while regrettable and childish, is forgivable. It is obvious to every person of good will that Obama bears no ill will towards the disabled or their families or supporters of the Special Olympics. The awkward appearance and uproar are sufficent chastisement for a man new to his position.
It might be forgiveable, but I disagree about the ill will. It seems to me the only interpretation of the joke is that the Special Olympics are comically inept the same way that Obama is as a bowler. There's at least a kernel of casual contempt in that joke, and he deserves to take some flack for it.
Honestly, would you make a joke like that at work?
It is hard to say if it was scripted. Obama clearly has about average intelligence and below average mental agility. It takes a certain kind of active mind to go back and forth extemperaniously with someone like Leno. BO clearly doesn't have that kind of mind. He has to be lead and carefully prepared and his remarks laid out for him. When he doesn't have that, he doesn't have either the natural intelligence or the charm to do very well.
Because of his inability to operate without strict instruction and guidance, it is plausable that this was the result of BO going off the script and predictably saying something stupid. But also consider how not ready for prime time his staff has been. Considering their record for vetting nominees and gaffes such as the giving a red button to the President of Russia, it is also possible his staff wrote the jock and was too dumb to realize that it was offensive. We will never know. Worse, whichever it is it doesn't give you much confidence about the future.
It seems to me the only interpretation of the joke is that the Special Olympics are comically inept the same way that Obama is as a bowler.
Given that, it is pretty funny that, as it turns out, the Special Olympics competitors are much better than him at bowling.
"Given that, it is pretty funny that, as it turns out, the Special Olympics competitors are much better than him at bowling."
My older sister is a long time special olympian. Before she had a stroke was quite a good bowler. She would have handed BO his ass on the lanes.
I'll bet that Barack couldn't bowl a 129 to save his life. How's he doing on his basketball picks? He isn't good at anything.
"He isn't good at anything."
He was pretty good at running for President. Being president? That's another story. So far a huge disappointment.
David-
He was pretty good at running for President.
I don't know-was he really good at it-or did the media give him training wheels, a helmet and crash pads everywhere?
The illusion that looked pretty good.
Hell Hollywood gave him a big styrofoam White House in Denver...
He only looked good running because an army of guilty white people in the media convinced themselves he did. It really was a case of perception becoming reality.
He was good at running for president providing the deck was stacked with, a) a fawning and complicit media and, b) a dumb-downed, politically corrected, and American Idol-ized electorate.
Now he's going to regulate the salaries of financial CEOs. He makes me nostalgic for Jimmy Carter he's so destructively stupid.
Either this trainwreck of a presidency and democrat congress will wake up a sufficient number of people to dethrone and discredit the neo-Marxists who call themselves "liberals' or we will descend into chaos and bloodshed as the country's financial and civic institutions implode.
I sure hope that comment wasn't scripted. If it was, that means more than one person looked at it after it was written down, and thought it was OK. I hope he doesn't have that kind of adolescent jerk helping him run the country.
@Zachery, you asked how a president should act. I'll be pleased to oblige you.
What I look for in candidates includes the following characteristics: gravitas, leadership, integrity, an ethical compass, and a sense that not everyone who disagrees with him is doing so out of pettiness or spite or mendacity.
As far as the two candidates were concerned, I felt that I could see all five characteristics in John McCain, and none of them in Barack Obama, and so I voted for John McCain. Nothing I have seen since the election -- much less the inauguration -- suggest to me that I was wrong in my assessment of Obama.
He may yet grow into the job, but right now I'd have to say that that's not the way to bet.
ZPS,
"How someone so savvy can be so inept at the same time is a mystery."
Well, our friend Mr. Ockham has a ready explanation: Obama isn't actually savvy. That meme is just the result of incredibly biased, incurious, favorable press coverage, whereas the "inept" keeps getting revealed in unscripted moments.
I didn't watch it, but have no problem with a President appearing with good humor on Leno, or SNL, or Laugh-In.
That said -
The guy is a sarcastic jerk...
Yes, he is. His humor, usually mild, is generally at the expense of others. It's because it's mild that this is most often the reaction...
He didn't mean harm. Let him apologize and let it go.
He does a lot of apologizing. People do a lot of letting it go.
And, as if often the case, I agree with Freeman.
It might be forgiveable, but I disagree about the ill will. It seems to me the only interpretation of the joke is that the Special Olympics are comically inept the same way that Obama is as a bowler. There's at least a kernel of casual contempt in that joke, and he deserves to take some flack for it.
From the abundance of the heart, and all that. When the words out of our mouths reflect what we believe is true we don't make "mistakes" like this.
Honestly, would you make a joke like that at work?
No. Not that it never happens but who doesn't realize that it pushes over into inappropriate humor? Which is, sometimes, funny, but never accidental.
Oops...miss attributed that... it was Zack I was agreeing with. (Though I do often agree with Freeman.)
:-)
rhhardin said...
I cut him lots of slack on it.
And who wants to be part of a PC mob.
Obama is horrifying for lots of good reasons, but not this one.
Agree. But we live in the age of Victimology and the mob of the perpetually outraged, shocked, mortified, and down dirt hurt and offended. Who rise up in a Tsunami of self-righteousness whenever someone kids someone outside the "approved" safe objects of derision - CEOs, white people, fat people, scientologists.
Like it or not, almost everyone has heard a "special Olympics joke". A few years back, doing track stuff, I heard a HS football coach rail on his team after scrimmage that they looked awful and they were up against a powerhouse team next week and they were playing like a pack of special olympics retards. And did their parents and friends want to see them like that?
Not PC, but quite effectively motivational.
Anyhow, my own non-PC idea of fun would be to see John McCain, hobbled by age and war injury try and beat a Special Olympian wearing his usual hockey helmet in one-on-one basketball. That would be hiralious to watch.
I was a big fan of the Aussie dwarf tossing fad years ago. We had a video of that. There was dwarf tossing for distance, dwarf domino toppling, dwarf tossing for height - which employed velcro'd dwarfs for tossing up against a padded velco wall. And a female contest for dwarf-tossing around.
And the tape had a coming attraction of bowling with dwarfs. Where a hog-tied dwarf wearing a helmet was rolled by contestents on a basketball court against full sized humans dressed in white arranged in a set with their legs duct-taped.
The tape had interviews. The dwarfs and midgets used said they absolutely loved it and were paid well and many of the contestents enjoyed meeting and becoming chums with "the little blokes".
It was a dumb wisecrack. He should not have said it. Obama apologized for it.
After Obama apologizes it, Palin jumps all over him to remind people she exists and has a child with Downs. Classy act. Not.
Where I am from, when someone apologizes for something, then we bury the hatchet and move on.
The backlash over the wisecrack is uglier than the remark.
Is it?
If it was just this once, it would be unimportant. And while it's good to accept apologies, there is an assumption that first, the apology is sincere, and second, that behavior will change.
Repentance and redemption... it's not just being sorry... it's easy to be sorry. Go, and sin no more. Can't skip the "sin no more" part.
And the thing is... Obama makes these small, dumb, wisecracks all the time. He's a wisecracker. It's what he does.
Seeing as Obama called for Imus' firing several days after Imus did the apology tour, I think we have a few more days to razz the POTUS. Too bad he can't be fired.
Meade sez: George Bush, as President and Commander in Chief, would not have made the mentally disabled mistake of going on a comedy talk show with the nation in midst of war and economic crisis.
No, that lame brain would have waited until after he had hung a Mission Accomplished banner!
BTW, Althouse, did you ever use a Bush Stumbles label? I donnt remember one. I guess Bush never stumbled. Ha ha.
The way that this presidency is shaping up to be a repeat of Carter's presidency is alarming. It was Carter, after all, who decided to share with his fellow Americans apropos of nothing that he got all lusty seeing women on the campaign trail. It was Carter who talked of malaise. It was Carter who couldn't seem to lift the country out of a funk.
Me, I'm just glad we elect representatives and one third of our senators every two years. It's going to a healthy corrective and a very satisfying November in 2010.
Ed -- Are you not fascinated by the fact that you are not bothered by this atrocious gaffe but still bothered by Mission Accomplished?
What a window into your psyche! Yet you are too dull to consider it.
>How someone so savvy can be so inept at the same time is a mystery.
How someone intelligent could miss the obvious in that statement.
Why do you think he is savvy?
Derek
Althouse, did you ever use a Bush Stumbles label?
Of course not. She's knows her audience. Totally not necessary. But an "Obama Stumbles" label...ah yeah...that keeps 'em nice and happy.
Plus, BUSH KEPT US SAFE for 7 1/2 years, so his presidency was a success, the end.
It's going to a healthy corrective and a very satisfying November in 2010.
LOL
Don't forget, regardless of what anyone thinks about Obama's Special Olympics comments, the entire Leno appearance was unpresidential.
That's exactly the point. The fact that Obama said something dumb on Leno is a direct result of the fact that he was on Leno to begin with - a stupid thing for a President to do, in any circumstances, but especially galling considering the circumstances of this country.
We expect our celebrities to do and say dumb things. Obama, however, isn't Lindsey Lohan, has a lot more responsibilities, and shouldn't be parading around like her to begin with.
After Obama apologizes it, Palin jumps all over him to remind people she exists and has a child with Downs. Classy act. Not.
Oh, AlphaLiberal, only you could find something wrong with defending the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society. Where I'm from, we don't find petty excuses to trash those who stand up for basic human dignity.
What were we thinking?
the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society
Wait, I thought they were the "most precious and and unique people" in the world! Which is it?
Palin jumping in, after refusing stimulus money that would've gone to special needs kids, only makes her look stupider than the entire country already knows she is, so, no big news there.
Zach -- Your mind needs some serious help with the concepts of and and or. Let me give you the basics. A thing can be both A and B. Sometimes, though, when a thing is A it cannot also be B.
Good luck and, in the mean time, stay away from logic games. See in 2010!
People who participate in Special Olympics are the most precious, vulnerable, unique, weakest people in the world. Got it.
It's not that you can't be all of those things at once, it's that if you're going to trot out the meme for special needs people, at least stay consistent with your grand dame from up north. You'll be more effective that way.
Zach -- The Catholic Church has built a real estate dynasty on exactly the idea that the weakest people are the most precious, vulnerable, unique people in the world.
Honestly, dude, think outside your studio apartment. Get out more. Or at least try to understand that things you don't understand or agree with or are tremendously appealing to billions of people.
You'd think "obromophile" would be more in line. Doesn't she keep up on her talking points? She's got Ann Coulter and Free Republic on her blogroll, after all. Get it together, sister! It's "precious and unique," not "weak and vulnerable." Avoid pejorative connotations when talking about "groups" we want to exploit.
Zach -- Why not just admit that it was a dumb statement, say you still like Obama, and be done with it?
Your lame arguments are just making you look haggy.
The Catholic Church has built a real estate dynasty on exactly the idea that the weakest people are the most precious, vulnerable, unique people in the world.
I know you're not dense, so let me repeat: you can be all of those things at once. The problem is the message. Be consistent and use the same line!
Zach -- These people need a Journo List, huh? Too much free thinking. Not enough brownshirted coordination. It's appalling.
Your lame arguments are just making you look haggy.
Your clear lack of reading comprehension is making you look like.......a Special Needs kid!
dude, think outside your studio apartment.
You mean he's out from Mom's house?!!!1!
Special.
Zachery, the way you capitalized "BUSH KEPT US SAFE" makes me think you regard that as a small accomplishment. I've been privileged to have had a very small hand in it, and I regard it as very non-trivial. I suspect that you have reasoned in a circular way from the meme that "George W. Bush is a dolt" (he isn't) to the fact that there have been no further terrorist attacks on American soil to the belief that it must be easy since the person you regarded as a dolt accomplished it.
What will you do when and if al Qaeda strikes again? I suppose you'll trying blaming Bush, but it won't wash. Will you reconsider the "George Bush is a dolt" perspective? Or will you decide that Barack Obama must be an even bigger dolt?
I hope I never find out.
I know you think that Palin is unelectable ZPS, but you're not the first one I've seen bring this up...
Palin jumping in, after refusing stimulus money...
And I do wonder... at what point does this become a negative? When the money was supposed to be for a good cause? It's *all* for a good cause! And almost invariably for a "good cause" that isn't going to stimulate the economy at all.
He's getting smacked around by Special Olympians and he expects to go up against Putin and Ahmadinejad? Lord help us all.
Palin jumping in, after refusing stimulus money...
Apparently if you object to retard jokes, you're obliged to uncritically support all government spending that might benefit a retard somewhere. Otherwise you're a total hypocrite, man.
I can't wait to see what Madcow and Doberman do with this on MSNBC.
Probably pretend it never happened.
Zachary: my screen name means "chocolate-lover," which you probably know. Please get it right, or just abbreviate to "theo."
As for my comment about weak and vulnerable members of our society: I'm one of those pro-life nutjobs who think that all humans are infinitely valuable. Nevertheless, it is the rare society that supports all of its members, not just those with physical strength, political connections, family name, wealth, or any other measure of functional (not intrinsic) worth. Calls to change that - to live in a world in which all people are considered to be worthwhile - are never a bad thing. Ever.
There's something terribly ironic - and not a little bit misguided - about criticising anyone, especially a conservative, for not hewing to the talking points. My side is frequently derided for letting Ann, Laura, and Rush do our thinking for us; now, you're all upset that I'm using my own mind. Which will it be?
Of all the stupid things to complain about, Zach, that is second only to AlphaLiberal's complaints about Gov. Palin's defence of special-needs children. Liberals are now upset that conservatives think for themselves and support people with special needs? What's next on the chopping block - apple pie? Girl Scout cookies?
For heaven's sake. This is beyond silly.
Well yes the whole thing is silly, isn't it?
Tell me Leno's writers are that lame.
Which just brings home what a poor move it was for the President of the United States to go on Leno.
And as for Palin jumping in ... Palin "jumped in" to Special Olympics with a postive plug March SEVENTH on her website.
So was Obama baiting her?
I kind of like JAC's notion that this was a double-secret super Palin-baiting maneuver.
If I had a wish, though, it would be that we could set aside the notion that "Special Olympics = underperformance".
That SO bowler has bowled a perfect game. Have you? So who's the 'tard?
""How someone so savvy can be so inept at the same time is a mystery."
Because he needed about ten more years on the national scene before being ready for this job?
Hey, Michael, could you change your ID to something not associated with the Althouse's most notorious troll?
We have a Michael_H, so maybe you could add a different initial, or go with "Michael (not LOS)" or "Michael (non-douche)"?
I like your comments, I just think I skip over a lot of them.
Obama hates special needs children.
Between his killing of innocents in Pakistan and his hostility towards special needs kids, it does not paint a pretty picture.
I call for a Presidential Short Bus.
Here's an Imus live ad for Aurora Products ad involving a short bus. (real audio, Apr 4, 2007)
Obama acts as though he's too good for the job of president; he thinks the job's beneath him.
Hmmm.
"Who cares if it was scripted? It was dumb. Period."
*shrug* because a President depends heavily on precision in language. The wrong word at the wrong time could cause enormous trouble.
E.g. if you're in front of a large group of Jewish voters and say that "Jerusalem will remain undivided" it means that the Palestinians won't have any portion of Jerusalem. And while it'll make the Jews happy it will piss off the Palestinians.
And then if you have to backtrack you'll end up pissing off the Jews while not making any friends in the Palestinian camp because you've shown yourself as unreliable.
As history has shown when Obama stuck his foot in his mouth doing precisely this.
Obama should have said something less controversial like, "Women's college and professional basketball is a joke. We have better pick-up games at the White House." We could all have agreed with him on that and had one big laugh. Next stop for Barry: a try out as a recurring character on 30 Rock using Tina Fey as a foil. Time to give up the day job, Obie?
"I understand why you guys were so offended, seeing as how most Sarah Palin supporters are fucking retards."
Most Sarah Palin supporters are people who wouldn't ever consider using language like this on a public forum.
Some believe that doing so precludes any further intelligent conversation, argument, or persuasion, and leaves you merely as a thrower of excrement, whose preferences and opinions really ought not mean much to the rest of us anyway.
Others believe it to be a capitulation in self-recognition that the speaker has no further logical argument nor the intellect to present it if one did.
I'm sort of a "glass half-full" guy, and so, reading your post, I'm thinking both groups get it right.
Hmmm.
"Obama hates special needs children."
*shrug* if you're an advocate for killing perfectly healthy babies then killing or denigrating special needs children isn't much a step.
After look at the foaming-at-the-mouth nonsense over Palin's child. And the foaming-at-the-mouth over whether or not Trig -was- Palin's child.
This is the classic example of the "humor" Jimmy Carter was told by his advisors to look warm and approachable. Carter took the opportunity to tell a joke about his incompetent staff. Sound familiar?
Instead of debating whether Obama's comment was scripted, why aren't we looking into whether the financial meltdown was scripted? Seems that there were a lot of Congressmen, boosters of Fred/Fan/CRA who actively encouraged financial irresponsibility, who have since used the crisis to "have their way" with the budget and send the country down the socialist path.
If the crisis was scripted, how would we prove it? If we could prove it, what laws were violated, who violated them, and what punishment should be applied? Was/is there a conspiracy against the nation?
If it comes out 10 or 20 years hence that the whole thing was instigated by the Dems to embarass the Republicans and sieze power, we're going to wonder why, with the country at a crossroads, we focused our attention on a careless remark.
There's enough brains and legal HP here to turn over some big rocks. Instead we're worried about PC behaviour, feelings, and eats. Not much different than the MSM, really.
Dud
Is there a Special Olympics for Chief Executives?
No one's noticing that this is of a kind with the "clinging to their guns and religion" slander during the campaign?
I mean, this Leno appearance IS a continuation of the campaign. Why isn't his behavior being identified as simply more of the same -- trying to find hooks into one crowd by playing to what he projects their views are of a crowd that's presumed not to be present, or in hearing?
It's not the mark of a sound-thinking intellectial, that's for sure.
@ZPS: "If anything, it was incredibly self-deprecating and humanizing."
Oh my God, I've heard it all now. What a fellatrix you are. Maybe you can get a job with the Times. "Mr. President, does it hurt when the sun shines out of your asshole?"
"Apparently if you object to retard jokes, you're obliged to uncritically support all government spending that might benefit a retard somewhere. Otherwise you're a total hypocrite, man."
hdhouse didn't do his homework. Palin is opposed, as are many local government entities, to being on the hook for program expenditures once the stimulus money runs out. But I'm sure that the dog residing at the residence of hdhouse ate his math, econ and political economy books. So, we are subjected to the same degree of indigestion that Rover endured.
Another Obama Joke (the first one was his election)
The Department of Defense briefed the president this morning and told President Obama that two Brazilian soldiers were killed in Iraq.
To everyone's surprise, all the color drained from Obama's face.
Then he collapsed onto his desk, head in his hands, visibly shaken, almost in tears.
Finally, he composed himself and asked, "Just how many is a brazilian?"
This is especially enlightening since he obviously has no concept of a billion or a trillion, either
Let's Hear It For the Tards
Iowahawk reprints an advice column from our "Tard in Chief"
Dear Barry:
Our 12 year old son Tyler is developmentally disabled. Tyler's learning center has a Special Olympics program and we (along with his teachers) have been encouraging him to participate. Every time we bring it up to him, however, Tyler pushes back and becomes very withdrawn. We love Tyler very much and don't want to force him into it, but we think the Special Olympics would be a terrific experience and help him conquer his shyness and introversion. Do you have any suggestions for helping him get past this fear?
Jean and Ted in Westmont
Dear Jean and Ted:
As you know I am a big fan of the Special Olympics program, and all the good things it does for young Mongoloid-Americans like your son. Nothing inspires more than the sight of these heroic young tards hilariously giving it their all in the arena of friendly athletic competition.
Read the rest, it gets better.
The TOTUS chimes in:
...when it became increasingly clear that Change was going to beat Competence for the Democratic nomination,..
Sort of says it all. But some of us knew that BEFORE the election.
We actually read the script.
Barack Obama is not just an insensitive creep, he is a terrible bore
The guy just doesn’t know what to say. He can’t connect. Emotions are here, he’s over there. He can’t get the words to match the situation.
This began, I’d argue, from the first moment. He punted on the inaugural. Everybody ran around like crazy trying to praise it because if Barack Obama couldn’t give a speech then what?
But now, at week 11, we’re face-to-face with the reality, the man can’t talk worth a damn.
But he IS slim and his wife has toned arms. Give him that.
Has anyone noticed the screenshot Anne used for the video has Barry in that classic “ain’t I pretty” grin?
He sure is pretty. And the kids are cute. And the TOTUS is scaring me because all the talking heads are using one these days. So you never know if something is scripted or extemporaneous. Who’s words are we hearing, Barry’s or David Axlerod? Or does it matter?
We know that consciously Obama doesn't have anything against the handicapped - like each of us, he loves all good things and hates all bad things. What his faux pas reveals is a shocking ineptitude - that he forgot he was president; for a guy who has ever lived by his charm (for he has never really worked in his life - no summer job on the shop floor, no factory, no farm, no truck delivery job) - this was an astonishing lapse. And it does reveal something; we just don't know what...
People don’t need a president who looks down on them; they need a president who stands up for them. And that is exactly what I will do as your president.
Hillary Clinton responding to Obamas bitter Pennsylvanians campaing fund raising comments.
We know that consciously Obama doesn't have anything against the handicapped ...
I'm sure aborting them is nothing personal ...
If someone were standing if front of you who had a son or daughter was a special olympian, would you make such a comment? Of course not. Obama is the President on national TV. He was effectively in presense of millions of people whose sons and daughters are special olympians. His statement was the height of carelessness.
Obama is either not very bright or just an awful bore.
Good catch, Lem.
"And who wants to be part of a PC mob."
Well, Democrats, generally, and that's part of why they deserve to be excoriated when they fail at it.
The question is why can Congress make a law targeting a specific number of specific people -- when they, Congress, voted to give them their bonuses to start with? Isn't there something not right about that kind of power?
It's called a "bill of attainder" and is specifically prohibited by the Constitution.
As for Obambi's remark, it was obviously scripted, poorly thought out, and shows The One as the arrogant, out-of-touch elitist he is. Every time I hear about something like this from him I flash back to the, "I just want to finish my waffle." remark. Obama is not a person who engages in dialogue or seeks to exchange ideas. He's singleminded and completely full of himself. He probably thought of the "Special Olympics" remark all by himself and if anything is annoyed now that others don't see the brilliance of the joke.
On gaffes. Who's worse? Obama or Biden?
Pair of clowns.
Obama's an embarrassment, a foot-in-mouth specialist, if nothing else.
I'm really tired of people being offended.
At the same time, it's really funny to see the grievance industry turn on its creators.
Obama managed to say it in a forum where it couldn't be buried and was seen by millions of people. Bad luck for him.
Gaffes are a fact of life. Mostly, they should be ignored. Otherwise our politicians become so careful about what they say that they barely say anything meaningful at all.
We spend far too much time worrying about what politicians say and far too little about what they do.
He was dead on about the Special Olympics though. Everyone wins there. Which is fine.
But why do I have to pretend to be horrified by a comment that was funny AND accurate?
Downtownlad: Special Olympian.
"But why do I have to pretend to be horrified by a comment that was funny AND accurate?"
Because you are an idiot. My older sister is a long time special olypian. I can tell you from going to the events many special olympians are quite good a their events. Not world class but much better than your average weekend athlete. If you were anything but an ignorant bigoted twit, you would know that.
Obama completely misunderstood the nature of any executive position. He completely misunderstands the true nature of power and how to wield it. He obviously believes that "we won" means he can simply do whatever he pleases with no regard to political reality or anything else. (Among other things, he also very much overestimated what political handlers can do.)
The thing I noted is that what passes in Obama's mind as self-deprecating humor is mroe along the lines of "I'm so f'ed up I'm almost as bad as them." He did it with Nancy Reagan (seance comment), he did it with Special Olympians. It is simply indicative of his hubris and narcissism.
Susan Axelrod said. "We have been with him with Lauren, and he is nothing but totally respectful." Still, she called it an unfortunate comment.
Another thing I found interesting was Susan Axelrod's statement that "Knowing the president the way I do, I would assume that he is horrified that he said this, and I think he will make every attempt to make something positive out of it." Maybe the LAT poorly quoted her of left out some vital proper nouns for context, but just reading this statement it seems that Susan expects Obama to be horrified that he said it. Hello? He's the one who said it, how could he be horrified by his own words?
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