Gawker: Barack Obama Doesn't Do Gaffes

[HopeOverFear]

by John Cook



Gaffe-mongering is an essential tool in any White House reporter's toolbox, and has been used to great effect against many a president—Gerald Ford obviously never recovered from his slip down the rain-slicked jetway stairs of Air Force One, and George W. Bush, well, you know. But after eight years of calling out Bush for every unforced error, the press is under pressure to apply the same standard Obama—not to mention hoping for the bump in traffic and viewership that can accompany a genuine gaffe-fueled outrage. The stakes are higher with Obama because of his smooth, competent manner—punching through a false veneer is sort of like the journalistic equivalent of a Triple Word Score.

Obama's presidency was literally born with a gaffe, as he stumbled over the oath of office on the most important day of his life. Since then various news organizations and right-wing critics have tried to pin him down under a parade of horribles, suggesting he is secretly oafish for:

Bumping his head on Marine One.
Mistaking an Oval Office window for a door and trying to open it.
Saying "profit and earnings ratio" when he meant "price-to-earnings."
Giving the British Prime Minister a bunch of DVDs as a gift.
Reading the wrong speech on a teleprompter and thanked himself.
Not knowing where the automobile was invented.

None of it has made the crucial jump from cable news chatter to Saturday Night Live caricature. It's like Obama is holding Tapper et. al. at bay with and extended hand against the forehead, and they keep swinging at air. Aggrieved right-wingers see a double-standard, but the fact is, the only gaffes that will stick to Obama are the ones that shed some light on who he actually is. Ford wasn't unfairly painted as a bumbling doofus—you could hear the reverberations of all those football concussions in his slurred, affectless voice. Bush wasn't unfairly portrayed as a clueless and callow upward-failer—everything about his presidency is a testament to the accuracy of that sketch.

But Obama doesn't hate retarded people, nor is he insensitive to their concerns. He is, if any caricature is to be applied, a socialist wealth redistributor who wants more welfare for retarded people. Moreover, there was no ridicule or mean-spiritedness in the Special Olympics quip. It is like the Special Olympics when one receives praise for performance in a sport that might otherwise, under different circumstances, be deemed unpraiseworty. Not because Special Olympians are mediocre athletes—they're not!—but because one of the tenets of the Special Olympics is that poor performers still deserve praise for their efforts.

[FrenchieCat]

1. I Take it back!

Interesting! liked the last paragraph as being true.

[HopeOverFear]

2. HUH?????

whaaa??? LOL

[HopeOverFear]

4. LOL ya gotta read before you judge, girl

cmon now, LOL but it's alright :)

[FrenchieCat]

6. We could have done without the pic.....

as it pissed me off.

This president's life is more threatened than any other...
so for whatever reason, I hate to have to watch him hurt himself,
in frozen frames.

[HopeOverFear]

7. oh I'm sorry well it was the picture from the original article

LOL it wasn't my intention to upset anyone. This article is actually pro-Obama and it mocks those who are trying to catch Obama in a gaffe.

[firedupdem]

3. uuughh...if you say so n/t

[HopeOverFear]

5. Read the article, it's pro-Obama

it's pointing out that people who try to catch obama in a gaffe are in a losing game.

[HopeOverFear]

8. Yeah see it's saying that as opposed to Bush who really is an idiot

and it's easily reflected in his mannerisms, Obama doesn't hate...well it's all in the aticle. LOL

Please read it, pro Obama.

[HopeOverFear]

9. Damn, well, my attempt at posting this article failed miserably

because of a misunderstanding. Which is a shame cuz it's a damn good article, too. Oh well. :(

[OwnedByFerrets]

10. Thank you for posting it....btw, you will learn to get thicker skin

here, or you will shrivel on the vine. ;-)

[dionysus]

11. i dunno.. i liked it

:thumbsup:

[loyalsister]

12. We know this

The comment played on stereotypes. He appropriately apologized. Why is everyone so unwilling to accept the problem with perpetuating stereotypes? Does it make your world less convenient? Does it make you retroactively wrong too many times? Having to rethink too many things?
It's uncomfortable but worth taking a second look at because we're all judged and there's a stereotype thrown at most of us one time or another.

[Cha]

13. Finally, it's written so

I can understand exactly what happened..and I even saw Prez Obama's gig on Leno.

So much fur flying around and different versions being raged on that I still wasn't sure what went down.

And this is why I said..the difference between bush saying it and Obama is "Apples and Oranges". bush only thought about himself and his "have mores". Obama actually funded Special Olympics.

But, Obama didn't "stumble into the Presidency" ..that was cheif justice Roberts.