New York, 11:30 PM
Sat Nov 28
9 posts in the last 24 hours
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| posts about #specialolympics more → |
Barack Obama Doesn't Do Gaffes |
Obama's 'Special Olympics' Leno Gaffe |
The Inevitable Tropic Thunder Boycott is Here |
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Gawker 
03/20/09
So who is hostile to special needs citizens (who don't come from her own twat) again?
03/20/09
i like the fact that he went on leno. i can't watch press conferences during the day and have to rely on the PRESS to report on what he says. but last night, i got to hear HIM talk about the issues at hand and i appreciated it.
is he "campaigning" - no, he's being OUR fucking president. and traveling around OUR country speaking to those who elected him.
i think the President should continue to campaign even during his presidency. after all, he is OUR public servant...answering to US.
03/20/09
Bush wasn't evil, he was, in his own, misguided, neo-evangelical, third wave, skull and bones mindset the guardian of American Hegemony. That's how he saw himself, not how his advisers/masters saw him - they saw a perfect opportunity to dismantle the United States as a world superpower. And they just about did it - McCain/Palin would have been the last nail in the coffin of liberty.
As for the retard joke. I am damned proud that I am represented by a man who can get away with that. I further hope that he keeps his pimp hand strong when the yellow elephant brigades try to stick legs on these kind of things to distract the American people from investigating their continuing crimes. Obama needs to lock some bitches up. Forget about taxing the bonuses - that IS retarded. Set up prosecutions, jail the offenders, and confiscate their assets to pay down the national debt.
I'm just waiting for Obama to put on his "Shut your mouth." face for someone other than the veep.
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[usat.gannett.a.mms.mavenapps.net]
03/20/09
This is The President of the United States! He is supposed to be a professional international business negotiator. Who the hell is going to take this tan Opie Taylor clown serious?
NO ONE.
As the mother of a child with special needs, I am personally offended. The Special olympics participants and champions are greater heroes than those who win the regular olympics. They aren't out smoking dope and getting their picture for the Wheaties box... and FURTHERMORE,.. They have had to work quadruple as hard for their success!
God Bless the Gentlest Souls of the Special Olympics, and shame on an insensitive discriminatory spoiled law school prep brat-movie star wannabe-- who fanes to have struggled or know discrimination like real black men.
03/20/09
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03/20/09
Yes, mildly insulting and polically unwise. But most people listening probably understood what the joke meant, and that his heart was in the right place.
The court of public opinion is what decides these things, and I suspect that 70 percent of the public probably won't treat this as a big deal (the remaining 30% being hard-core political concervatives who'd object to anything Obama did no matter what).
03/20/09
03/20/09
Bingo. That's the heart of it. And that's why there is no double standard. And everyone who thinks there is needs to really think about it, because they're wrong.
Why are gaffes ever important? The answer is they aren't, unless they are what amount to a Freudian slip. So Dick Cheney calling a guy an "asshole" on tape (or whatever he actually said) is a story, because it reinforces what we already know about him - that he himself is an asshole who will tell you one thing to your face and another thing behind your back. George Bush saying something like "I'm telling you there's an enemy that would like to attack America, Americans, again. There just is. That's the reality of the world. And I wish him all the very best." is a news story because it's a literal example of how confused and clueless his anti-terror policies really were.
But there's nothing that saying "it's like the special olympics" that reinforces anything we think we know about Obama. Nor does it tell us anything new, because nobody seriously thinks he hates the disabled. I mean, get a grip. That has to be the subtext to why some people think it's important. And that's just stupid.
Now, if he continues through the years making semi-offensive jokes (he made that other one about Nancy Reagan), then I guess whenever he does, it'll reinforce the idea that he's a semi-offensive president. But so what? He would hardly be the first. In fact, I'd say more presidents have been that way than not. And honestly, it'll probably make him seem more like a regular guy than anything else, which wouldn't be a bad thing for him. Because seriously, whether they admit it or not, everybody makes jokes like this occasionally. ("Yes, but we're not the president!" Being president means you need to be a leader and have good policies. It doesn't preclude you from being able to tell jokes.)
03/20/09
Perhaps if we all weren't busy making fucking mountains out of molehills and had a sense of priorities, we wouldn't be vyying for title of most powerfully fucked up country EVAH.
03/20/09
Are we missing something here? This is not a live show. Is it possible it was a planned gaffe? Logic: Geez, if the show is taped, and the pres. didn't have something like that edited out, he must be a super super honest guy. Think about it. The NBC & GE biggies, who were definitely tuned into what was going on... do you think they would let the president look like an ass or deny a request to edit it?
And don't bother with the "conspiracy theory" remarks. If you don't see this as a possibility, you are a cretin.
And for all the Obamatons - same caveat. You don't have to think he's a bad guy... just watch for little questionables like these.
03/20/09
Still, I think it's more likely the following happened: Obama made the gaffe. He didn't realize he had said anything inappropriate until after he left the studio, when it was too late to do anything about it.
Or even more likely: Obama made the gaffe. He knew it was insensitive. He also knew that, whether or not he asked Leno to make an edit, news of this gaffe would leak out (I think there were newspeople in the audience). He decided not to attempt a cover-up, because, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter a whole lot.
03/20/09
So no, you conspiracy theory doesn't make any logical sense on the face of it. Sorry.
03/20/09
Number two sounds pretty good.
03/20/09
How do you know it was taped in front of a live audience? Were you there? And how do you know that the people in that audience, if there was one, were anything but folks who couldn't or wouldn't reveal anything?
I find it hard to believe 100% that the people who control the Obama image would present an opportunity for uncontrollable image damage.
03/20/09
03/20/09
So uh, yeah, until Obama sits immobile during a terrorist attack, leads us into war without provocation, killing thousands, then looks the other way as big corporations and execs steal our money, among all the other smaller injustices of the last generation, um, he can make the odd, errant gaffe or two. PLEASE.
Repubs, STFU. And work on that, you know, finding a viable leader of your party thing. 'Cause between the 14 year-old, Limbaugh, JindalPalinSteele - a - stooge, you have much bigger problems.
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