Gaffes Are Not Just For Vice Presidents

Joe Biden has provided us with considerable comic relief since he first became a Senator. As Vice President, he has improved his skills as a gaffemeister. Yet Crazy Joe is not alone in the heady environment of executive thought-mangling. His boss isn't too shabby when it comes to having occasional brain implosions. The recent visit to Moscow produced a few new additions to the Obama library of oopsisms.

When Mr. Obama slips, it's often a beauty because it so frequently relates to things which are really basic either to him personally, or to any sixth-grader. At least George W. Bush knew that Grecians live in Greece.

In Moscow the President met with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, or Dmitri Medivac, or Dmitri Medicare, or Dmitri MedTheRed, depending on how late in the afternoon Mr. Obama had to say the name. After botching Vladimir Putin's title (he referred to Putin as the President, though he is now the Prime Minister), Obama went on to tell a couple of family stories, a subject vitally important in matters of world diplomacy.

First he told a touching story about his younger daughter Sasha, probably because unlike Malia's name, Sasha's has a certain Russian ring to it. Unfortunately he got her age wrong. But come on, the President has to deal with a lot of people, so birthdays are hard to keep straight. And he does have two children, so confusion is understandable.

And then, as President Medalhead smiled through clenched teeth, Mr. Obama told the romantic tale of how he and Michelle met, dated, and fell in love while in law school at Harvard. That should warm that cold Russian's heart. On the other hand, it probably didn't warm Michelle's heart much (assuming she has one), since the pair didn't even know each other in law school. They met when they each got cushy jobs, without much to recommend them except ginned-up academic credentials, at a Chicago law firm named Sidley Austin. They both became "community organizers," much to the chagrin of the firm, and each left to pursue even more lucrative careers in politics (she working for Mayor Richard Daly, he for the People of Illinois in the legislature). But it is commonly known that they actually fell in love on their first date when they went to see the romantic Spike Lee movie "Do The Right Thing." Apparently, the President gets his information and memories from WikiAnswers (quick reference site for Wikipedia), which also has the answer wrong. We warned you, Mr. President--don't trust Wikipedia.

During the President's seven months in office, he has slipped a few other times. He told a joke about Nancy Reagan having seances in the White House during which she consulted with the dead. He had to apologize, not having realized that the story he was telling was actually about Hillary Clinton channeling Eleanor Roosevelt. Details, details.

One man's ceiling is another man's floor, and for Obama, one man's window is another man's door. Following a Rose Garden speech, the President made multiple attempts to re-enter the executive residence via White House windows. He finally figured out that the one with the handle was the door. On another occasion, the protocol-conscious President was boarding Marine One (the official White House helicopter), and in keeping with his glad-handing nature, he forced the Marine on duty to shake his hand. The Marine is not supposed to do that. He is to stand rigidly at attention while giving the proper salute to his commander-in-chief. The poor Marine was completely confused, and utterly humiliated. But undeterred, the President proceeded to the door of the copter, whereupon, following Presidential tradition established by Gerald Ford, he cracked his head on the entry door. Somewhat dazed, he finally got aboard.

In foreign matters, Obama has few peers. The President received a pen holder carved from the timbers of HMS Gannett, the commissioning certificate of HMS Resolute, and a seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. In exchange, Obama gave Brown a collection of twenty-five pop culture DVDs which don't work on the players in England. His other gift to England was the return of the bust of Winston Churchill which had previously been proudly displayed in the White House.

As a President who wants to keep himself in front of the common man, Mr. Obama appeared on the Jay Leno show on NBC, and showed that he actually does have a fine sense of humor. First he displayed his very meager skills as a bowler. Then, going off-script, he gave America a real knee-slapper by saying that he should be on the Special Olympics team.

At a press conference at the 2009 G-20 meeting in Austria, the President tried to remember the "Austrian word" for "wheeling and dealing," not realizing that Austrians speak German, the most widely-spoken language in Europe (take that, you Grecians). At a meeting with the Mexican Ambassador on May 4, the monolingual Obama stumbled into a play on words for the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo (the Fifth of May). So he joked that the meeting was actually the Cinco de Cuatro, meaning to say the Fourth of May. What he actually said was "The Fifth of Four." It's probably funnier if you tell it in Austrian.

Prior to his Presidency, Obama made a string of campaign gaffes. He lamented "the bomb" that fell on Pearl Harbor (never mind the entire Japanese fleet and aircraft and the torpedoes, conventional bombs and machine gun fire that rained down on Hawaii on December 7, 1941). He falsely claimed that his father had served in US Forces during World War II and that he had gotten "the services he needed" from the V. A. after returning from the fighting. He took financial wisdom seriously because he was on the Senate Banking Committee, which he referred to as "my committee." He never served on the Banking Committee.

Continuing his proud warrior theme, Obama told the story of his great-uncle Charlie Payne participating in the liberation of the death camp at Auschwitz. Unless his great-uncle served in the Soviet Army (not unlikely, given his family politics), that was impossible. At first, Obama corrected his mistake by saying he had erred, and that it was actually Treblinka (also in Poland, and also liberated by the Red Army). He finally got it right by naming Buchenwald.

Other gaffes included calling Brownsville, Texas "Brownville," Sunrise, Florida "Sunshine," and Sioux City, South Dakota "Sioux Falls." He gave a lengthy lecture on DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act) in which he said "The Defense Against Marriage Act was, was, a unnecessary imposition on what had been the traditional rules governing marriage and how states interact on the issues of marriage." He thus had the Act exactly bass ackwards.

And then there was, of course, his excited enumeration of the states in which he had already campaigned--all 57 of them. With five left to go at the time, our future President had increased the size of the Union to 62 (or 61 if he was including the District of Columbia in his count).

Are these world-shattering errors? No. Do they indicate that Obama, like many other Presidents before him, is gaffe-prone? Yes. Do they indicate that he is unfit to serve as President? Probably not, although the outright lies are problematic. So I'm guessing that by now you've figured out that his column isn't about gaffes or non self-activating mistakes. It's about fairness and this President's treatment by the mainstream media.

Many of the incidents mentioned above never appeared in the MSM. Others appeared in newspapers like the New York Times in paragraph nine of an article on page ten, or as filler on CNN and MSNBC at three o-clock in the morning as amusing anecdotes. Those which could simply not be hidden were finessed as errors made by a hardworking President who was tired at the end of the day, or simply a misfire, or an understandable human error. Occasionally they would air the gaffe on offense, in order to make Republicans look petty for catching them. What would the MSM have done had G. W. Bush, G. H. W. Bush or Ronald Reagan made the same egregious mistakes? Just read newspapers from the time, and you'll know. Don't consult Wikipedia.

The MSM have touted Obama as the most thrilling, intelligent, learned, brilliant, well-spoken, erudite, thoughtful, nuanced and articulate President of all time. Yet Franklin Roosevelt, who is alleged never to have made a grammatical, syntactical or factual error in any public appearance during his entire lengthy presidency, was still criticized by about forty percent of the press and radio for pretty much everything he did except the conduct of the war. Never before has the vast bulk of the MSM been so utterly and willfully blind to the apparent flaws of a sitting President.