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The use of the word "gaffe" is getting on my last nerve. "Journalists" are paid to say what their words mean, or depending on the philosophic outlook, to lie. Using the word "gaffe" by "journalists" who consider themselves on the other side of center from the speaker, a misspeak is sometimes characterized as a "gaffe," and usually an embarassing gaffe. When the speaker is on the same side of center as the journalist, it is never a gaffe, but simply "misspeaking." When one misspeaks it is obvious, i.e. Obama arrives in Kansas and says it's good to be back in...

Pic courtesy another major Japanese national TV network, TBS For those who have been following this, the Japanese press is filled with snippets, chortling and stories and about the keystone-cop-ish US White House (specifically the National Security Council under Tom Donilon) and the White House website, which mistakenly listed the first name of Japan's Prime Minister (the third largest economy in the world you recall) as a common Japanese "female first name", "Yoshiko" (sic), and now the Chunichi Shimbun News off a Kyodo News Agency story (which is the blue ribbon equivalent of AP), has run an article saying...

One cannot help noticing the struggle between Barack Obama’s natural instincts and the serene and benevolent persona he projects to the world. Beneath the visage of a cosmetically populist, post-racial, post-partisan reformer who wants to “perfect” America and to have “millionaires and billionaires” “pay their fair share” is just another condescending, self-important, sarcastic, academic liberal Democrat, who believes in false consciousness and in scholastic theories that success in life can be attributed to birth or luck or community but not to individual effort and grit. Obama may be talented at self-fashioning, but he cannot maintain his public face constantly. The...

Olympics: Mitt Romney has gotten blasted on all sides for questioning London's Olympic preparation. The overlooked fact is that Romney actually knows how to run an Olympics. You would have thought Great Britain and the U.S. were in a crisis and recalling each others' ambassadors, given the overblown, overwrought windbaggery directed at Romney, who is making his first trip abroad as a Republican presidential candidate, with London as his first stop. Someone asked him what he thought of London's Olympic preparations and he replied there could be reason for concern, citing reports of labor and security problems. See, the London...

CBS Host Laughs At Paul Ryan After She Fails To Distinguish Between Tax Cuts And Tax Hikes (video at link)

I present to you a slideshow of the top 15 "you didn't build that" memes. Enjoy.

THE PRESIDENT: Now, before I finish, can I say, by the way, that some of you have been standing for a while and I see a couple folks slumping down a little bit. Make sure you're drinking water. Bend your knees. Don't stand up too straight. The paralegals will be -- the paralegals? (Laughter.) You don't need lawyers. (Laughter.) The paramedics will be coming by, so just give folks a little bit of room, they'll be fine. This happens at every event.

You should be sitting down. The skies just might open. Glorious Leader has spoken his first words of truth while bungling Harry Truman's famous quote. "Well, here's what I know, we were just talking about responsibility and as president of the United States, it's pretty clear to me that I'm responsible for folks who are working in the federal government and you know, Harry Truman said the buck stops with you," Obama said. "The Buck stops with YOU !" Does it ever; about $140,000 per taxpayer on our $16 trillion dollar debt. In actuality, a 'one-percenter' is on the hook...

Marion Barry commits new gaffe while apologizing to Asians‎ Washington PostMay 24, 2012 D.C. Council member Marion Barry stepped up his campaign on Thursday to mend relations with the Asian community, apologizing again for disparaging remarks he made about Koreans and Filipinos and pledging to work to improve ties between them and African Americans... Representatives of the Korean, Filipino, Chinese and Japanese communities attended the meeting, held at a church in Southeast Washington. Asked later about his reference to “Polacks,” Barry at first denied using the word, then retracted it, saying, “I meant Poles.” His remark prompted a demand from...

The political world is a-twitter about the president's recent statements on the condition of the economy. You know, the one where President Barack Obama said the private sector is "doing fine." Well, that one was not received in the way it was intended. In fact, it generated so much ridicule that a few hours later the president again took to the public stage in order to correct his initial assessment. The subsequent damage control statement did little to calm the political waters, however. But it did a lot to illuminate this president's state of mind regarding job creation and the...

The president referred to “Polish death camps” while awarding a posthumous Medal of Freedom to Polish professor Jan Karski, a hero of the anti-Nazi resistance. Poles believe they're blamed unfairly for the Nazi Holocaust, and the Foreign Minister led the outrage in a late night tweet. The remark, which barely drew notice in America, is all over the Polish news today. On the country's largest television station:

On “Meet he Press,” Biden referred to Mitt Romney as “President Romney.”

In yet another gaffe, President Barack Obama, in a "Presidential Proclamation" about Jewish-American Heritage Month, yesterday praised Nazi sympathizer Gertrude Stein. In the release, the President originally wrote: “Their history of unbroken perseverance and their belief in tomorrow’s promise offers a lesson not only to Jewish Americans, but to all Americans. From Aaron Copland to Albert Einstein, Gertrude Stein to Justice Louis Brandeis.” Stein is known for being a famous Jewish-American writer. However, in a 1934 interview, Stein argued vigorously for Adolf Hitler to win the Nobel Peace Prize, saying: "I say that Hitler ought to have the peace prize,...

Barack Obama made an uncharacteristic error, more akin to those of his predecessor George W Bush, by referring to the Falkland Islands as the Maldives. President Obama erred during a speech at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, when attempting to call the disputed archipelago by its Spanish name. Instead of saying Malvinas, however, Mr Obama referred to the islands as the Maldives, a group of 26 atolls off that lie off the South coast of India.

ERIC FEHRNSTROM, ROMNEY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: I think he hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes, it's almost like an Etch A Sketch you can kind of shake it up and restart all over again. GINGRICH, R - PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Some people talk about making pledges that are in stone. But the idea that a Romney pledge is on Etch A Sketch, this should remind everyone in the conservative movement why they are very worried about a Romney presidency and about a Romney candidacy. And it really makes you doubt and wonder about his sincerity. RICK SANTORUM: When...

Mitt Romney went to the Daytona 500 NASCAR race Sunday in what should have been a chance to show he’s one of the guys. Instead, in casual conversation with an Associated Press reporter at the Florida track, he reminded people once again that he is not exactly a regular Joe. Asked by the AP reporter if he follows NASCAR, Romney responded, "Not as closely as some of the most ardent fans. But I have some great friends who are NASCAR team owners."

Earlier this month, I referenced Barack Obama’s remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast in an Obamateurism a couple of weeks ago, but alert OOTD reader Ken K spotted one I missed in the same speech. The President spoke about the hardship of our men and women in the military who are now leaving the service but not finding jobs in the current economy. Unfortunately, Obama offered a reprise of one of his earliest gaffes on the national political stage, emphasis mine: Our economy is making progress as we recover from the worst crisis in three generations, but far too many...

President Obama mistakenly referred to the nation of Georgia as "Russia" after a bilateral meeting with the Georgian president -- an unfortunate slip-up, given that the president was celebrating 20 years of Georgian independence from Soviet rule. "[O]ne of the first things that I did was express my appreciation for the institution-building that’s been taking place in Russia -- in Georgia," Obama told reporters following a meeting with Georgia's President Saakashvili. Moments earlier, Obama had noted that it was "a wonderful occasion to have him here as we’ll be celebrating this year 20 years of independence for Georgia and the...

Biden on the housing crisis: “I’m going to make a raw political statement here. A guy like Romney is a good guy, he’s a decent honorable man, and I admire his family, but what he doesn’t understand is that we look at the foreclosure rate in the country like somebody going to bed tonight. They stare at the ceiling wondering if they’re going to be in that house a month from now, and what can we do to help? They [Republicans] look at it from a purely economic standpoint. The best thing to get the housing market back up is...

NEW YORK (AP) -- In today's digital age, it's easy to send out an email by mistake — even for a company that's in the business of communication. The New York Times thought it was sending an email to a few hundred people who had recently canceled subscriptions, offering them a 50 percent discount for 16 weeks to lure them back. Instead, Wednesday's offer went to 8.6 million email addresses of people who had given them to the Times. That was the first mistake.