Refudiate - Has Obama made similar gaffes?

None ^ | None | Vanity

[Steve_Seattle]

Sarah Palin's usage/invention of the word "refudiate" in a Twitter message has again been referenced in a story in The New York Times. Setting aside the question of whether "refudiate" was the result of ignorance, an innocent typo, or whimsical invention, I'm wondering if Obama has ever made a similar gaffe concerning the spelling or meaning of a word. I know there was the "57 state" gaffe, the mispronunciation of "corpsman", the reference to the non-existent Austrian language, and so forth, but I'm curious about gaffes specifically involving word usage or spelling.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Portmanteau words are derived by combining portions of two or more separate words. From an Internet source.

It was Lewis Carroll in Through The Looking Glass who coined the word portmanteau to describe them. In the book Humpty Dumpty explains that: "Well, 'slithy' means 'lithe and slimy'. 'Lithe' is the same word as 'active'. You see, it's like a portmanteau - there are two meanings packed into one word." Among several other words Carroll created chortle (a combination of 'chuckle' and 'snort') and galumph ( a combination of 'gallop' and 'triumph').

How can it be both a part of Carroll's genius and a sign of Sara Palin's ignorance? I wonder.

[Madame Dufarge]

Here ya go: Obama lost without a teleprompter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omHUsRTYFAU&feature=related

[Iron Munro]

He has, at times, acted stupidly.

He was not acting.

Here is another time he was not acting:

In an interview with Laura Haim on Canal Plus, a French television station, Mr. Obama noted that the United States also could be considered as “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.”

“And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world,”

[Steve_Seattle]

I don’t know if “refudiate” is a gaffe or not. It was taken to be so by the press, but Palin might have coined it on purpose, as kind of a Bushism, e.g., misunderestimate. What did Palin say about it?

[ConjunctionJunction]

Obama worshippers would probably say his gaffe involved a five-syllable word, and is therefore further proof of his brilliance.
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LOL! You’re probably right!

[Doctor 2Brains]

Excellent! Thanks.

[Steve_Seattle]

Those two videos are priceless. I still don’t agree with the myth of the golden-tongued Obama. He’s apparently given one or two good speeches, but so did Bush. And I never saw Bush or Palin as tongue-tied as Obama was in that second video.

[Iron Munro]

I don’t know if “refudiate” is a gaffe or not. What did Palin say about it?

"Make no mistake; I refudiate their refudiation."

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Has Obama made similar gaffes?

Irreputably. Just listen up, corpse man.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

To my ear, “refutiate” is about one one-hundredth as offensive and off-key as “corpse man”.

[Vinnie]

Here are some gaffes.
http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2010/04/barack-obama-quotes-ten-famous-obama-gaffes/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9hZpJp7U3Y

The breathalyzer episode is painful to watch .

[Madame Dufarge]

At one point in the video he says "Hold on, I can't hear myself," as if he had a receiver in his ear.

I've always suspected that was the case, and the teleprompter replaced it, being more fail-safe.

[Steve_Seattle]

When Obama or Biden or any Democrat makes a gaffe, the press probably thinks, "Well, they're brilliant people, and everyone slips up from time to time, so this doesn't really reflect on their intelligence, so it wouldn't be fair to emphasize it or ridicule it, or even report it."

But if it's Bush or Palin or any Republican who make a gaffe, the press thinks, "We always knew they were idiots, and here's the proof! This is a story!!! Stop the presses!!!"

[NurdlyPeon]

The 2011 edition of the Oxford American Dictionary is adding “refudiate” as a proper word. In fact, they named “refudiate” “Word of the Year 2010”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2627529/posts

[jennings2004]

Good summary...what a “super intelligent” leader we have!

[Steve_Seattle]

If I were a writer for Saturday Night Live, I’d have written a skit where Obama uses a teleprompter to talk to his wife and daughters at the breakfast table.

[JohnG45]

At one point in the video he says "Hold on, I can't hear myself," as if he had a receiver in his ear.

I've always suspected that was the case, and the teleprompter replaced it, being more fail-safe.

I remember seeing a clip of Zero at a townhall where he quickly turns his head to one side and blurts out, "I already said that", which was completely out of context to the ongoing proceedings.

The analyst of the clip stated that this was definitive proof that he wears an earpiece and receives help with his answers. He explained that when a voice appears in an earpiece, the head reflexively turns to the side of the incoming sound and then Zero audibly responded to the voice in the earpiece explaining his totally out of context comment," I already said that".

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Is that a rule? The “me” has to come second?

Not grammatically, but stylistically it's better. The rule for "me" vs. "I" is the CASE of the pronoun. "Between you and me" is always correct, "between you and I" is never, ever, ever correct. The preposition "between" takes the objective case, not the nominative. Way to check is to change the sentence from "< noun or pronoun > and (I/me)" by removing the "< noun or pronoun > and" then see what works. For instance, "He and me went to the store" becomes "Me I went to the store." Same rule applies to who/whom. Rephrase the question or dependent clause and replace who/whom with he/him. For instance, "Who did you give the book to?" becomes "You gave him the book.", telling you that "whom" was correct in the original question.

[Steve_Seattle]

"The analyst of the clip stated that this was definitive proof that he wears an earpiece and receives help with his answers. He explained that when a voice appears in an earpiece, the head reflexively turns to the side of the incoming sound and then Zero audibly responded to the voice in the earpiece explaining his totally out of context comment," I already said that"."

Interesting and plausible. In that video, Obama was jerking around so much, presumably reacting to the voice in the earpiece, he looked like he was being tazed!

[antiRepublicrat]

I thought all of their records and products were locked to protect them.