Posted on 07/11/2011 9:49:45 AM PDT by New Jersey Realist
The Left had a grand old time with President George W. Bush’s mangling of the English language, and let Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann make a slip of the tongue and the mainstream media will turn it into a major news story. Not so with President Obama’s verbal missteps. Here, to bring balance to the ridicule, are the Top 10 Obama Gaffes:
1. How many states? Vice President Dan Quayle was virtually laughed out of Washington for misspelling potato back in 1992, yet Barack Obama made a more elementary flub when, during the 2008 campaign, he said: “I've now been in 57 states—I think one left to go.''
2. Hero soldier mix-up: While commending troops at Fort Drum, N.Y., for their completed deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Obama said, “A comrade of yours, Jared Monti, was the first person who I was able to award the Medal of Honor to who actually came back and wasn't receiving it posthumously." Wrong hero. Sgt. 1st Class Jared Monti was killed in action, another soldier, Staff Sgt. Sal Giunta, was the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor that fought in Afghanistan.
3. What year is it? During a trip to London’s Westminster Abbey, President Obama signed the guest book and dated it 24 May 2008. Oops. It was 2011. (Maybe he was wistfully dreaming about his 2008 election campaign at the time.)
4. Look at the map: Not only does Obama not know how many states there are, he also doesn’t know where they are. During the 2008 primary campaign, he explained why he was trailing Hillary Clinton in Kentucky: “Sen. Clinton, I think, is much better known, coming from a nearby state of Arkansas. So it’s not surprising that she would have an advantage in some of those states in the middle.” Obama’s home state of Illinois, and not Arkansas, shares a border with Kentucky.
5. What language is that? In April 2009, on one of his many foreign trips, President Obama mused, “I don’t know what the term is in Austrian” for “wheeling and dealing.” Oops, Mr. President. There is no Austrian language.
6. Twister casualties: After a devastating tornado hit Kansas, Obama discussed the tragedy without help from a teleprompter, saying, ''In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died—an entire town destroyed.'' He was only off by 9,988 as the twister killed 12 people.
7. How old is Malia? The President last month thought he was so clever, unfavorably comparing Republican procrastination on the debt limit to his daughters finishing their homework early. In his remarks, Obama made a reference to daughter Malia, saying she was 13 years old, when at the time she was 12. Imagine the press reaction if Michele Bachmann made a misstatement about any of her five children or 23 foster kids.
8. Special Olympics insensitivity: The President called and apologized to the head of the Special Olympics, after making this insensitive comment following a game of bowling: “No, no. I have been practicing. ... I bowled a 129. It's like—it was like Special Olympics, or something.'' Maybe he should have also apologized to bowlers for his feeble effort.
9. Faith confusion: No wonder so many Americans are unsure of the President’s faith, as he seems to be confused himself. During the 2008 campaign, during an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Obama said, “What I was suggesting—you're absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith,” before Stephanopoulos jumped in to help, saying ''your Christian faith.”
10. Health care inefficiencies: During the health care debate, President Obama explained all the benefits of ObamaCare, saying, “The reforms we seek would bring greater competition, choice, savings and inefficiencies to our health care system.” Mr. President, we already have enough inefficiency in health care and, yes, your “reforms” will only make it worse.
Why stop at 10?
Because everyone likes top 10 lists.
““The reforms we seek would bring greater competition, choice, savings and inefficiencies to our health care system.””
Batting 1 out of 4 (.250) is somewhat mediocre, but let’s at least give him credit for making 1 honest prediction out of 4 tries.
>>for misspelling potato
But somebody looked it up and potatoe was an alternate spelling.
The hits just keep on coming for the “most brilliant President ever.”
11. “One such translator was an American of Haitian descent, representative of the extraordinary work that our men and women in uniform do all around the world — Navy Corpse-Man Christian Brossard.” –mispronouncing “Corpsman” (the “ps” is silent) during a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, Washington, D.C., Feb. 5, 2010 (The Corpsman’s name is also Christopher, not Christian)
12. “UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.” –attempting to make the case for government-run healthcare, while simultaneously undercutting his own argument, Portsmouth, N.H., Aug. 11, 2009
13. “I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.” — defending his tax plan to Joe the Plumber, who argued that Obama’s policy hurts small-business owners like himself, Toledo, Ohio, Oct. 12, 2008
14. “Let me introduce to you the next President — the next Vice President of the United States of America, Joe Biden.” —slipping up while introducing Joe Biden at their first joint campaign rally, Springfield, Illinois, Aug. 23, 2008
15. “Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee — which is my committee — a bill to call for divestment from Iran as way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don’t obtain a nuclear weapon.” —referring to a committee he is not on, Sderot, Israel, July 23, 2008
16. “Let me be absolutely clear. Israel is a strong friend of Israel’s. It will be a strong friend of Israel’s under a McCain...administration. It will be a strong friend of Israel’s under an Obama administration. So that policy is not going to change.” —Amman, Jordan, July 22, 2008
17. “How’s it going, Sunshine?” —campaigning in Sunrise, Florida
18. “On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes — and I see many of them in the audience here today — our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.”
19. “I’m here with the Girardo family here in St. Louis.” —speaking via satellite to the Democratic National Convention, while in Kansas City, Missouri, Aug. 25, 2008
20. “The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn’t. But she is a typical white person, who, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn’t know, you know, there’s a reaction that’s been bred in our experiences that don’t go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way, and that’s just the nature of race in our society.”
I read somewhere that Quayle was actually reading that off a flash card that a teacher had prepared (he was visiting an elementary school at the time) and spelled it as written so as not to embarrass her (yet again, Reps show they have class - like W continuing to read “My Pet Goat” after getting the news of 9/11 so as not to scare the crap out of a bunch of eight-year-olds).
Also, a staffer had written "potatoe" on the card and Quayle (albeit mistakenly) deferred to that spelling.
Ah. A teacher...not a staffer. I stand corrected.
What about corpsemen? Seeing many of our fallen heroes in the audience?
It was when I was in elementary school I’m the early 60s.
What makes 0bama’s gaffes even funnier is that fact he’s so convinced of his own brilliance.
Two more:
Refering to Corpsman, Zero called him a “Corpseman”
(I think I learned that it was pronounced “Coreman” (phonetic spelling), not “Corpse” man in 5th grade)!!
Refering to a Penn State Student, as a “Nitally Lion” rather than “Nittany Lion”.
Could you imagine the media if G.W., Dan Quayle, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, Mitt Romney, et. al. said this kind of stuff!!
The Betty Crocker cookbok spells it with an “e”. I know, I looked it up.
Someone needs to set his stuttering to rap music. Great for ads. The chorus of course - “let me be clear”.
What’s the major difference between Quayle and the o? The bar is much lower for the o... He’s a buy man...doesn’t have time for the details such as the number of States.
Forgot about the “CORPS” thing...
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