------------
Obama talked about how he'd gotten better at bowling and had been practicing in the White House bowling alley.
"I bowled a 129," he told Leno.
"That's very good, Mr. President," Leno said sarcastically.
But then came the foot-in-mouth moment: "It's like the Special Olympics or something," the president said.
------------
Sarah Palin (remember her?) weighed in about how awful the comment was and how she hoped it wasn't the way Obama felt about special needs kids . . . . then she resumed shooting moose from her helicopter
12 comments:
so he says one dumb thing once in awhile instead of every day like the last butthead.
i can live with that.
spidey, it's more than a "dumb thing" it was a terrible thing to say. if an old white man (like bush) had commented on his awesome score at a sport and said something about being black because his score was great you'd be sitting here calling bush a racist along with everyone else. but because obama is a) black and b) popular here, it's okay for him to make a comment that is downright disgusting. The special olympics is a great organization, and jeust because the people who participate are disabled, doesn't mean there's a free-for-all to pick on them. I have to call parents a few times a year and have the "your kid thinks it's funny to harass the MR kids because they're MR" and let me tell you, that's not a call any parent wants to get. I'd expect better out of our president, and I hope he's doing better by his kids when it comes to tolerance, then again, there's probably no diversity at their private school anyway, so he won't have to worry about getting that phone call.
jilly
It wasn't "terrible"...it was just dumb. And he apologized for it, and the Spec. Olympics people accepted.
Terrible is bailing out corporate fatcats and sitting by when they award themselves millions in bonuses.
Terrible is sending people into Iraq on faulty evidence.
Terrible is Gitmo detainees.
The Special Olympics joke was dumb, and insensitive but not terrible, and I personally don't excuse Obama because he's a) black and b) popular (I was a Hilly girl) but to act like it was the most terrible thing he could (or will) say is just silly.
Oh, and I don't know "Pop" or whoever posted that second comment so I deleted it. If you'd like to comment again using your recognizable blog name . . have at it.
dumb, terrible.
whatever.
what would have been "terrible" is if they had decided not to air it. it is not a live show. it is taped. the cover up would have been a far bigger mistake. he made an error, he apologized to the special olympic people before it aired and we all saw it. i found it in poor taste. i am not denying that. picking on disabled people is not a nice thing to do, along with picking on blacks,whites, overweight, deaf, blind, gays, or anyone for that matter. so i am not excusing him because he is black or any color at all. i don't think like that.
but it still remains that if he'd made a racist comment, he'd be FOREVER called a racist, but since he just picked on MR people, "so sorry" makes it all go away. i don't use racist slurs because i'm not racist. if i did use a racist slur, then i'd be a racist. using slurs against diabeled people and thinking it was right in that instant means there is some sort of tolerance issue there he should work on. what gets me is that after 8 years of bush's inability to be coherent or tolerant, I really expected more from obama. I should have known better when he called ottawa iowa. poor man probably needs a vacation already.
I personally don't think the comment was so bad. Is it terrible to say that even someone with a handicap could bowl better than you can?
It was insensitive- could it have been worse? sure,, but because there are worse things in the universe doesn't make it OK by comparison. He apologized, that should be the end of it. He is a human being. The message that I get from reading Jilly's posts is that because most folks here have great admiration for Obama, they are willing to cut him more slack than had he been someone of a different political party. That's probably true- no,, it is true. Saying something like that is much worse than saying NUCULAR for nuclear and there were plenty of guffaws in here about that. Maybe this isn't so much about Obama as it is the inability to critically evaluate the situation. Everything should stand on its own, regardless of who says or does it. (Be sure and call or write Obama and tell him how much you despise these bailouts, Bush may have started them, but he looks like a piker compared to Obama.)
thank you sheila, you, as usual, said it better than i could.
and i'd like to point out that the special olympics pretty much had to accept his apology because they want money, like every other group.
i'm sure in a few years we'll find out that hours after his comment aired, the S.O. people were in a meeting and were able to arrange a wide variety of extra funding or other perks that were prbably hidden away on line 5,679 of some document or another.
i'm sure if there were no perks, the S.O., the ARC and all of the other major MR groups would be picketing the white house like they did that stupid movie last year. There's a reason they shut up fast, and it wasn't because obama said "sorry" in a nice way.
btw my wv is logic, how fitting
jilly
I don't see what was wrong with his remark. It wasn't "Special Olympics is bad" or "I hate people who are in the Special Olympics." Big freaking deal. I've already lost interest.
As an outsider i have to agree with Jilly and Sheila had Bush said it you would be using at a stick with which to beat him
Gadz -- for once I agree with Jilly.
Post a Comment