There are no words.
As Cartman found out to his chagrin, those SO athletes are better than you think.
You wouldn’t recognize a joke if it bit you on the nose. Yeah, good “cover”.
When are you going to get over this delusion that Obama is some kind of kid who went straight from the cradle to the White House? The man is 47 years old, his entire political career up to four years ago was in Chicago/Illinois politics, which is big-time, big-stakes stuff, and he’s probably the most intelligent president we’ve had since Wilson.
The fact that your hero George W. was a man-child with the intelligence of a turnip really irks you, deep inside, doesn’t it?
If Bush had said it, yes… there would’ve probably been a couple of pit threads and a good amount of manufactured outrage from everyone but Fox.
But you know what else is different? In this thread alone there are those on the Left who are saying that it was an unfortunate gaffe- clearly he didn’t mean to impugn anything other than his own bowling skills, and even he seemed to realize that it was a joke which could be taken the wrong way.
Whereas, if it was Bush, his defenders would’ve drawn up marching orders to rush to his defense and to imply that anyone who disagreed with them was, at best, UnAmerican… and, at worst, a traitor.
Either way, this is another example of partisan manufactured outrage. Can we just get over it, already? Or, put another way, can we just cut the crap? Is this anywhere NEAR as important as the economy, or the war, or the choice of First Dog?
Most of my dopey friends know enough not to make fun of retarded people in mixed company. Your “intelligent” Obama, however, went ahead and did so on the frickin Tonight Show!!!:rolleyes:
Yeah, that’s what happens when a person speaks extemporaneously. You or I wouldn’t have made the same joke at all, right? There’s been plenty more offensive stuff said on late night, anyway.
He should have watched himself more closely, precisely because of potential faux outrage like this, but he was just chatting with Leno and it slipped.
If you’re of the opinion that intelligent people NEVER slip up verbally, you really don’t know any.
Which is it, Stephe?
- Obama was intentionally insulting the Special Olympics, and by extension, ridiculing those who participate in them.
or
- A gaffe which clearly shows that he’s unworthy of being President due to his lack of sensitivity to the handicapped and disabled.
I’d just like to know where you’re coming from on this.
Not since January.
He didn’t make fun of retarded people, any more than when Stephen King said “I have the heart of a small boy; I keep it in a jar of formaldehyde by my bed” he was making a joke about child murder. He was making a joke about his bowling. Besides which he’s apologized already (from Air Force One and on his own accord before it became an issue, though the fact it was to SO Chairman Tim Shriver [a Kennedy] will I’m sure not be lost). So let’s move on, nothing to see here.
He also talked a bit about the economy and explained AIG’s bailout in a manner that probably makes more people understand it a little bit better than you’d find in 20 hours of most cable news networks. That’s not important though.
(How long before Down Syndrome mother Sarah Palin weighs in with tearful offended look I wonder?)
I would to see a cite for some instance where Bush made a bad joke, and several Republicans on the SDMB said that anyone who attacked him for it was un-American or a traitor.
Regards,
Shodan
But they are a whiz at golf, somtimes they score 4 or 5 times what a pro would. (Hanging head in shame because I have a brother in SO).
Wow, and here I had been thinking that Biden would be the one to be giving all the verbal gaffes in this administraction!
Dissing himself by saying he should be in the Special Olympics because he is so bad at the sport is pretty much dissing the Special Olympics, is it not?
There would be nothing funny (or meant to be funny) about the comment if it didn’t rely on the presumption that Special Olympics participants must be very bad at what they do.
Imagine the outrage if a white politician went on TV and made a joke that compared something he was bad at doing as being comparable to how black people would do it. I wouldn’t blame black people for viewing that as offensive even if the hypothetical politican was “only trying to make fun of himself”. After all, the point is that he was “making fun of himself” by comparing himself to people he sees as inferior. That’s why Obama’s remark is in such poor taste.
For those who say it could have happened to anyone, no, it would only happen to someone who had opinions about the mentally handicapped that, in a lapse, they forgot to disguise before speaking. I would never expect someone who actually had a mentally handicapped child to make such a joke about the Special Olympics.
I’m not saying that this is The Most Important Issue in the World, but when Obama’s reputation relies so much on being such The Genius Eloquent Master Speaker, it is newsworthy when he shows he can be just as stupid as every other politician who makes insensitive or dumb remarks.
Agree with everyone that it is no big deal. Also agree that if any Republican had said this, there would be calls for his/her resignation. I don’t like that double standard.
And it seems that a Special Olympic bowler has challenged Obama to a game. He’s pretty confident that he’ll win, seeing as how his average is 266 and he’s had 3 perfect 300 games. “He’s cool, but he can’t beat me.”
Love it! 
How about when Bush said there were WMDs in Iraq?
Or when he displayed the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner?
I think now we’re getting off-topic. Those are well outside the boundaries of meaningless gaffes.
To answer seriously, probably the worst joke Bush made was pretending to look under desks and tables for WMD’s. If I could make the search function work, I’d try to find some conservative defenses of it (or attacks on people who said it was in poor taste). I’m genuinely curious.
Obama made a bad joke. He should apologize and we should get on with our horrible, horrible world.
There was also the heart surgery joke he made on Letterman only days after Dave had gone under the knife. IIRC, the studio audience booed him for that.
Don’t forget about how he went fishing, while New Orleans was underwater.
He did (although the statement released by the Special Olympics chairman [PDF] doesn’t really say whether or not they accepted it) and we should.