Obama's joke on Leno...

Cafe Society
61

And played guitar and ate birthday cake, if memory serves. Oh, and said “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job.” Anyway these are different from off-the-cuff jokes, clueless as they may be. Bush certainly tripped over his own tongue more than a few times. I remember he referred to to Pakistanis as “Pakis” once, which isn’t a big deal here but is considered offensive in the UK. That seems vaguely similar.

There’s really no way to read Obama’s comments without reading them as a putdown of the Special Olympics. Given that athletes in the Special Olympics generally are not on the same level as regular Olympians I think we all know what was meant there. We know why people say that stuff. It happens, particularly when someone who is not all that funny is onstage with a comedian and tries to be funny.

62

A major component of any joke is the teller and the circumstances: not just how much you like them but to what extent do they mean the barb and how was the joke intended and what was it’s purpose. I have friends who can call me (in jest) a fag to my face and I’ll take no offense whatever because I know that’s not how they think of me, other people can make the most seemingly innocuous gay joke on Earth and it’ll infuriate me because I know (or feel) that they do see me as intrinsically perverted (because of the gay thing alone I mean:cool:).
I really can’t imagine anybody who knows anything at all about his past would think “Obama looks down on the retarded” because of a misfired joke. I think it’s stupid that it’s being reported all over the freaking news today while his comments about AIG on the same show aren’t getting nearly as much press. I honestly can’t imagine most of Lord Obama’s Faithful on this board getting worked up if Bush had made the exact same joke (I’d just be surprised that Bush isn’t a good bowler) because whatever else you may say about him he didn’t seem to harbor any ill will against the retarded (he even allowed them to be electrocuted just like everyone else).
OTOH, if Obama had sung a duet with Stephen Lynch of the Special Olympics song (a link for those who are not easily offended) or even laughed at it during a White House performance, THAT’S worth getting upset about since it’s whole purpose is to mock the retarded. The quip on Leno is a complete and total non-issue no more willfully insulting than saying “I’m busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest” is a slam against amputees.

63

You know, I’m a pretty big critic of Obama, not caring for him as president much at all. But this? It’s just silly. The guy made a quick joke, one that a lot of people would make if having the same conversation. The difference is, those people wouldn’t be in front of the entire nation (well, world, with replays of the clip) to be criticized for it, so it would be sort of chuckled at or ignored, then everyone would be on their way.
Really, not everything is something to get all het up over.

64

What about those with mentally and physically handicapped siblings? My sister has cerebral palsy and a host of other birth defects, and I’d make that joke.

65

I think this is yet more evidence that the press thinks people care about this stuff a lot more than they actually do.

66

It’s a lot easier to report and dissect this than actual issues.

67

Plus you get to watch Leno!!! That’s so much cooler than all those boring meetings!1! :stuck_out_tongue:

68

Bush wasn’t the one who displayed that banner.

69

That’s a very advised use of the word “displayed,” since your link states that the White House made the banner (at the request of the Navy) and may have hung it up.

In any case this issue was talked to death years ago.

70

I just checked with our very protective mother (who voted for McCain), and she sees nothing wrong with what he said. This is a complete non-issue.

71

“My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” is still the Gold Standard in Presidential gaffes.

The best explanations of the bail-outs are the ones by Sal Khan. His Khan Academy videos look cheesy, but the information is wonderfully clear. His CV is amazing:

Sal received his MBA from Harvard Business School where he was president of the student body. He also holds a Masters in electrical engineering and computer science, a BS in electrical engineering and computer science, and a BS in mathematics from MIT where he was president of the the Class of 1998. While at MIT, Sal was the recipient of the Eloranta Fellowship which he used to develop web-based math software for children with ADHD. He was also an MCAT instructor for the Princeton Review and volunteered teaching gifted 4th and 7th graders at the Devotion School in Brookline, MA.

72

It was a stupid thing to say. Humans say stupid things.

73

A meaningless gaffe in Bush’s case was the time when he gave a speech and left the podium in the wrong direction and wound up at two locked doors. He tried them both, then gave the audience kind of a goofy grin and went the other way.

In that case, there was no offense given, he did absolutely nothing wrong. But that didn’t stop the video of the event being played over, and over, and over… Obama’s gaffe with the teleprompter was about the equivalent, but didn’t get nearly as much airplay.

But this isn’t a partisan thing. It’s more about narrative. When Presidents do something that fits the narrative of them, If a president is perceived as being stupid, anything he does that reinforces the perception will be jumped on, whether it’s true or not.

For example, Gerald Ford stumbled in public a couple of times early in his Presidency, and got tagged as being a clumsy oaf. Thereafter, any time he did anything that could be remotely construed as clumsy, it was fuel for comedians. Chevy Chase made a career out of stumbling around a set as Ford. At the time, ‘everyone knew’ that Ford was a clumsy oaf.

The reality is far different. Ford was probably the most gifted athlete who ever sat in the White House. He was on the national championship football team for the University of Michigan, and won MVP when they won the championship undefeated. He was an expert level skiier, a 12 handicap in golf, and stayed active in golf, skiing and swimming and other sports right through his mid-80’s. But to this day, people think he was a clumsy oaf, because you can’t shake a meme.

If Obama gets ‘tagged’ with some meme like this, it’ll happen to him too. So far, the press still has a kid gloves treatment going, but at some point that will end. Then he’ll get tagged and bagged, and ‘everyone will know’ something about him that’s probably completely untrue. Just as Bush was seen as ‘stupid’ and Al Gore is seen as ‘smart’, despite the fact that Bush had better grades, higher SAT scores, and was more successful in politics, the military, and business. But once you get labeled, you’re finished.

74

Ford’s reputation as clumsy was established before he was President. Lyndon Johnson tagged Ford with “…can’t fart and chew gum at the same time” when Ford was the House Minority Leader (variously reported as “walk” “fart” and “fuck”) but it was partisan and unfair. Such is politics.

75

That sounds like a comment on Ford’s intelligence, not his coordination. Although I don’t think I know anyone who can walk and fuck at the same time. Even if they could, where they would be walking to?

You’re correct about narratives (a term that’s apt but getting overused), Sam Stone, but I think you’re overcomplicating things: Bush got tagged as stupid because he spoke poorly and mangled the language. If you speak well, people are much more likely to believe you are intelligent.

76

A nice, comfortable bed. I’ve done it when I was younger, but the woman involved was tiny, it was more of a shuffle than a walk, and my back has never been the same.

77

No, I would like 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. That’s what was claimed.

So, do you have 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, or is “OhyeahwellBushliedaboutIraq” the only response you have for anything?

Regards,
Shodan

78

Of course if Lord Obama really is an evil genius he would make such “inadvertent gaffes” to get all America talking about them while completely ignoring the stuff he’s actually doing. OMG!!! He’s probably this very minute using AF1 to drop anthrax on Canada, blame it on Scandinavia, and laughing maniacally that “Call Padawan Cheney and tell him Begun the ScandiCanadian War has! Initiate Order 66!”

79

Hell, I’m physically handicapped and I’d make a joke like that probably, but more about my own disabilities than another’s. :shrug: it’s a coping mechanism at times. If you can’t laugh at the world or yourself sometimes, you’re trying too hard.

80

That’s not what I was saying. I’m saying that once you are tagged as stupid, or clumsy, or whatever, anything you do to reinforce that belief will receive much more attention. Obama’s teleprompter gaffe fell off the radar because no one thinks he’s stupid, so it was a non-event. Had he been perceived as stupid, or perhaps technologically illiterate, it would have received much more attention, and been the subject of many more jokes.

That’s all I was trying to say.