# Presidential embarrassments
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [May 21, 2010, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243 "2010-05-21T13:03:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2010, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243/21 "2010-05-21T21:28:54Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#):
>
> [Snopes says nopes.](http://www.snopes.com/history/american/bushscan.asp)
Yeah, they do, but the video still looks pretty doofy. My take on it is that Snopes is nitpicking.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2010, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243/22 "2010-05-22T03:20:33Z")
> [@palindromemordnilap](#):
>
> Carter claimed to have seen a UFO.
Was that before or after the rabbit incident? Either could have mentally prepared him for the other.
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### Author:  [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2010, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243/23 "2010-05-22T04:48:59Z")
> [@palindromemordnilap](#):
>
> Obama’s bowling game was a little embarrassing, and as I recall, his “throw the first pitch” in White Sox Park was pretty pathetic. On the other hand, his free throw is awesome, and when he killed that fly I was proud that he was my President.
Eh. He’s not throwing smoke like W, but Obama throws out a pretty decent first pitch.
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### Author:  [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243/24 "2010-05-22T15:25:21Z")
> [@pravnik](#):
>
> That was a commonly printed story of the day, but modern historians are divided over whether Jackson was actually in costume or simply naturally pimptastic.
I now have a weird desire to know how pimps dressed in the early parts of the 19th Century.
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### Author:  [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243/25 "2010-05-22T17:24:31Z")
Well, there’s the old story about John Quincy Adams skinny dipping, and a female reporter sitting on his clothes until he agreed to give her an interview.
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### Author:  [@SecretaryofEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecretaryofEvil)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2010, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243/26 "2010-05-22T19:09:12Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#):
>
> Well, there’s the old story about John Quincy Adams skinny dipping, and a female reporter sitting on his clothes until he agreed to give her an interview.
If I was president the only story she would have gotten was an accurate description of the presidential dong.
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### Author:  [@SecretaryofEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecretaryofEvil)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2010, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243/27 "2010-05-22T19:10:16Z")
> [@Munch](#):
>
> There was that time everyone told Andrew Jackson that the big state dinner was a costume party, and he was the only one that showed up dressed like a pimp.
Funny as balls dude.
Reagan’s quip about outlawing Russia was pretty hilarious too.
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### Author:  [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243/28 "2010-05-22T19:22:18Z")
> [@SecretaryofEvil](#):
>
> If I was president the only story she would have gotten was an accurate description of the presidential dong.
But you’d be “quoted out of context,” with no mention in the story of the water’s temperature.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243/29 "2010-05-23T01:31:02Z")
Grant getting a speeding ticket had to be a little embarassing to everyone involved.
Bush 41 flubbed a line in a speech and said he had sex with Reagan.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243/30 "2010-05-23T01:33:03Z")
> [@](#):
>
> If I was president the only story she would have gotten was an accurate description of the presidential dong.
“Or as I like to call it, the White House Staff.”
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243/31 "2010-05-23T04:51:21Z")
Remember, Bush 1 didn’t just vomit in Japan – he vomited on the Japanese P.M., then passed out.
:eek:
What about “Mission Accomplished?”
Bush having a shoe thrown at him. And wasn’t it Carter who told that story about seeing a – oh, what do you call it – it’s not a jackrabbit, but it’s a rumored animal, like Big Foot? What is it? Dammit!
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### Author:  [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243/32 "2010-05-23T05:11:59Z")
[QUOTE=Justin\_Bailey]
Eh. He’s not throwing smoke like W, but Obama throws out a pretty decent first pitch.
[/QUOTE]
It wasn’t the pitch that was the problem…it was the [pants](http://bumpshack.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/asg_bo1.jpg).
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### Author:  [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243/33 "2010-05-23T05:41:18Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#):
>
> And wasn’t it Carter who told that story about seeing a – oh, what do you call it – it’s not a jackrabbit, but it’s a rumored animal, like Big Foot? What is it? Dammit!
A jackalope?
I think someone may have conflated the very real attack on Jimmy Carter of the unidentified rabbit/rodent-like thing with Jimmy’s report of seeing a UFO, to come up with Jimmy reporting a jackalope. Googling “Jimmy Carter” and jackalope together provide a lot of hits that suggest that the “killer rabbit” was a jackalope, but they seem mostly tongue-in-cheek.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243/34 "2010-05-23T17:29:13Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#):
>
> Remember, Bush 1 didn’t just vomit in Japan – he vomited on the Japanese P.M., then passed out.
> :eek:
> What about “Mission Accomplished?”
>
> Bush having a shoe thrown at him. And wasn’t it Carter who told that story about seeing a – oh, what do you call it – it’s not a jackrabbit, but it’s a rumored animal, like Big Foot? What is it? Dammit!
For shame!
> **[What was the deal with Jimmy Carter and the killer rabbit?](https://www.straightdope.com/21342110/what-was-the-deal-with-jimmy-carter-and-the-killer-rabbit)**
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### Author:  [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243/35 "2010-05-23T18:15:31Z")
I just want to insert that I have been bitten by a thirteen pound rabbit (a lop, yet!), and it’s no joke! We referred to that rabbit as Spawn of Satan, although her rescuer had given her the name Mindy in hopes of sweetening her up a bit.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2010, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243/36 "2010-05-23T22:13:55Z")
> [@Mr.Miskatonic](#):
>
> For shame!
>
> [What was the deal with Jimmy Carter and the killer rabbit? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/950/what-was-the-deal-with-jimmy-carter-and-the-killer-rabbit)
Which is a curiously ill-informed article. In fact, there is such a thing as the swamp rabbit ([url=[http://www.mnh.si.edu/mna/image\_info.cfm?species\_id=366](http://www.mnh.si.edu/mna/image_info.cfm?species_id=366)]_Sylvilagus aquaticus_/url]), which is a subspecies of cottontail rabbit, and is known for being more aggressive about marking territory than its prairie cousin. I don’t know if I’d classify this as a presidential embarrassment of the same class as vomiting on a foreign dignitary, making a terminally tasteless joke during a mike check, or being caught _in flagrante delicto_ with women of a substandard grade of attractiveness. Carter’s “Swamp Rabbit” episode was largely manufactured by news sources on what was otherwise a slow news week; it is the equivalent of the story the family likes to tell at Christmas about how you were once frightened out of your wits at night by a robe that was blown off the clothesline and onto a bush; more amusing in the telling than truly revealing of a personal defect.
Stranger
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### Author:  [@Beerman1963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beerman1963)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2010, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243/37 "2010-05-25T05:11:14Z")
White House staff 😃
oohh band name
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2010, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243/38 "2010-05-25T05:51:57Z")
> [@Student\_Driver](#):
>
> A jackalope?
>
> I think someone may have conflated the very real attack on Jimmy Carter of the unidentified rabbit/rodent-like thing with Jimmy’s report of seeing a UFO, to come up with Jimmy reporting a jackalope. Googling “Jimmy Carter” and jackalope together provide a lot of hits that suggest that the “killer rabbit” was a jackalope, but they seem mostly tongue-in-cheek.
That’s it! Thanks!
And even though he wasn’t the president, Vice-President Dan Quayle was one big walking FAIL.
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### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2010, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243/39 "2010-05-25T11:49:03Z")
Obama’s handling of the BP oil spill is becoming an embarassment. It’s become blindingly obvious that BP can’t handle the situation themselves, yet Obama refuses to assert federal authority and send in the Coast Guard or the Navy or _someone_ to help out.
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### Author:  [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)
#### Post date: [May 25, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/presidential-embarrassments/540243/40 "2010-05-25T19:07:26Z")
…wrong thread dude.
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