In the Los Angeles Times Top of the Ticket blog, California first lady Maria Shriver chastised the president over his televised joke about the Special Olympics .

“While I am confident that President Obama never intended to offend anyone, the response that his comments have caused, coupled with the reaction of a primetime audience, demonstrate the need to continue to educate the non-disabled community on the issues that confront those with a developmental disability,” she said.

On ABC’s Political Punch Blog, her husband, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, defended the president.

“He loves the Special Olympics … and every one of us sometimes makes a mistake by something comes out of your mouth and you say ‘Oops I wish I wouldn’t have said that.’ I’ve had many of those,” he said.

From the White House press office by way of the Associated Press, an official statement that the president’s quip was a “thoughtless joke” and the athletes deserve better.

And Tim Shriver, head of the Special Olympics, is scheduled to appear on CNN’s Larry King tonight.

See also: Is Obama good enough to bowl in the Special Olympics? Yes, but not good enough to win — Slate.com

This entry was posted on Friday, March 20th, 2009 at 6:00 pm and is filed under entertainment, humor, intellectual/developmental disabilities, Obama administration, Obama Special Olympics remark, television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.