Commentary on Obama’s Special Olympics gaffe
March 20th, 2009In an appearance on the Tonight Show last night, Barack Obama said his poor bowling performance was “like Special Olympics or something.” Video is here. Earlier post here.
By Chris Ayres in the [UK] Times:
Headline: ‘Barack Obama red-faced after Special Olympics jibe on Leno Show; It was all going so well as the President chatted to Jay Leno. Then he made a crack about the Special Olympics …’
It just seemed to pop out of nowhere. One minute the President was being all warm and self-deprecating. The next he was making fun of the disabled.
Not even Mr Obama’s second-in-command, the apocalyptically hapless Joe Biden, could have snatched such a resounding defeat from the jaws of such a guaranteed victory.
… in the instant he said it, you could see a flash of realisation in his eyes: I’ve just mocked the disabled. On live TV.
… For Mr Obama, however, there will at least some an upside to all this as he uncurls himself from the foetal position when he wakes up this morning. How? Because what he achieved in Los Angeles on The Tonight Show was far of more greater importance than all his declarations of faith in the banking system and in his Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner. Indeed, President finally managed to do what has thus far eluded him during the first few week of his Presidency: he ensured that for at least one news cycle, no-one will be talking about AIG or the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
By Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times television critic:
Now this is the sort of remark that, sadly, has become commonplace in contemporary humor. But it’s nothing you’d want your president to say, or even to think.
Politics may make room for the occasional actor, but it’s best to leave comedy to the professionals.
From the “Pet Rock” pop culture blog at Newsday.com:
Without fail, Obama haters will spin this into something it’s not. And since this is a pop culture blog, not a political pulpit (far too many of those on the Internet), we won’t delve deep into how this will divide the nation into partisan camps or how “pundits” will remark that while people are losing their jobs left and right, their president can mock handicapped kids on national television.
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March 20th, 2009 at 10:02 am
It’s not just Obama who needs to take a hard look at this, his remark on one of the most popular television shows in American is indicative of a culture that is all-too-comfy disparaging individuals with disability — I might add, individuals who would never disparage him/them.
Since he so decidedly put his foot in his mouth, here’s my four-point plan for the President of the USA to make reparations for the cultural damage he caused last night:
1) Pony-up beau coup bucks for the Special Olympics cause today.
2) Create a cabinet position for disability NOW. There currently isn’t even a policy *advisor* for disability since Kareem Dale moved to an arts leadership position.
3) Create positions for self-advocates in the White House so he/the world never forgets about people who have to work harder than he can ever dream of working to achieve what they do.
4) Urge every college, university and high school in American to teach disability history/cultural competency—ignorance knows every person in American all too well.
March 20th, 2009 at 8:15 am
Reminds me of some of the clangers Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, has made.