All The Known Gaffes Of The Obama World
UK Telegraph’s Toby Harnden cruelly lines up his Top 10 Obama-Biden gaffes. More gaffeology follows. We’re amassing a vast compendium of Obama errata, a gathering of curious facts and wonders the likes of which has not been seen since Alexandria:
10. Just after he’s been sworn in by him, the newly-minted Vice President Joe Biden gets the name of Justice John Paul Stephens, “one of the great justices” of the Supreme Court, wrong by calling him “Justice Stewart.”
9. Barack Obama jokes about Nancy Reagan having séances in the White House. He later called her to apologise after the AP noted that although she had consulted astrologers, “she did not hold conversations with the dead.”
8. Joe Biden forgets the “website number” for the White House internet site designed to show how TARP money is being spent.
7. Barack Obama mixes up the windows and doors at his new home.
6. Joe Biden jokes about Chief Justice John Roberts fluffing the inauguration oath. The president is visibly annoyed with his veep and Biden later apologises.
5. A Marine One double. First, on his maiden Marine One trip Obama breaches protocol and makes life uncomfortable for an enlisted marine by shaking the the serviceman’s hand as he’s saluting his commander-in-chief. Then - Gerald Ford, eat your heart out. Barack Obama bangs his head as he boards his helicopter.
4. Joe Biden tells his wife that he had the choice of being either Secretary of State or vice-president - an offer that was news to Obama aides and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when Jill Biden spilled the beans on Oprah.
3. Gordon Brown presents the new President with: a pen holder carved from the timbers of HMS Gannett, a sister ship of HMS Resolute; the commissioning certificate of HMS Resolute; and a seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill. In return, the Prime minister gets 25 DVDS, which don’t work in Britain.
2. Joe Biden tells a former Senate colleague who addresses him as “Mr Vice-President” to “give me a f—ing break.”
1. The latest one takes the biscuit. Barack Obama jokes about the disabled on the Jay Leno show. Afterwards, he calls the head of the Special Olympics to apologise:
NB I’ve only included gaffes committed since the presidential election on November 4th. In October, I did this blog on the top dozen campaign gaffes, which features several from Obama and Biden.
Vid clips at the link. Good list, I had forgotten a few of those. So many to mull, he missed a few. There was the letter to Russia offering to swap Eastern European missles defenses … and give Russia’s recent behavior, essentially to swap Eastern Europe … for help with Iran. The Russians openly mocked him for attempting to “horsetrade.” There have been his public entreaties for “mutual respect” to the Iranians. The Iranians have openly mocked him, demanding apologies for US “aggression” and “war crimes.” There was the handing of all controls on the economic stimulus plan to the Democratic majority in Congress, and the resulting absurd all-you-can-deficit-spend porkfest. There was claiming to reach out to Republicans while openly insulting them. There was publicly engaging with a talkshow host. There was telling old war vets a grateful nation, in the person of its current president, would like to fob their war wounds off on their employers.
I’ll hand off to Don Surber, whose 60 days/64 mistakes is the most comprehensive list of Obama gaffes, goofs and missteps I’ve seen. Thank you, Don, for doing this important, difficult work of keeping track of all this. A towering accomplishment I’m taking the liberty of reproducing in its entirety here, as I try to amass a gaffeological library. A new Alexandria, encompassing all the gaffes of the known Obamaworld.
1. Most expensive inauguration. Ever.
2. Appointing tax cheat Tim Geithner.
3. Appointing under investigation Bill Richardson.
4. Appointing tax cheat Tom Daschle.
5. Appointing Marc Rich and terrorist pardoning Eric “Nation of Cowards” Holder.
6. Appointing Janet “Man Caused Disasters” Napolitano.
7. Appointing Hilda Solis (OK, her husband has the tax liens).
8. Appointing anti-Semitic Charles Freeman Jr.
9. Appointing tax cheat Ron Kirk.
10. Appointing fund-raising cheat Gary Locke.
11. Appointing under investigation Adolfo Carrion.
12. Bumping his head on the Marine One helicopter.
13. Banning offshore oil again.
14. Funding abortions overseas.
15. Using the word “crisis” 25 times in a speech, then later complaining that people are too negative about the economy.
16. Letting Nancy Pelosi write the $787 billion “stimulus’ plan.
17. Relying on Tim Geithner to explain it.
18. Putting Joe Biden in charge of making sure the stimulus money is not — wink, wink, nudge, nudge — misspent.
19. Setting the Oval Office thermostat at 80.
20. Going to a press conference without a TelePrompTer. I… Uhh… Umm… Could you repeat the question?
21. Using a TelePrompTer at a press conference. Big boys don’t need training wheels.
22. Opening a press conference with: “Good evening, everybody. Please be seated. Before I take your questions tonight, I’d like to speak briefly.” 1,228 words later he took his first question.
23. Ethics waivers.
24. Going after Rush Limbaugh.
25. Going after Rick Santelli.
26. Going after Jim Cramer.
27. Trying to run the Census out of the White House.
28. Adopting the motto: “Never waste a good crisis.”
29. Writing a love letter to Vlad and Dmitry.
30. Throwing Poland under the bus.
31. Throwing Tibet under the bus.
32. Throwing Israel under the bus.
33. Taking Cuba out from under the bus.
34. Ticking off Switzerland by having his tax cheat go after the tax cheats in Switzerland. Cognitive dissonance.
35. Saying: “Karzai has a bunker mentality.”
36. Reaching out to the Taliban.
37. Iran has plans to Marine One helicopters.
38. Explaining his refusal to work with Republicans with the words: “I won.”
39. Having a BlackBerry that can easily be hacked by the Chinese.
40. Saying to the people of Peoria: “If Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off.” CEO: No. There will be more layoffs.
41. He gave a gift to the “wrong region” to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
42. Making the president of Brazil change his meeting so O’Bama could celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
43. Telling the American people: “You can’t take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime.” Vegas convention bookings nosedive.
44. Serving $100-a-pound wagyu — on the taxpayers’ dime.
45. Sending a “reset” button to Russia, presumably to diss the last 70 years of America standing up to communism.
46. Having the “reset” button say “overcharged.”
47. Taking a 4-day holiday weekend before signing “emergency” legislation.
48. Stiffing Chicago for nearly $2 million for that Election Night party.
49. Telling Caroline Kennedy she would, you know, make, um a good, you know, senator.
50. Bombing Pakistan.
51. Sending the bust of Sir Winston Churchill back to the British.
52. Telling reporters privately: “President Obama has accomplished more in 30 days than any president in modern history.”
53. Walking into a White House window thinking it was a door.
54. Signing an order that doctors must perform abortions, in violation of the Hippocratic Oath.
55. Signing earmarks while denouncing them.
56. Adding signing statements while denouncing them.
57. Quadrupling the deficits, while denouncing them.
58. Considering having the VA charge veterans for service-related injuries.
59. Thanking himself in a Teleprompter malfunction.
60. Banning pilots from carrying guns on airplanes.
61. Trade war with Mexico over 97 trucks.
62. Saying his bowling is “like the Special Olympics.”
63. Saying he didn’t know the AIG bonuses were included in the bailout package he signed.
64. Banning the press from covering his acceptance of a press association award.
Good scholars … and bad ones … should you see that the learned gentlemen cited above have overlooked any wonders, curious facts or items of arcane gaffeology, please add them in comments.
Just in:
Obama pisses off France with love letter to Chirac.
Obama thinks the nation’s economic woes are funny.
In The Time of Gaffes. Hillary at Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:28 am on Saturday, March 21, 2009
6 Responses to “All The Known Gaffes Of The Obama World”
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March 21st, 2009 at 9:48 am
[...] I hate that) if I didn’t mention a couple of important round-ups at Jules’s place. The first is Obama-Biden Gaffe-o-matic and related. The second has to do with the persistence of memories and the saying of sooths. Posted by [...]
March 21st, 2009 at 10:36 am
Meanwhile, Slate doggedly maintains its “Bushism of the Day” feature.
March 21st, 2009 at 11:38 am
Re:19 Remember that’s turning the Oval office into a humid crib while berating Washingtonians for not having enough Chicago “flintiness” because of a little snow, and then later cancelling an appearance with the British PM because the TOTUS is a snow pussy (let’s not mention those Walmart wrong region DVDs shall we? Oh wait we did!)
March 21st, 2009 at 11:41 am
And yes his gaffe about the Special Olympics was bad - their average is much higher.
March 21st, 2009 at 6:15 pm
I wonder what the folks who continually proclaimed Bush “an idiot” are thinking now?
March 21st, 2009 at 11:11 pm
65. Sending a dating video to Iran