Biblical Blunder At White House After Obama Said God Wants Jobs Bill

WASHINGTON -- It was a blunder of biblical proportions.

White House spokesman Jay Carney invoked scripture Wednesday to back up President Barack Obama's suggestion that God wants policymakers to get busy and create more jobs.

Carney said Obama was trying to make the point that "we have it within our capacity to do the things to help the American people."

"I believe the phrase from the Bible is, `The Lord helps those who help themselves,'" Carney said.

Well, no, not really.

A White House transcript of Carney's briefing issued later in the day included the disclaimer: "This common phrase does not appear in the Bible."

Obama started the debate earlier in the day when he took note of House action reaffirming "In God We Trust" as the country's motto.

"I trust in God, but God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work," the president said.

Comments

[CrawfishFestival]

02:45 AM on 11/19/2011

Obama's entire presidency is a Blunder.

The more he tries to pretend he is a Christian, more blunders are made.

Even more blunders when WH spokesmen - whether Robert Gibbs or Jay Carney - tries to cover for Obama's blunders =
the most disconnected, pathetic - worst presidency in the history of the USA.

[Willie12345]

05:20 PM on 11/07/2011

Obanma is just like ALL of the other politicians. He get religion when it helps him get elected. He also rejects it when it's hurts his changes to get elected (i.e. Rev. Wright). Their all phonies.

[Connor Alexander]

11:27 AM on 11/07/2011

The moment anyone says "God thinks/said/believes...." , I tune them out. Even if I weren't an atheist, this would be ridiculous.

[alsm9]

12:00 PM on 11/07/2011

I'm atheist as well and I do try and keep an open mind about what others believe. But I agree, especially when a politician is saying they know what "god" wants. It's manipulating and it gets my back up.

[CrawfishFestival]

02:48 AM on 11/19/2011

It is sort of demeaning when they use those words.......to "pretend"....

[Kate Fletcher]

06:43 PM on 11/07/2011

I'm an atheist. I support the jobs bill for reasons that have nothing to do with any gods. Really, though, this is nothing compared with the supply side Jesus that the GOP trots out at every opportunity.

[Razpooten]

10:30 PM on 11/06/2011

"I've been in the Bible every day since I've been the president." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Nov. 12, 2008

And he also said: "There is some who say that perhaps freedom is not universal. Maybe it's only Western people that can self-govern. Maybe it's only, you know, white-guy Methodists who are capable of self-government. I reject that notion." London, June 16, 2008
Talk about blunders of biblical proportion.

[TheLibraryOfCodex]

06:24 PM on 11/06/2011

If I was Obama, I'd cite God as supporting everything I do.

Why not? Republicans do it.

[dtm410]

01:32 AM on 11/07/2011

That's an interesting piece of advice. To act like those that that you don't like.

[alsm9]

12:02 PM on 11/07/2011

I suspect in the next year we will hear Obama mention "god" a lot. There's an election on the horizon.

[TheLibraryOfCodex]

06:13 PM on 11/07/2011

Fight fire with fire.

[graceaustin]

05:39 PM on 11/06/2011

Some of you need to learn what being facetious means, and take into context the nonsense perpetrated by the house of representatives, and Obama's comment. Jeeze.

[graceaustin]

05:30 PM on 11/06/2011

That's what god wants all right. Prove it's not so.

[globalguy]

05:08 PM on 11/06/2011

Yikes...When Bush invoked God it scared me just as much...Obama has proved himself to be another failed president like Bush...

[TheLibraryOfCodex]

06:24 PM on 11/06/2011

That's because he has the same policies as Bush

[Razpooten]

09:40 PM on 11/06/2011

No, he said he trusts god, but no god is going to do it; it's up to us.

[phal4875]

04:52 PM on 11/06/2011

I had a debate with a friend last year about the quotation. I argued strenuously that it just didn't sound like something from the Bible because God likes to get credit for good events. He does not want credit to go to those who are helping themselves. My friend argued just as hard that it is from the Bible. It turned out that it is from Ben Franklin and perhaps earlier sources, but 80% of the people surveyed thought it came from the Bible.

[Razpooten]

09:41 PM on 11/06/2011

Yes, that term is widely used in Latin American countries and everyone takes it as gospel.

[logicanada]

03:16 PM on 11/06/2011

Why doesn't god throw his hat in the Presidential ring and finally speak for himself. He IS an American Citizen, isn't he.

[phal4875]

04:57 PM on 11/06/2011

God was born in the Holy Land and is not even a naturalized citizen. He is more than age 35, so he meets that test. He is concerned that Article VI of the Constitution includes the following: "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." He wants a test to be required and will not run until this test is devised and added as an amendment.

[Dustin Tower]

12:51 PM on 11/06/2011

Though the original quote was not in the Bible, it's even unfair to the quote to make it mean "God helps those whose government claims it will provide them a job by giving money to cronies they've never met and devaluing their currency." The Bible *does* say, "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted," and "blessed are the poor." These would be much more applicable to the people whose governments remain this way, but perhaps governments who claim their actual place in blessing people wouldn't be much more popular than this one.

[onewhothinks]

10:31 PM on 11/05/2011

It's remarkable how many people are jumping on Obama for misquoting, even though it was clearly stated it was a spokesman. Look, see?

"'I believe the phrase from the Bible is, `The Lord helps those who help themselves,'' Carney said."

Carney said. I'm pretty sure Obama hasn't had his name legally changed to Carney.

[Jhallahan83]

05:37 AM on 11/06/2011

Give me a break- Carney is O's right hand man and his mouth piece. To claim Obama is innocent on this one is quite ignorant.

[nia122]

12:44 PM on 11/06/2011

Wow you actually took the time to write something that stupid.

[phal4875]

04:59 PM on 11/06/2011

A fairly wide survey a few years ago found that 80% of Americans thought the words came from the Bible. It makes no sense because God wants to be seen as the entity who bring success to humans. At times, he reduces army size in the Bible in order to get more credit for an Israelite victory.

[CrawfishFestival]

02:57 AM on 11/19/2011

but in October 1982, in British Columbia, Canada, Barack Hussein Obama had his name changed to Barak Mounir Ubayd.

http://wtpotusresearchblog.wordpress.com/2011/06/08/on-the-name-trail-again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN86WqsodYA

[Smith1820]

11:47 AM on 11/05/2011

Looks like someone pulled a Bush and though he knew the will and mind of God. Please, your not Pope, Prophet, or Pastor but President. Tailor your comments to reflect that.

[onewhothinks]

10:16 PM on 11/05/2011

Aw, be gentle. He doesn't have the republican's experience at twisting the bible's words for his own ends.

[borderlinedevill]

04:35 AM on 11/06/2011

besides he aint that smart anyway

[rjh252a1]

06:45 PM on 11/11/2011

For one who thinks, that was not a very thoughtful statement. Not all Republicans are Christians and not all Christians are Republicans. Very shallow and small minded in my opinion.
Lastly not all Christians twist the Bible and not all who twist the Bible are actually Christians.

[ryco]

12:31 AM on 11/07/2011

Ah, yeah.... Speaking of pulling a Bush, it's you're, not your (and I'll go out on a limb here and assume you meant thought, not though). So Bush, bro!

[Jack Glastra]

03:14 PM on 11/04/2011

This whole thing is political theater of the absurd. Who cares what our motto is if we can't provide a living for our people?

[Nighthawlk]

09:26 AM on 11/04/2011

Everyone, please forgive my sentence fragments. The correct sentence structure takes up too many words, plus I do so love to mess with the rabid pc grammar police.

I can not see the problem. It will not cause things to change for better or worse. Even reaffirming ' In God We Trust' as the motto. Those wanting to remove God from everything political are stupid. Just because some find it offensive? Just to remove God from the government? This action and attempts to is stupid and petty compared to real problems. Say..Like ..Removing Illegal immigrants out of the US; removing politicians that are taking bribes from corporation, but I believe one of the most important problems is to remove Republicans from the government all together. If we accomplish that the all of the other problems will be settled.

Obama may have made a slip. Who the hell cares besides the enemies of Obama and democracy? Ignore the idiots. Prove to them that they don't mean squat to us. In doing that they will know that they are losers.

[onewhothinks]

10:19 PM on 11/05/2011

Funny thing is, it wasn't even Obama, just a supporter. But sure enough, someone is going to say act like it was Obama and use it as another flimsy excuse to mindlessly oppose whatever he does.