Obama's Late Night Retraction

President Obama drew praise from both parties today for retracting his offhand comment on the David Letterman show that he was asking wealthy Democratic nominees to put their investment portfolios in a "blind trust" before joining his administration. Visual-impairment spokespersons called the comment "hurtfully sightist" and demanded $2.1 million more in government stimulus funds for the ocularly challenged. "What's next," asked one angry spokesman, "inviting Stevie Wonder to the White House for a screening?"

This follows by one week a previous vision-centered gaffe, in which President Obama began a speech with the phrase, "In the view of this administration..." As the audience gasped and PR spokesman Robert Gibbs signaled wildly to the lectern, the President immediately realized the obvious truth that sightless people who work for and support his administration have no "view" at all and do not deserve to be marginalized by careless sight-based language in a presidential address. Reacting swiftly to a Gibbs-sponsored insertion on his teleprompter, the president apologized and promised more jobs for the differently sighted, then smoothly returned to the original text, which dealt with National Rose-Growing Week.

More recently, the president drew praise for his quick recovery from the "Special Olympics" remark on Leno, observing that "anyone in any Olympics is special to me," and adding that he knows several people in wheelchairs, all Democrats, who have bowled 300 or higher.

Comments

[GEO7654]

PEOPLE HAVE BEEN USING THE PHRASE " BLIND TRUST " FOR EVER WITH POLITICIANS AND THEIR ASSETS WHEN ENTERING POLITICS. SO WHY IS THIS SO OFFENSIVE FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA TO SAY BLIND TRUST, I DON'T GET IT.
PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS DONE MORE FOR PHYSICALLY/MENTALLY CHALLENGED PEOPLE IN THE LAST 3 MONTHS THAN BUSH DID IN 8 YEARS. THE PRIME EXAMPLE IS ' WE ARE NOW OPENLY SPEAKING ABOUT THE NEED TO RECOGNIZE AND HELP THIS NEGLECTED GROUP THE AMERICANS WHO HAVE BEEN SHUNNED AND IGNORED FOR FAR TOO LONG.
THANK YOU MR PRESIDENT.

[cyrano1]

I am hereby modifying my previously held belief that only those holding right wing ideological persuasions are devoid of a sense of irony.

[traveler501]

ok....look, relax, lose the caps, wiki: "satire", peace *smile*

[Michael Wolfe]

It is hilarious reading all these "damage control" comments. Obama puts his foot in his mouth and too make it seem not too bad everyone brings up Bush the Bad Boy to make themselves feel better about Obama.

[Michael Wolfe]

I have to LMAO at the audacity of hypocrisy! I totally agree that Obama getting a temporary case of " foot in mouth disease" is no big deal except for the fact that if it was Bush who had said it he would have been crucified!

[tavote08]

The difference is Bush's foot stayed in his mouth and he never bothered to take it out to apologize.
He had the audacity to justify every jacka$$ thing he every said or did. It's hypocracy everytime a Bush supporter opens there mouth to spew the chorus line...

[FrankenPC]

I've lived the last 8 years with 24/7 offense being aimed at me and the rest of the world.

I think I can forgive Obama for this single 1 second offense.

BTW: anyone still fuming about this "offense", imagine the pressure of being in front of millions of viewers doing an ad-hoc interview. The brain can draw strange parallels which result in ill-advised verbal mistakes. We ALL do that from time to time.

[wltdnfaded]

I'm sure Obama remembered the Stewart/Cramer interview. I'd be nervous being interviewed by a comic late night host after that too.

[FrankenPC]

LOL!

[FirstForty]

Everyone needs to get over it. This is live tv...or live taped. This stuff should not even be consuming electrons.

[lowgear]

I'm offended about bho's outrageous offensive slight to the handicapped with his comments about "special olympics" but since it's bho, it's not offensive.

because we have double standards, phew that was close

[ChiProgressive]

How are you offended?
Have you participated or supported the special Olympics like President Obama?

[OdaNobunaga]

And if he has, then shouldn't he be more offended by Sarah Palin's cutting of funding for the Alaskan special Olympics last year, logically speaking?

Oh, wait, I forgot. Logic doesn't apply to these people. Now there's a double standard that needs to be gotten rid of.

[butchie65]

I bet you weren't offended by the last 8 years of the Bush Administration, now, were you ?

[wltdnfaded]

Boy, you're right, imprisoning and torturing people in secret cells around the world and pissing on the graves of 4000 service men and women isn't nearly as offensive as a flip dumb comment made by someone who immediately apologized for it.