Daily archives: March 20th, 2009

President Obama Apologizes for Special Olympics Remark

President Obama apologized for his remark about the Special Olympics on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno before the episode was even broadcast.

From the New York Times:

Chatting with Jay Leno, the president said he had been practicing at the White House bowling alley and rolled a 129. “It was like the Special Olympics or something,” Mr. Obama said, perhaps also recalling his inept attempt at bowling in Altoona, Pa., during the presidential campaign.

The president called the chairman of the Special Olympics, Tim Shriver, from Air Force One on his way back to Washington. “He apologized in a way I think was very moving,” Mr. Shriver said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Friday. Mr. Shriver said the president sounded “very sincere” in voicing his desire not to add to anyone’s pain.

“Words hurt, words do matter,” added Mr. Shriver, son of the Special Olympics’ founder, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a sister of President John F. Kennedy, and R. Sargent Shriver, the first director of the Peace Corps.

This is the eternal problem pols have when trying to mix comedy and politics: pols are not commedians.  President Obama’s comedic response is usually–and gracefully–to make self-disparaging remarks.  The safest target, after all, is oneself.  Problems can arise when we reach out for comparisons.

Lesson learned.  The President was wrong.  He admitted it.

We should all make it a point to volunteer for or at least show up and cheer at the Special Olympics the next time they’re in our respective towns.


Conservative Poster Child Joe the Plumber is Horny

Conservatives can’t seem to find the right poster child.  They’re still looking for the right face to steer their ship.

They tried Sarah Palin, who can’t pass up any chance to appear on television, even in front of the slaughter of Thanksgiving turkeys. They flock again and again to Rush Limbaugh, who wants America to fail.

And then there’s Samuel Wurzelbacher, who, for some strange reason goes by the name Joe the Plumber (Not a Joe, not a plumber).  Sam-the-Joe-the-Plumber wants to make money, and lots of it.  He’s desperate for attention from the conservatives, even though he didn’t really support John McCain in the last presidential election.

Joe the Plumber supports Joe the Plumber.  So, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that his comments “in the ballroom of Washington’s Grand Hyatt hotel for the Media Research Center’s annual “DisHonors Awards” ceremony designed to bash the dreaded liberal elite media,” according to the Washington Post’s Mary Ann Akers:

The Republican’s Working Man hero Joe the Plumber could barely contain himself last night before a crowd of adoring, media-bashing conservatives.

“God, all this love and everything in the room – I’m horny,” declared Joe, whose real name is Samuel Wurzelbacher.

The particular state of his libido was way too much information, certainly for the Sleuth. But she wasn’t the only slack-jawed person in the room.

The remarks did not go over too well among the apparently un-horny crowd:

“Did Joe the Plumber really just say he’s horny?” “Did you hear Joe say ‘horny’?” “Why is he horny and why is he telling us?”

And those were only the comments overheard at the Sleuth’s table.

Joe was all hot and bothered over the standing ovation he received as he walked on stage to accept accolades from the top liberal media watchdog. Len Greenwood‘s GOP country classic “God Bless the USA” boomed overhead as Joe, wearing blue jeans, a black t-shirt and a flannel shirt unbuttoned to his navel, strolled on stage.

After declaring he was horny, Joe mumbled a few other things about being the “token redneck” and the media loving him, and then sat back down in a sea of conservative luminaries that included G. Gordon Liddy, former Attorney General Ed Meese, radio talk show host Mark Levin, Fox News’ Brit Hume and former House speaker (for half a minute) Bob Livingston.

This is your poster child, far right?