Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Does President Bush really make more gaffes than other politicians?

No, he doesn't. But that's what the media wants us to believe. Even I bought into it for a time.

Anyone who speaks for a living--and President Bush, like all politicians, speaks for a living--will accumulate quite a resume of gaffes as the years go by. It angers me that the press has focused so much on the mistakes the president has made. This is part of the media's overall attempt to make President Bush look like a moron.

Well, if making gaffes during speeches makes one a moron, then Senator Obama is the biggest moron in U.S. history:

  • When marking the anniversary of the March 1965 "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, Alabama, Senator Obama, speaking at a church, said his parents got together "because of what happened in Selma." Only problem is Obama was born in 1961. Big deal? Probably not. After all, my parents met in Ogden, Utah in 1967 and I was born in '72. But, as my friends can tell you, I often state that my parents met in 1977. So exactly what is the big deal?
  • Showing off his extensive knowledge of Middle-Eastern and southwest Asian languages, Barack Obama recently claimed that it was hard to get translators in Afghanistan because they were all in Iraq. The folks in Iraq speak different languages than the folks in Afghanistan do. A cunning linguist Senator Obama is not.
  • Last May during a speech Barack Obama claimed that the Kansas tornadoes had killed 10,000 people, "an entire town destroyed." The real number? Twelve. I suppose it's possible that Barack Obama assumes that Kansas is populated by gun-toting, religion-clinging small towns of a dozen hillbillies and that he meant to say "ten" instead of "ten thousand". It's possible.
  • Last month he said, "Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.” I give him a break on this one 'cause he was tired from campaigning and clearly meant to say 47 states and, as everyone knows, the Red Belt--Utah, Wyoming, and Nebraska--which haven't voted for a Democrat candidate for prez in a general election since FDR, hardly count as states to just about everyone on the left.
  • Earlier this month Senator Obama while speaking in Sioux Falls, South Dakota said, “Thank you Sioux City…I said it wrong. I’ve been in Iowa for too long. I’m sorry.” This was an easy mistake to make. Those Great Plains states all look the same especially when you're in a private jet.

This is just an extremely small sampling of Obama's many gaffes. I could list literally dozens of more.

Ya know, I was originally going to defend Barack Obama in this blog entry and condemn the media for unfair treatment of President Bush. But now when I look at the gaffes Senator Obama has committed and compare them to the president's gaffes, I realize I can't really defend Obama with a straight face. And the media is looking a whole lot worse.

By the by, I've coined a new term describing the three most conservative states is the U.S.--Utah, Wyoming, and Nebraska which are adjacent to one another--as the Red Belt. I would appreciate it if you who read this blog would start to use that term in general conversation. This can easily be done when talking about almost any subject since red is a color and belts are used by just about everyone.