If you or I said as many words in public as the president of a country with every single word broadcast immediately around the globe, we would be hard pressed to do as well as President Bush. He was excoriated in newspapers, TV News, T-shirts, and every other possible media around the globe for not being an eloquent speaker. In light of the recent (justifiable) uproar about President Obama's insult to the Special Olympics while on The Jay Leno Show, I think it is important for us to have some perspective. I don't believe that we should hang on every word of any public figure, and a bit of tolerance for gaffes is required, considering that every single word that they say is recorded and broadcast immediately in our 24x7 news environment. The left around the world gave President Bush no mercy in this regard, and I beleive it is only to the detriment of public discourse. Here are some Barack Obama gaffes that I include only to provide the perspective that *every* public speaker makes gaffes, even one who speaks very well publicly, as I believe President Obama does.
I doubt we will be seeing T-shirts and posters with these mistakes, however.
No comments:
Post a Comment