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Equal time

March 23rd, 2009 · by map · 14 Comments

This is not a political blog. And maybe this post isn’t really political.

I’ve been bugged mightily lately by our new President’s recent comment on Jay Leno’s show equating his bowling skills with something you’d see at the Special Olympics. I’ll make this brief: I know that people sometimes screw up and say things they either don’t mean or wouldn’t otherwise say in public. I’m disappointed in President Obama because I expected him to be better than this. I wanted the is-our-children-learning years to be in our past. I’d hoped for a leader who sat at home in his spare time contemplating the legal justifications for imprisoning enemy combatants, not telling retard jokes. And now we have this.

Obama reportedly called the head of the Special Olympics and apologized even before the Leno episode aired, but that doesn’t much matter. You’d think a man who traded so heavily on a heritage of stereotyping and segregation during his campaign would be even more sensitive to the feelings of his socially marginalized constituents, but maybe that big white house (or Jay’s big white cowlick) put the zap on his head.

Tags: Entertainment · TV