Tony Norman
The triviality of American political discourse has officially become too suffocating to be believed. Last night, President Barack Obama became the first sitting president to appear on one of the comedy talk shows (that's not the trivial or suffocating part, though). He appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." Former presidents and candidates for high office make the trip routinely, of course, but no sitting president until Mr. Obama has appeared on Leno or Letterman.
Leno was a gracious host. He gave Mr. Obama all the room he needed to explain the AIG debacle. The President was crisper than usual and didn't descend into boring wonkishnss. He even did a good job defending Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Despite the relative smoothness of the interview, everyone wants to talk about a self-deprecating aside he made reminding the audience of his miserable experience bowling in Altoona during the Pennsylvania primary last year. It was prompted by Leno's question:
Leno: Now, are they going to put a basketball --- I imagine the bowling alley has been just burned and closed down.
Obama: No, no. I have been practicing all --- (audience laughter)
Leno: Really? Really?
Obama: I bowled a 129 (audience applause, laughter)
Leno: No, that's very good. Yes. That's very good, Mr. President.
Obama: (chuckles) It's like --- it was like Special Olympics, or something (audience laughter).
Leno: No, that's very good.
Obama: No, listen, I'm making progress on the bowling, yes.
Of course, the Drudge Report led with the Special Olympics gaffe as if there was nothing else that mattered in the world. The right-wing media is determined to portray Obama as an out-of-touch liberal who insults "real" Americans and "helpless" Americans the first chance he gets. Now that conservative bloggers and opinion makers embrace the politics of victimization, they see Obama as a never ending source of politically incorrect gestures, tics and mannerisms. They have help from earnest liberals. California's First Lady Maria Shriver said that the President's joke comparing his bowling to a Special Olympian athlete's game was hurtful to "millions of people throughout the world." Obama apologized to Maria Shriver's brother, Tim Shriver, the chairman of Special Olympics. The movement was founded by the Shriver sibling's mother Eunice Kennedy-Shriver to champion the mentally and physically handicapped.
Special Olympics bowling champion Kolan McConiughey of Ann Arbor, Michigan weighed in with his thoughts about Obama's comment. "He bowled a 129," McConiughey said. "I bowl a 300. I could beat that score easily." The mentally handicapped bowler has bowled five perfect games since 2005. It goes without saying that Obama has invited Special Olympic athletes to the White House to make amends.
The comment sections of numerous web sites reporting the kerfuffle are filled with the fulminations of outraged conservatives who consider the incident an indication of the state of Obama's atrophied soul. Honestly, these desperate conservatives need hugs. Is this the best they can do? Seizing on a lame joke is not going to reverse the outcome of November's election.
To his credit, Mr. Obama is smart enough to get out in front of something before it takes more time in the cable news cycle than it warrants. By apologizing, he took it away as an issue. Still, the whole phoney controversy trivializes the presidency and the stature of his critics. It is embarrassing. Wouldn't it be great if we could go back to a time when folks would give you the benefit of the doubt if you slipped up? Is there any evidence that Barack Obama ever had contempt for handicapped people? Must a sitting president always put on sack cloth and ashes to prove he cares?
Posted
Mar 20 2009, 04:20 PM
by
Tony Norman