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What are they smoking at the Washington Times Editorial Board? Defend Obama’s Special Olympics joke

Posted on March 23rd, 2009 by admin

What are they smoking at The Washington Times editorial board and where can I get some? They recently defended President Obama’s joke about the Special Olympics, stating that although his comment was in bad taste, he clearly meant no harm and shouldn’t be judged so harshly. I am no fan of either political party, but this goes above and beyond taking up for your side. They chalk it up to the PC Police run a muck. I am so sure they would have cut President Bush this much slack had he made such a crack.?

Even after Mr. Obama’s apology, Shriver told ABC’s Good Morning America, “It’s important to see that words hurt, and words do matter and these words can in some way be seen as humiliating or [a] put-down to people with special needs.” But Mr. Obama showed no clear pejorative intent. Context matters in speech, and the offended in society often fail to recognize that.

Furthermore, none of this ginned-up controversy is really the point. The fundamental right of freedom of speech in this country applies to presidents as much as anyone. Obama is allowed as to say impolitic things as long as they don’t hurt the country. It also lent humanity to Mr. Obama, something rarely displayed by presidents in public and that certainly would not have been on display had he stuck with the canned responses he surely discussed with his White House handlers in advance.

President Obama made the joke last week, during an appearance on the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno (VIDEO).

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