Perhaps It Was The Translation From Arab To English
By Mitch Berg
Could you imagine what’d happen if George W. Bush had not only muffed the name of the president of another nation, but of France?
Well, you’d have to imagine it; it was the Obamessiah:
Obama sent a letter to the French president, and called him Jacques Chirac.Maybe Barack Obama was too busy running for the next-higher-office (which is his his one strength) to bother reading a newspaper or a magazine or even a book to discover that they held an election a couple of years ago and elected L’Americain, Nicolas Sarkozy, as president.
But it is Obama, and not Bush, so…:
The American media has ignored this faux pas. But the French have not. One does not need to read French to understand the point of the Le Monde cartoon as shown [in Don Surber’s piece; go check it out].
Not just any nation, mind you, but a big, important one that is almost alone in Europe in upping its commitments to international security. The one that The One was supposed to help us in reaching out to.
UPDATE: Brian Jones tweets “Sarkozy oughtta respond with a letter addressed to “President Carter.”
UPDATE 2: Of course there’s an explanation. And it works.
Of course Obama will take more care with the French than with, say, all of us gun-clinging Jeebus freaks.
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:06 am
It seems that all his worldly “experience” is paying off.
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:11 am
zomg! They so want us to be like Europe, yet they don’t know the difference between PAL & NTSC, and now this? ugh, facepalm! :-/
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:42 am
This is my point…..the experience thing isn’t just in picking a staff and coming up with budgets, but it has to do with dealing with crises, and it has to do with the day-to-day diplomatic things.
Mitch, did he really do this or is this an early April fools joke?
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:59 am
He should send him a boxed set of DVDs to make up for it.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:47 am
As the French would say, “faus paux.” But President Obama can pronounce “nuclear”, so that means he’s really pretty smart. It seems to me, however, that a great deal of hay was made when Gov. Palin didn’t know the name of the head of state from Elbonia or East Pajamastan or some such place during the debates. I will pray that our President will have the strength to absorb the coming storm of media abuse created by this latest gaffe and not govern out of anger by proposing a retroactive media tax on those that criticize him. Perhaps Jon Stewart can visit Pres. Sarkozy and urge him to “lighten up.”
A guy in my office used to have this “Bush-ism of the Day” calendar with each day featuring a different mangled phrase or non-sequiter. He liked to post these on his outer office wall in a high traffic area. It takes awhile to generate 365 of these, even for Bush, but at the rate President Obumble is going I should have next year’s calendar ready to print by the Fourth of July.
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:10 am
Stupid is as stupid does.
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:12 am
Go easy on the POTUS. Those Frenchmen all look alike.
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:28 am
Obammy probably had Kerry write the letter for him. Did you know Kerry can speak French? S’truth. Did you know Obammy can’t speak anything but English? Even though he grew up in Indonesia?
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:50 am
I hear the French really like Jerry Lewis. Maybe a “Best Of” collection would soothe any hard feelings.
If that doesn’t work you could always press the “remettre” button.
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:06 am
It’s obviously a TelePrompter error.
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:08 am
Brian Jones tweets “Sarkozy oughtta respond with a letter addressed to “President Carter.”
Better yet: Sarkozy responding with a letter to President Bush would likely get under President Obama’s skin alot faster. Based on President Obama’s plans to throw Afghanistan under the foreign policy bus, it’s likely that he’d consider a letter addressed to former Appeaser-in-Chief Jimmy Carter a compliment.
March 23rd, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Can we get a link for that Le Monde cartoon, please?
March 23rd, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Update: Your linked story was updated to retract the whole story.
March 23rd, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Why is the President interested in working with Chirac?
March 23rd, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Hey, notice there aren’t any posts on how Obama’s killing the economy today. Guess you’d have to eat your words about how the market is a barometer of the future, blah blah blah.
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Well, angryclown, as the President has told us, he can only concentrate on one thing at a time. He’s sure to turn his attention back to the economy once he finds out how his NCAA bracket turned out.
March 23rd, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Night Rider: Read the news, check the Dow, rent a clue.
March 23rd, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Clownie, one day does not a trend make. Eight weeks of nosedive, on the other hand…
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:07 pm
I certainly wouldn’t say the bears are on the run. Unless I was a clown.
The market clearly wants a rally or two. At this point if Obama announced that he was giving up on carbon cap-n-trade the DJIA would gain a thousand points in a day.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:17 pm
At this point if Obama announced that he was giving up on carbon cap-n-trade the DJIA would gain a thousand points in a day.
And he’d also pick up another thou if he’d announce that he would veto Card Check.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Haha, unpatriotic wingnuts, rooting against good news for the US of A. Why do you hate America so?
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:33 pm
AC,
Perhaps this one slipped by your eagle eye:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7851925a-17a2-11de-8c9d-0000779fd2ac.html
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Terry,
Barry CAN say “Merci Beaucoup”, but that’s all.
I’m surprised at you guys! It’s not Barry’s fault! It’s that ill-informed teleprompter.
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Obama? The guy is a popinjay. Hillary Knows it. I suspect the clown knows it. I used to think that Obama picked Biden as VP because he needed to endorse a committee choice. Now I think Obama saw a kindred soul.
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Why do you hate America so?
That chain is getting really rusty. You might want to let go and wash your hands.
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Sweet!
“Dictionaries say a popinjay was also at one time the usual name for a parrot, and in that lies the origin of the derogatory term. What could be more gaudily and squawkingly in your face than a parrot? What more perfect term for an empty chatterer, fop or coxcomb? Who’s a pretty boy, then?“
http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-pop2.htm
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:30 pm
there aren’t any posts on how Obama’s killing the economy today
Bear market rally. Happens all the time.
Your grandchildren will curse your floppy shoes.
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:29 pm
AC, you seem like a fellow with a little education. How do you pronounce ‘Orion’?
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Angrycow, I think it might be the “dead cat bounce.”
That is, even a dead cat will bounce once if you drop it from high enough.
March 24th, 2009 at 6:39 am
Kermit advised: “That chain is getting really rusty. You might want to let go and wash your hands.
Yet you kooks got eight years out of it. Angryclown figures there’s another eight in there.
Seriously, though, why does it make you happy when the market is down and people are out of work? You must really hate America.
March 24th, 2009 at 10:09 am
Clown, you are engaged in projection. We do not take delight in national economic woes and individual financial despair. We do not share your misanthropic misery.
March 24th, 2009 at 11:04 am
angryclown confuses talking about something with being happy about something. I imagine this is a topic that easily confuses clowns.
March 24th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
What topic doesn’t confuse AssClown?
March 24th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
http://www.smooth3d.com/xterra/assclown.jpg