Geek Soap Box

When you are faced with a career in the political arena — filled with countless public appearances and speaking engagements — suffice to say you are going to have more than a few gaffes.  However, when these misstatements come in the biggest, most carefully vetted speech of the year — such as in the State of the Union Address — well, then I have to say either your quality control sucks or you just aren’t trying.

Take this gem from last week:

“We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution: the notion that we are all created equal…”

Now, in all fairness to President Obama, he was being schooled on sharia law in Indonesia while the rest of us were learning our history and geography, but hopefully the President would know that the turn of phrase he is referring to comes, of course, from the Declaration of Independence, and not the United States Constitution.

Of course, this is also coming from the man who thought that there were 57 states in the Union, that he had a mystery uncle who liberated Auschwitz, and that “Austrian” was spoken in Austria.  At what point do we have to break out the old phrase used so fondly during the 2004 election cycle: “Dangerously Incompetent?”

Now, do I think the president is a moron?  Not at all; he’s a bright guy, and we all make mistakes.  Still, the media and late-night pundits were apt to crucify George Bush if he so much as mangled a single syllable in a given day, and former Vice President Dan Quayle is still known more for misspelling “potato” than for any accomplishments of his administration.  I’m just waiting for all of the people that called Bush a “chimp” or “Curious George” to apologize and understand that it’s much harder being in the spotlight every day than we give our leaders credit for.