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Charles's avatar

What do you think have been President Obama's biggest embarrassments?

Asked by Charles (4823points) May 18th, 2012

He was elected as “Mr. Cool” and he still seems that way. But everyone has made mistakes, said the wrong thing, done something unexpectedly lame in public, forgotten something he should have known, misspoke, mispronounced, mistakenly assumed, etc.
What sort of these things has President Obama done?

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34 Answers

Ron_C's avatar

I honestly can’t think of any embarrassing thing that happened to him. He was caught by an open mike a couple times but didn’t say anything that I would consider bad.

Of course after Bush and Cheney, anything seems mild and sensible.

elbanditoroso's avatar

I think is his biggest embarrassment was not really his fault.

He was naive enough to trust the republicans to keep their word. He (mistakenly) thought they they had the best interests of the US in mind.

The embarrassment to Obama was when he found out that they were moreeager to engage in character assassination and personal destruction than they were at improving the American way of life.

Blackberry's avatar

It didn’t help his case when he was being interviewed and slipped up saying he was a muslim instead of a christian, lol.

flutherother's avatar

After a succession of embarrassing Presidents the United States has finally got one it can be reasonably proud of.

Fly's avatar

The biggest embarrassment to his campaign is honestly Joe Biden. Don’t get me wrong, I like Joe Biden as VP, but the man is constantly putting his foot in his mouth.

DominicX's avatar

Probably that 57 states comment…

bkcunningham's avatar

Just to name a few:

“The Bomb” that fell on Pearl Harbor
“The Middle East is obviously an issue that has plagued the region for centuries.”
10,000 People (A Whole Town!) Died in Kansas ~ Oops, Overstated by 9,988
Admits His Plan would Necessarily Cause Energy Prices to Skyrocket
Air Raiding Villages a la Yankee Air Pirates: Destroys Whole Afghan Villages!
Almost All of Our Allies “Punch Above Their Weight”!
Another Senior Moment
Armed Forces are “Fighting on MY Behalf”
ATMs Cause Unemployment
Blames Hugo Chavez’s Election on (ta da) BUSH! Oops.
Blows off the Salute To Heroes (MOH) Inaugural Ball
Botched Toast ~ Babbles over “God Save The Queen”
Bowls like a Special Olympian
Bows to the Chicom President
Bows to the Emperor of Japan
Bows to the Mayor of Tampa
Bows to the Saudi King
Bungles Jobs Numbers (h/t Bob Keyser)
Burns up 9,000 gallons of Jet Fuel on Earth Day
Can’t Keep MOH Recipients Straight
Can’t Remember His Own Wife’s Name
Celebrates the Fifth of the Fourth
Claims to be the only President in History to Try to Eliminate Unnecessary Regulations

And there’s more:

http://blondephotos.org/BlondeGator/?p=2332

Charles's avatar

“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear….”

The thing with the toast….wasn’t he speaking before the song started playing? It seems the song interrupted him not the other way around???

Dutchess_III's avatar

@bkcunningham I would like to see links. Sure, he’s made some blunders. He’s only human. But many of your excerpts sound like they’re taken totally out of context.

bkcunningham's avatar

The link at the bottom of my post, @Dutchess_III, links to all of the posted blunders and MANY more.

bkcunningham's avatar

Here’s the one that @Blackberry mentioned when Obama says his Muslim faith: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKQhkh8xhE0&feature=related

Dutchess_III's avatar

^^^ Yep. Out of context. When they take just a bitty portion of a clip, that’s how you know it’s out of context.
Here is Snopes research. A partial excerpt from the article: “A very brief, out-of-context segment was then clipped from that exchange and sent winging arount the internet as proof that Senator Obama had “Admitted his Muslim faith,” something even the conservative _Washington Times acknowledged was false:...“_

I’m sure I could deep six all the other “claims” you’ve sucked into @bkcunningham, but that would take some time that I don’t have at the moment.

He’s black. He’s a Christian with a broad exposure to other religions. Get over it.

bkcunningham's avatar

The thread is about gaffes that the POTUS has made, @Dutchess_III. Nobody is trying to prove he’s a Muslim.“My Muslim faith,” is something Obama said. Get over it.

WillWorkForChocolate's avatar

Perhaps the whole “I ate a dog” thing? :D

Save dogs- vote republican!

Fly's avatar

@bkcunningham The point that @Dutchess_III is trying to make is that it was not his mistake. It was taken out of context and made to look like a mistake by others, as were many of the other things that you posted.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Thank you @Fly. Exactly. He didn’t make a mistake. He was making a point that McCain never said that he (Obama) was a Muslim. It was taken out of context. Like every thing else the Repub Idiots try to bring up to slam Obama. They never have found anything real to throw at him. No affairs, no financial schemes, nothing.

I used to identify with the Republicans. Now I’d be embarrassed to be seen with them.

bkcunningham's avatar

It strikes me as very curious how defensive some people become when anyone points out that their lord and savior Obama isn’t perfect. What is up with that?

Mariah's avatar

The reactions you’re getting aren’t a defensive reaction to criticism of Obama. They are a reaction to the complete invalidity of counting “my Muslim faith” as a gaff by Obama when it was taken completely out of context.

“I…hate…black…people.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Michael_Huntington's avatar

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslimfaith.asp
Shit, I’d also bow to the Emperor of Japan. That’s just manners.

Fly's avatar

@bkcunningham I don’t see anybody being defensive because you pointed out mistakes…this whole thread is about his mistakes! Do you see us saying anything to anyone else? You are being defensive in refusing to acknowledge that some of the “mistakes” that you posted are false/taken out of context.

bkcunningham's avatar

@Fly, first of all, I wasn’t the first one to post Obama’s comment about his Muslim faith. A comment that apparently, according to you, @Dutchess and Snopes, even George Stephanopoulos was mistaken about when he corrected Obama during a face-to-face interview. Obama’s statement when he is corrected doesnt’ even make sense in the context of the discussion regarding McCain.

Secondly, @Dutchess_III said, “I’m sure I could deep six all the other “claims…” Now if that isn’t a defensive stance, I don’t know what is.

But let’s move on. The point of the thread is to point out gaffees. I’ll take a shot at another POTUS embarrassment. How about when he says the “English Embassy” when referring to the British Embassy or when he says he’s visited 57 of the United States? The Navy Corpse man was pretty sad.

majorrich's avatar

this Was pretty heinous

Dutchess_III's avatar

False @majorrich. it was Photoshopped. They simply reversed the image.

majorrich's avatar

Embarrassing nonetheless as viral as it went.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Well, I think Obama has a really, REALLY thick skin by now from all the false, made up stuff about him that’s gone viral! That was probably like a drop of water in the ocean to him. I doubt he gave it more than a half a second’s thought.

Patton's avatar

Having to explain the Republicans to other heads of state.

bkcunningham's avatar

Not one of his biggest embarrassing moments, but one of his most recent: Poles and Polish-Americans expressed outrage today at President Obama’s reference earlier to “a Polish death camp” — as opposed to a Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland.

“The White House will apologize for this outrageous error,” Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski tweeted. Sikorski said that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk “will make a statement in the morning. It’s a pity that this important ceremony was upstaged by ignorance and incompetence.”

The president had been trying to honor a famous Pole, awarding a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jan Karski, a resistance fighter who sneaked behind enemy lines to bear witness to the atrocities being committed against Jews. President Obama referred to him being smuggled “into the Warsaw ghetto and a Polish death camp to see for himself.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/president-obama-causes-outrage-with-reference-to-polish-death-camp/

Dutchess_III's avatar

Geez. Get a skin people. Everyone knows exactly what he meant.

Patton's avatar

@bkcunningham That looks more like an embarrassment for Sikorski to me. If there is a death camp and it is located in Poland, it’s a Polish death camp. What is ignorant and incompetent is thinking that what Obama said was offensive.

Dutchess_III's avatar

@Patton some people are just constantly searching for something to take offense at. Granted, it would have been better to say ”....death camps in Poland,” but oh well.

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