Obamateurism of the Day
posted at 8:05 am on May 5, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
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¡Hola, amigos! ¿Que pasa? Maybe Barack Obama should have just stuck with that when trying to use his Spanish to offer a holiday greeting to White House visitors:
President Barack Obama’s joke wasn’t lost in translation – even though he referred to a Cinco de Mayo celebration as “Cinco de Cuatro.”
Obama jumbled his words as he welcomed guests to the White House to observe the Mexican holiday, sending the crowd into laughter before he referred to the day correctly.
“Welcome to Cinco de Cuatro – Cinco de Mayo at the White House,” said Obama, in what appeared to be an attempt to note they were celebrating on the fourth of May instead of the fifth.
Cinco de cuatro means “five of four” in Spanish.
Sometimes, these things just write themselves. Happy Cinco de Mayo to our readers, and I’ll refrain from offering some other phrases of Spanish I picked up over the years living in California. Most of the ones I remember aren’t exactly fit for a family blog, anyway.
Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at obamaisms@edmorrissey.com with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I’ll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I’ll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.
Illustrations by Chris Muir of Day by Day. Be sure to read the adventures of Sam, Zed, Damon, and Jan every day!
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And in that remembrance, remember our Mexican-American contingency at the Alamo as united we were Texicans and Tejanos, dubbed “pirates” and “traitors” for refusing tyranny, as tyrants (like Obama) declare contractual agreements null and void on an imperialist whim leading to Texans revolt from Mexico, and Santa Ana’s bloodletting. He wanted us to remember him, though he expected accolades for indifference to humanity.
It takes alliance to win a war.
maverick muse on May 5, 2009 at 11:17 AM
Cinco de cuatro is mui dinero.
Kevin M on May 5, 2009 at 11:20 AM
PRE-SCHOOL Obama Head Start White House classes begin at 9a.m. or whenever. ¡No hay problema!
maverick muse on May 5, 2009 at 11:21 AM
cs89 on May 5, 2009 at 8:51 AM
cs89 on May 5, 2009 at 10:36 AM
My apologies for misconstruing a thread hijack into the seedy at the further expense of Jack Ryan.
maverick muse on May 5, 2009 at 11:26 AM
coldwarrior on May 5, 2009 at 10:34 AM
I haven’t checked if NYC is still in the flu tank censoring today’s celebrations.
maverick muse on May 5, 2009 at 11:28 AM
Obama not only prides himself on his fluent 15 word Spanish accent, but in his perfect intonation of the Islamic call to prayer. In THAT, his vocabulary is broad.
maverick muse on May 5, 2009 at 11:31 AM
Since Bush was fluent in Spanish, he wouldn’t have said that.
MadisonConservative on May 5, 2009 at 11:51 AM
Obama es el stupido.
Mallard T. Drake on May 5, 2009 at 12:01 PM
maverick muse on May 5, 2009 at 11:26 AM
No problem. It is off-topic, so I’ll drop it after this. I just didn’t remember where you were coming from, and wasn’t sure if you were saying Ryan was set up, or if you left out the part about them objecting to the release of this information.
Sorry for the confusion…
Obama really needs to work on his communication skills.
cs89 on May 5, 2009 at 12:04 PM
Obama muy stinko!!!
capejasmine on May 5, 2009 at 12:16 PM
El dolor del culo…juevon.
Wyznowski on May 5, 2009 at 12:21 PM
Looks like the TOTUS punked Obama again!
OxyCon on May 5, 2009 at 12:33 PM
Maybe that explains the flub; a secret message to his unwitting benefactor.
calbear on May 5, 2009 at 2:38 PM
Arrepentido para el screwup, mis amigos mexicanos. ¡Soy justo un inmigrante keniano pobre!
Sweet_Thang on May 5, 2009 at 2:47 PM
———– Machine Translation —————-
Arrepentido para el screwup, mis amigos mexicanos. ¡Soy justo un inmigrante keniano pobre!
———– Original Text —————-
Sorry for the screwup, my Mexican friends. I am just a poor Kenyan immigrant!
Sweet_Thang on May 5, 2009 at 2:48 PM
Sounds like Star Trek’s “Seven of Nine”.
Resistance is Futile. Prepare to be assimilated.
malclave on May 5, 2009 at 6:03 PM
somos así que atornillado
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_txt
kirkill on May 5, 2009 at 6:30 PM
Where’s all the Libs who insulted President Bush concerning his Spanish?
I believe it had to do with his accent…not putting in the wrong words in the wrong places.
Dr. ZhivBlago on May 5, 2009 at 9:51 PM
F’N IDIOT
M-14 2go on May 5, 2009 at 10:22 PM
The morons are in charge now!
M-14 2go on May 5, 2009 at 10:23 PM
President Big Ears said; “Tomorrow we celebrate our shared heritage”.
What shared heritage is this moron talking about, the reconquista movement and illegal immigration?
Big Ears can take his shared heritage with mexico,his cinco de mayo proclamation and put it where the sun doesn’t shine.
This is America, not the banana republic of mexico celebrating the reconquista of the USA southwest.
ScottyDog on May 5, 2009 at 11:47 PM
Associated Press has a video of the gaffe
stormin1961 on May 6, 2009 at 12:42 PM
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