Obamateurism of the Day
posted at 8:05 am on May 27, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
Well, maybe President Obama is turning into a Christian evangelist and he meant the Bible when he introduced Sonia Sotomayor thusly:
“Of the many responsibilities granted to a president by our Constitution, few are more serious or more consequential than selecting a Supreme Court justice. The members of our highest court are granted life tenure, often serving long after the presidents who appointed them. And they are charged with the vital task of applying principles put to paper more than 20 centuries ago to some of the most difficult questions of our time.”
Er, more like 22 decades ago, or to be more accurate, 220 years ago. 20 centuries puts us at 9 AD, even before the Gospels. Guess TOTUS doesn’t do math. Why not just say “200 years”? Because it doesn’t make Obama sound as deeeeeeep, that’s why. He got in deep this time. Big thanks to Kat from Katablog for this quick catch.
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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Ed, I think you made a typo:
not to be the grammar police, but you can delete this comment if you like.
therightscoop on May 27, 2009 at 8:09 AM
Apparently Odumbo doesnt understand that the Quran was only written 14 centuries ago.
doriangrey on May 27, 2009 at 8:09 AM
im 1000 years old
:D
blatantblue on May 27, 2009 at 8:09 AM
I feel compelled to make a “figures Augustus would say that!” or some such joke. This is what happens when you let style overtake substance. Or, more accurately, when people exaggerate the style part.
emailnuevo on May 27, 2009 at 8:10 AM
“Constitutional Scholar.”
cs89 on May 27, 2009 at 8:11 AM
20 centuries, 57 states. Cutting a $1.8 trillion deficit in half in ten years. I guess Dear Leader just doesn’t do numbers.
Are we going to have to break out a subcategory of Obamateurisms, called Obamathematics? (Feel free to come up with a better name).
So glad the adults* are in charge
*According to the new Obamathematics, anyone over 12 years old is an adult.
rbj on May 27, 2009 at 8:12 AM
Perhaps to sound DEEEEEP if he were talking New Testament he should have said, “one score centuries and no years ago,” or if he was talking about the Constitution he should have said, “eleven score and no years ago.”
Lincoln sounded great using “score,” but then he again understood history, national security, and human motivation.
Limpet6 on May 27, 2009 at 8:13 AM
Maybe he meant centrifuges. That’s how many centrifuges N. Korea has since the founding fathers wrote that document thingy.
SouthernGent on May 27, 2009 at 8:19 AM
Math is hard.
loudmouth883 on May 27, 2009 at 8:20 AM
It’s the new math.
20 centuries = 2000 X Bush’s Fault(%) = 200
tru2tx on May 27, 2009 at 8:21 AM
Barack O-Lincoln wannabee.
“Forty score and seventy years ago…”
cannonball on May 27, 2009 at 8:22 AM
What’s weird is that “over 200 years ago” sounds way deeper and more meaningful than “over 20 decades” ago.
It was an odd word choice and it was made worse by the flubbing.
myrenovations on May 27, 2009 at 8:24 AM
Ooops, TOTUS did it again.
TXUS on May 27, 2009 at 8:25 AM
Geez – Dumbo ears is getting me seasick watching him read his tellyprompters…
Maybe he can dress biden up like a teletubbie and put him front row center. Then we won’t have the OhDuhMa ping pong match effect.
I mean WTF… This guy can’t make a 1 minute speech without a teleprompter??? PATHETIC!!!
Oh, and even worse, even with mr teleprompter, HE STILL SCREWS UP………. What a maroon!! er Moron
bullseye on May 27, 2009 at 8:26 AM
My kids like to fast forward his speeches, it looks like he is watching a fast tennis match. It hurts my neck….
ctmom on May 27, 2009 at 8:27 AM
Well , one zero more or less ..
the_nile on May 27, 2009 at 8:29 AM
O/T people need to read this. Especially people who think some of us have been overreacting. It has begun. Auntie Janet’s list at work:
FBI TERRORISM TASK FORCE USED TO TERRORIZE PATRIOT
TheBigOldDog on May 27, 2009 at 8:30 AM
Just wait until O applies the Obamathmatics to your tax bill. If 20 centuries = 200 years then 95% will get a tax break means 9.5% will get a tax break (and those will be the ones that don’t pay taxes).
katablog.com on May 27, 2009 at 8:30 AM
these posts used to make me laugh until the world situation got so dire. i’m beginning to get that same pit in my stomach as i had right before the invasion of Iraq when my brother was in the Army. (he was at the fall of Baghdad).
ruining our economy is bad enough–i can grow a garden, can, fish & hunt if necessary; but i can’t prevent a missile attack without help from Washington.
kelley in virginia on May 27, 2009 at 8:32 AM
TOTUS has gone passive-aggressive; pretty nasty, too. I’m starting to feel sorry for Obama, watching him read this crap off the TOTUS like he knows what he’s saying.
I try to ignore his idiot sycophants, but are any of them getting uncomfortable with this head-bobbing clown yet?
Jaibones on May 27, 2009 at 8:32 AM
When does TOTUS get thrown under the bus? Notice that Sotomajorliberal read from paper notes? I can’t believe we have a cardboard cutout President.
Jarhead68 on May 27, 2009 at 8:33 AM
.
Chrissy Mathews reports that the White House has amended the speech to say 200 scores and that upon seeing this Chrissy went weak at the knees.
Basilsbest on May 27, 2009 at 8:38 AM
And we all know he is not adverse to adding a few more zeros to the national debt. He added six to the number of states. Is there a pattern here? Perhaps a numerical code…THAT’S IT!!! THE OBAMA CODE. Grab your camera Opie, we’re gonna make a movie!
sdd on May 27, 2009 at 8:39 AM
That’s nothing…Clinton had 250 scores in the Oval Office.
sdd on May 27, 2009 at 8:40 AM
I fear by the time this is in full swing, I will be pining away for the Clinton years.
TheBigOldDog on May 27, 2009 at 8:43 AM
My kids like to fast forward his speeches, it looks like he is watching a fast tennis match. It hurts my neck….
ctmom on May 27, 2009 at 8:27 AM
Funny! I’m going to try that.
qestout on May 27, 2009 at 8:44 AM
Strategery.
Seriously, who would actually say “20 decades ago” instead of “200 years?”
Ogabe might as well have said “2400 months ago.” Does he write his own material or do his staff morons come up with this crap? Deep thinker, what a laugh; Ogabe is a ten year old trying to impress his friends with words he hears his parents use.
Bishop on May 27, 2009 at 8:44 AM
I understand. I’ve been pining for Clinton since 12:01 PM on January 20th. Never thought I’d say that.
sdd on May 27, 2009 at 8:46 AM
“I have a great accent, but I only know 15 words.”
BigD on May 27, 2009 at 8:46 AM
That’s nothing…Clinton had 250 scores in the Oval Office.
sdd on May 27, 2009 at 8:40 AM
Bwaaaaa! And that was just the staff.
Bishop on May 27, 2009 at 8:49 AM
After watching him speak on TV.. the camera has always be right on him as he does his gaze to the left, gaze to the right, gaze to the left, gaze to the right thing..
The camera from the angle in the clip above takes away from all that. You see his dependence on the teleprompters so much clearer.
His speeches are such that he gazes to the right delivering a line. Back to the left delivering another line. And so on.. Every once and a while he’ll shake things up by delivering a line and shift his gaze to the left then snap his head back to the right and deliver another line while turning his gaze to the right.
Next news conference, there will be no more cameras from the side angle.. only straight on.
DaveC on May 27, 2009 at 8:50 AM
I’m amazed that anyone still listens to Pres. O’Stumblebum’s speeches long enough to pick up the gaffes and boo-boos. Shouldn’t watching and/or listening to his blather be classified as some form of “torture”?
Kudos to Ed for doing this nasty work for us. Maybe hazardous duty pay is in order.
Barb Dwyer on May 27, 2009 at 8:50 AM
TOTUS needs to stop playing around and put
I am resigning as President of the United States
on the screen.
Obama would read it all before realizing what he’d said.
Disturb the Universe on May 27, 2009 at 8:52 AM
I’m just waiting for his clutch Ron Burgundy moment:
“I’m Barack Obama. Go f*%# yourself, America.”
Oh, wait…
bluelightbrigade on May 27, 2009 at 8:52 AM
I’m guessing that he meant over 2 centuries ago.
MarkTheGreat on May 27, 2009 at 8:52 AM
guest lecturer on civil rights = constitutional scholar
another deep legal mind using the law to mold the world in their image
billypaintbrush on May 27, 2009 at 8:52 AM
MarkTheGreat on May 27, 2009 at 8:52 AM
Mr. Obvious.
Disturb the Universe on May 27, 2009 at 8:53 AM
I suppose my comment about the tennis match head on obama was a little mean. After all, he does have a disadvantage in the weight of his ears. After all, the added mass, especially with the lever effect because of the distance, adds a good bit of momentum and it must be hard to stop the olde head once he gets it moving.
One thing that does amaze, but not surprise, me is that the press had a field day with something that a saturday night live player said while impersonating Sarah Palin. NOT what Sarah Palin said, but what whatsherface, the actor, said.
As another poster said, we have a cardboard cutout president. I’ll bet the demented gargoyle in North Korea is laughing his fat butt off. He is rightly thinking that jugears is dumber than rancid kimchee. My heart does go out to the South Koreans though. Anyone there who is paying attention should be scared out of their wits.
bullseye on May 27, 2009 at 8:55 AM
I’m going to use the Ogabe revised standard of time keeping in my shop too, just because it sounds so..so..so intellectual.
Sir, your vehicle will be done in about 5,760 minutes. You figure it out, see you then. Don’t I sound smart, sir?
Bishop on May 27, 2009 at 8:56 AM
Every day he’s a moron.
Akzed on May 27, 2009 at 8:58 AM
Can’t a brotherman just eat his waffle?
/sarc
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on May 27, 2009 at 9:00 AM
Yet again, O’bama bleeds from 57 wounds.
Pass the ketchup, Heinz.
Oops, I meant pass the ketchup, Mama T.
Del Dolemonte on May 27, 2009 at 9:01 AM
YES!!!!!!!!! But then we would have Biden – I am sure TOTUS can handle him in a matter of days though!
InTheBellyoftheBeast on May 27, 2009 at 9:02 AM
Shouldn’t this be a case for restoring funding to the DC schools?
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on May 27, 2009 at 9:02 AM
Hey, give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he was referring to the Ten Commandments. Or the Sermon on the Mount.
.
.
.
.
Naaaaah.
iurockhead on May 27, 2009 at 9:04 AM
Ever notice he makes mistakes when relating simple facts but is smooth as silk when he is selling us down the river. We now know his comfort zone.
sherry on May 27, 2009 at 9:09 AM
But… I thought the Constitution was a living document capable of mutating into whatever a leftist wants it to be!!
crazy_legs on May 27, 2009 at 9:09 AM
He’s the scarecrow on Wizard of Oz!
Phony wizard gives him phony diploma, scarecrow strokes chin, tilts head, assumes lofty-sounding voice, proceeds to recite an incorrect version of the pythagorean theorem (claims it applies to an “isosceles triangle”).
If I only had a brain!
jeff_from_mpls on May 27, 2009 at 9:18 AM
Maybe there’s a secret Republican plant who programmed Obama’s TOTUS to have him speak such nonsense? Of course if one wanted to downplay it one could say the principles may be two thousand years old Jewish principles at the turn of the millenium which through Christian prisms during the ensuing 1700 years, came to be written into our Constitution (and Declaration of Independence). Of course if the Constitution were written 2000 years ago, then there would be a good chance that some of the Founders attended the Last Supper.
Now that would make a wonderful sequel to the DaVinci Code.
eaglewingz08 on May 27, 2009 at 9:24 AM
Well he does belong to the ‘Good Deed Doers’ party.
thomasaur on May 27, 2009 at 9:24 AM
But of course!
…and, with the thoughts he’d be thinkin’ he could be another Lincoln!
jeff_from_mpls on May 27, 2009 at 9:37 AM
Was this a slip or a warning?
Johan Klaus on May 27, 2009 at 9:38 AM
This is Obama! He’s doing deeds that blot out all other deeds of the past including the writings of the Gospels! This makes sense to me! He won!
sabbott on May 27, 2009 at 9:39 AM
You mean Grey Poupon?
Obama refers to the return to the stone age after North Korea launches. If those who voted for this fool were not already dead, I’d take them out again. This guy has to be replaced very soon.
dthorny on May 27, 2009 at 9:43 AM
C’mon now, go easy on the guy. It’s not as if anything worthwhile happened before he was born.
Did I say born? I meant descended from the heavens to live among us.
landshark on May 27, 2009 at 9:53 AM
Karl Rove has been hacking TOTUS again.
OR…
Obama wants to take us back to the governing principles of 9AD
bitsy on May 27, 2009 at 9:54 AM
Give him a break, he’s only been President for 40 months.
infidel4life on May 27, 2009 at 10:15 AM
They’re taking those too … seriously. Wish I had the proposed legislation handy. Sorry.
ex-Democrat on May 27, 2009 at 10:34 AM
Intelligence personified.
promachus on May 27, 2009 at 10:51 AM
constitutional scholar my ass – show me ONE PAPER he wrote as president of harvard law review. WTF??
57 states, i see dead people, my muslim faith, 200 centuries, can i eat my waffle……..can this guy please disappear??
Ris4victory on May 27, 2009 at 10:55 AM
+100 & LOL!
Chainsaw56 on May 27, 2009 at 10:55 AM
President Telleflubby – too busy golfing to read his speeches ahead of time.
marge on May 27, 2009 at 10:56 AM
Make that Teleflubby – heh.
marge on May 27, 2009 at 10:57 AM
“Four score and seven thousand years ago….”
But, hey, he never says anything the comedians can go after. Is letterman still showing Bush’s speeches?
Christian Conservative on May 27, 2009 at 11:05 AM
Karma is starting to bitch slap him every time he opens his mouth.
Star20 on May 27, 2009 at 11:17 AM
But TOTUS is right there! Done him wrong again?! Or maybe our genius prez decided to wing it. ~rolls eyes~
KittyLowrey on May 27, 2009 at 11:19 AM
Imagine if Bush said it.
Star20 on May 27, 2009 at 11:19 AM
I’ve got a total Obamaton living in my house at the moment – getting the days news means MSNBC, Colbert and Jon Stewart..Olberman is a fair and balanced journalist, Fox News is totally biased…you get the idea. Whenever I point out these idiotic things that Obama says I get the predictable “everyone misspeaks on occasion, it’s not like he does it all the time like Bush.” Somewhat predictable response.
Paradox Drive on May 27, 2009 at 11:29 AM
Yes, and I understand the rest of him scored, too.
James on May 27, 2009 at 11:47 AM
Mo-ron.
ladyingray on May 27, 2009 at 12:14 PM
Anybody here watch Aqua Teen Hunger Force? There’s a character who starts every speech with the phrase “Millions of years ago…” in a stentorian voice.
Then he just sort of devolves into nonsense. But he always gives the IMPRESSION that whatever he’s saying is really, really, deeply profound.
logis on May 27, 2009 at 12:16 PM
Well, he IS the Messiah, dontcha know…
Wyznowski on May 27, 2009 at 12:30 PM
Maybe he’s an emissary from the future. That would explain a lot.
logis on May 27, 2009 at 12:32 PM
O’s followers think he looks cool and is articulate. Thus, they assume that he’s smart. HA has proven that is clearly not the case. I think that O’s greatest strength (if you can call it a strength) is his ability to pull the wool over people’s eyes and get away with it.
Callie C. on May 27, 2009 at 1:34 PM
Is that more accurate? Hang on, lemme get a calculator.
Tzetzes on May 27, 2009 at 3:04 PM
In La-La Land, we were formed out of mud 20 centuries ago by a magical, flying unicorn and placed here in these grand 57 States. We were then handed a magical, flying nincompoop who raised taxes during a recession and cut the military during a war!
Ooooo! Pretty butterflies!!
commenter on May 27, 2009 at 3:16 PM
Maybe Barry O did some in-depth research for this. Astronomers have back-calculated a conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in the constellation of Leo in 4 BC as being a possible explanation for the Star of Bethlehem. If Jesus was born in that year, he would have been 12 years old in AD 9 (there was no year zero), when Luke’s Gospel said Jesus instructed the learned men at the Temple. If the learned men wrote down the “principles” Jesus told them about, Obama’s factoid may be accurate.
But did they really study such things in the Church of Jeremiah Wright? Methinks not.
This might be something like those 500 million jobs we’re losing every month, according to San Fran Nan, or the 10,000 people killed in a Kansas tornado. Fuzzy math.
Who cares whether the numbers add up? It’s like the federal budget–if you need more bucks, print them.
Steve Z on May 27, 2009 at 3:44 PM
Give Obambi a break, He’s just learning how to read these cursed tele-prompters.
Cybergeezer on May 27, 2009 at 5:30 PM
Maybe it would help him if they did the text in Arabic…
bullseye on May 27, 2009 at 6:01 PM