Obamateurism of the Day

Pastor Terry Jones got quite a response from the federal government — for a minister with a congregation of less than three dozen people. His stunt in announcing that he would burn 200 Korans not only kept the national media enraptured for a week, it also got Jones a personal phone call from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and at least two separate public mentions from the President of the United States. And what lesson does Barack Obama want people to learn from this episode? ABC’s Jake Tapper reported the moral of the story according to Obama:

With respect to the individual down in Florida, let me just say — well, let me repeat what I said a couple of days ago: The idea that we would burn the sacred texts of someone else’s religion is contrary to what this country stands for. It’s contrary to what this country — this nation was founded on.

And, you know, my hope is that this individual prays on it and refrains from doing it. But I’m also commander in chief. And we are seeing today riots in Kabul, riots in Afghanistan, that threaten our young men and women in uniform. And so we’ve got an obligation to send a very clear message that this kind of behavior or threats of action put our young men and women in harm’s way. And it’s also the best imaginable recruiting tool for Al Qaida.

And although this may be one individual in Florida, part of my concern is to make sure that we don’t start having a whole bunch of folks all across the country think this is the way to get attention.

Uh-huh.

Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at [email protected] 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.

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