If a President wants to quote from the Declaration of Independence in order to make a point about diversity and liberty, it’s probably a good idea to write the actual language from the Declaration into the speech.  After all, most people have fairly ready access to the text, and if the President leaves something out, it’s not going to escape notice — especially when the part that gets omitted directly relates to the entire concept and origin of our natural rights.  Barack Obama leaves a big hole in the declaration when speaking to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institue:

Towards the end of a speech on September 15 to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Obama began quoting the famous “rights” line from the founding document. But partway through, he omitted where those rights come from: a Creator.

The line is supposed to read: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

But Obama’s recitation left out an important part: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are crated equal. [Long Pause] Endowed with certain inalienable [sic] rights: life and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

American Thinker seems to believe that the omission was both extemperaneous and deliberate:

After President Obama says “created equal..”, there is a long pause during which he scowls and blinks several times. For once, he may actually have opted to not read something that was on the teleprompter. It looks like he is disgusted and decided it would be better not to read what the [Declaration] actually says.

If that were true, Obama would have redlined the phrase out of the speech before it got to the Teleprompter.  Either way, it’s an amateurish stumble.  One does not rewrite the founding documents of the nation, not even if one is The One.

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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