Obamateurism of the Day

I’m curious. How many drafts does our supposed Constitutional Law Scholar in Chief need to make of a speech before he notices that he’s misquoting the other founding document of the nation he leads? Barack Obama missed “endowed by their Creator” in a previous speech when quoting the Declaration of Independence almost exactly a month ago, and he did it again in a speech this week, as CNS News reports:

“As wonderful as this land is here in the United States, as much as we have been blessed by the bounty of this magnificent continent that stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, what makes this place special is not something physical. It has to do with this idea that was started by 13 colonies that decided to throw off the yoke of an empire and said, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that each of us are endowed with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’” Obama said in Monday’s speech. [Emphasis added.]

The Declaration of Independence actually says, “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.” [Emphasis added.]

When asked why the president did not use the words “endowed by their Creator” in his Monday speech, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters on Tuesday, “I haven’t seen the comments, Lester. But I can assure you the president believes in the Declaration of Independence.”

He believes in it?  Maybe he just hasn’t read it for himself, and instead of knowing his source material is content to just believe it exists.

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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