Obama Special Olympics Remark, the Gift of Gaffes, and Obama’s Insensitivity to Injured Iraq War Vets

Today, the MSM is slightly abuzz about President Obama’s last night gaffe on the Jay Leno Show referring to bowling and the “Special Olympics”. Here’s a link to the “gaffe”, courtesy of Youtube:

Obama quickly apologized for his offhand remark before the taped Leno show aired:

On his way back to Washington on Air Force One, Obama called the chairman of the Special Olympics, Tim Shriver, to say he was sorry — even before the taped program aired late Thursday night.

“He expressed his disappointed (sic) and he apologized in a way that was very moving. He expressed that he did not intend to humiliate this population,” Shriver said Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Obama, Shriver said, wants to have some Special Olympic athletes visit the White House to bowl or play basketball.
–FOX News

Gaffes are the best kind of sound bites, those little unintended utterances by politicians which cause the most impact, and get the most play. According to Wikipedia, it was Mark Twain who first “coined” the “concept” as “a minimum of sound to a maximum of sense”, a “short phrase or sentence that deftly captures the essence of what the speaker is trying to say”.

Gaffes are the opposite of Mark Twain’s concept, in that they are the “concept” of a “minimum of nonsense to a maximum of sound” via sound bites. They are also political parties and the MSM’s “best friend” during an election.

There are different types of “gaffes”, which range from knowledge, personal “history”, to insensitivity. In some cases, such as Bush and Reagan, gaffes were the “gifts that kept on giving”, in the case of Obama gaffes, and the MSM and Democrats, are meant to be “hidden” or explained away like Uncle Don’s Christmas gift of “Big Mouth Billy Bass”. Once around the den then tucked away in some dusty corner of the basement.

Rides sent me this Youtube video, of past gaffes of Presidents, how they were treated by the MSM, and past “gaffes” by Obama, the President of “57 states”.

As our “man in the streets”, Rides, pointed out with his image of Bush on a crucifix, and the various names assigned the man after some of his “gaffes”, that, if it had been Bush last night on Leno, we would have been subjected to a far different response from the Left. Instead, today, we see the “silence of the Left”. If it had been Bush, the Left would have immediately issued a political correctness “citation” and had taken to the airwaves to “defend” the Special Olympics against Bush’s “insensitivity”, the standard practice of the Left’s Political Correctness Playbook.

What Obama’s remark revealed, at least to me, is that the carefully crafted persona, of an elegant, sophisticated, and “caring” man, had developed a small “crack”. That without the “crutch” of his teleprompter, Obama, at times, revealed a “glimpse” of the “real” Obama.

During the election the MSM exhibited a pattern of championing Obama, where the “real” Obama and his spate of gaffes, were obfuscated. And yet there’s an another instance of “insensitivity” on the part of Obama that has been virtually swept under the rug by the MSM, of a proposal to make injured veterans of the Iraq War procure their own health insurance instead of the Veteran’s Administration, in order to “save money”. In terms of “insensitivity”, this ranks a 9 on the Insensitivity Richter Scale.

From the LA Times:

“As the country is reeling over the AIG bonus scandal, we thank “The Daily Show” for reminding us that attention must also be paid to “the smaller outrages in our world,” as Jon Stewart put it last night in a new segment called “That Can’t Be Right.”

Stewart focused on a little-noticed budget proposal, the subject of an article in the Kansas City Star, that would have veterans use their private medical insurance to treat injuries and illnesses suffered while serving their country:

“You know veterans?” said Stewart. “The men and women that risk their lives to defend our country? Well, when they get injured, do you know who foots the bill? YOU! The taxpayer! I know! It’s incredibly … FAIR! That is why it struck me as a little odd that one of the money-saving proposals from the Obama administration was to remove veterans with private insurance plans from the VA rolls!

“So I guess the government is saying if you still need a little rehab from when you got that leg blown off in Iraq, the government will cover you unless your wife has a little COBRA left over from her previous substitute-teaching gig.”"

The Times goes on to cite that while some in Washington believe the proposal to be “dead on arrival”, it is “still on the table”:

“Although the Star quoted Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington as saying the idea was “dead on arrival,” Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said the plan was under consideration as a way to increase revenue.”

The Kansas City Star reported on the 17th that advocates for veterans had met with Obama concerning this issue:

“Obama on Monday told the advocates that the government could save $540 million by making veterans use private insurance for all medical care.

But to veterans and their advocates, government-financed health coverage is their “third rail” of politics. They believe that upon enlistment, the government pledged lifetime coverage for injuries sustained on the battlefield or elsewhere.

Reversing that “cuts to the quick of the covenant between the people and those who take the step forward, pledging life and limb, often at great cost, in defense of the United States,” said Rick Weidman, a lobbyist for the Vietnam Veterans of America.”

The veterans are coming back, not to meet with Obama, but with his chief advisor, Ron Emmanuel:

“Angry advocates for veterans will return to the White House on Thursday to try and talk the Obama administration out of cutting health benefits.

The plan has ignited a political firestorm in the veteran’s community, and a meeting Monday with President Barack Obama failed to tamp it down. But the same veterans groups that met with Obama have been asked to come back to meet with his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, for more discussions.”

So while the MSM accepts Obama’s apology over his Special Olympics remark and moves on, there’s still the matter of the Iraq War veteran’s story. I’ve yet to see the MSM, other than the LA Times Blogs, and the Kansas City Star, address the issue of the administration’s plans to take away their right to be treated for war wounds by the government and not make them seek out private health insurance. To me, this is the height of insensitivity, and yet another instance of a “crack” in the Obama persona.

What signal does this send, as Commander in Chief, that he has the military as one of his “best interests”?

What level of “insensitivity” does this signal, where our military, injured while serving our country, may have to face an extra level of stress regarding the care of their injuries, while Obama and his administration continue to pour hundreds of billions into fatally flawed financial institutions such as AIG? In my opinion, Obama’s actions, in implementing the trillion dollar stimulus plan, shows far more “sensitivity” to men and women who earn, per capita, substantially higher incomes than those in the military. Especially when you factor in the million dollar bonuses being paid to AIG employees who were part and parcel of the cause of the AIG’s collapse. Obama claims that he had no prior knowledge about the bonuses, yet there seems to be some emergence of “contradictions” in the role of the Obama administration and the AIG bonuses.

From USA Today:

“The news continues to be dominated by the outrage over $165 million in bonuses for executives at the taxpayer-supported insurance giant AIG — and in particular by word from CNN that Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., says he agreed to a suggestion from the Obama administration and amended language to the economic stimulus plan so that such bonuses could continue to be paid. The language gave Treasury the authority to review such bonuses and seek to have them returned, Dodd says. It wasn’t aimed specifically at AIG, but at any firms that use “retention” bonuses.”

What we don’t know is exactly when Obama knew about the bonuses. We do know that the Treasury is “backtracking” on the dates when Timothy Geithner, the Secretary of the Treasury, knew about the AIG bonuses:

“Although Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told congressional leaders on Tuesday that he learned of AIG’s impending $160 million bonus payments to members of its troubled financial-products unit on March 10, sources tell Time that the New York Federal Reserve informed Treasury staff that the payments were imminent on Feb. 28. That is 10 days before Treasury staffers say they first learned ‘full details’ of the bonus plan, and three days before the administration launched a new $30 billion infusion of cash for AIG.” Prior to becoming Treasury secretary, Geithner was president of the New York Fed.”

What we also know is that Obama went to bat for AIG, but, in regards to the Iraq War Vets, he’s willing to cut costs by potentially requiring returning war vets to go out and seek health care for their injuries. This reeks of insensitivity to those who enlisted with the knowledge that they would be putting their lives on the line in order to protect our country. We also know that this particular story has gotten the “blind eye” from the MSM, who has exhibited a pattern of ignoring the military and returning veterans, unless it cast a jaundiced eye on the Bush administration. Apparently while it’s the military’s job to protect and serve our country, it’s been the MSM’s call to duty to protect and serve President Obama.

Obama’s proposal, to save “money”, at the expense of our injured war vets, reveals to me a huge “crack” in the Obama “persona” and his personal “priorities”. Far from being a “caring” man, in regards to our military, he has been revealed as one who perceives our injured military men and women as “expendable”, at least in regards to their health care, whereas, the men and women of AIG, are to be “saved” to the tune of a trillion dollar tax debt.

By LBG

Image – Big Mouth Billy Bass

Tags: administration, AIG, BOWLING, gaffes, health care, Insensitivity, Jay Leno Show, Obama, Special Olympics, veterans, War on Drugs