The official Japanese government position on Obama’s Special Olympics joke

kawamura

Prime Minister Taro Aso hasn’t made any major gaffes this week, so Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura has the time to do PR work for Barack Obama:

“I believe President Obama is always careful about what he says and suppose that he made the remarks because of the high level of interest in the United States in the Special Olympics,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Kawamura, who often has to clean up after gaffe-prone Prime Minister Taro Aso.

During his appearance on the “Tonight Show” on Thursday, Obama joked about his bowling skills, likening to the performance of Special Olympians with intellectual disabilities.

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12 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - March 23, 2009 at 9:37 pm

Categories: Politics Tags:

doodles

This is why you couldn’t pay me enough money to be a President; You can’t even make a bad joke without other countries picking up on it and trying to analyze it!
MrSatyre

Wow! Obama-san needs this man desperately!
Richard

Actually Aso-san misread the kanji on his TelePrompTer. He meant to say, “I believe Obama-san can say whatever he wants for the next three and a half years and you’ll still kiss his feet because he isn’t a WASPy Republican.”
http://surrealu.blogspot.com Claytonian

that’s one interpretation. I think there is more likely a connotation of him putting himself down for having a physical disability.
Level3

Wow, not many Japan-o-philes wanting to comment (or pay attention to?) this story. What a shock.

If it were Bush making this kind of retarded joke there’d be 50 comments by now.

Must be tough these days to be one of the saps who supported Obama. Is it too early for “I told you so.”?

Comments below this level will be ignored.

The Overthinker

Why would there be 50 jokes? What had Bush every done to make the American people – indeed, the people of the world – dislike him? Sure, he had some of the lowest support ratings ever by the time he got through, but I feel certain that history will judge him as one of the best Presidents of the first decade of the 21st century. In the top five at least.

http://www.bossyman15.com bossyman15

top five? no bottom five? yes

http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

There will only be two in the running…

http://ddurgee.blogspot.com Darg

Do you mean besides start 2 wars and make most of the world resent us even more than they did before, or were you just looking for a comment on how he took a federal budget surplus and turned it into the biggest deficit in national history (up until last month’s budget)?

I agree, definitely top 5 material. For me to poop on.

http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

I think you missed his joke.

“…but I feel certain that history will judge him as one of the best Presidents of the first decade of the 21st century. In the top five at least.”

There will only be two U.S. Presidents in the first decade of the 21st century – Bush from 2000 – 2008, and Obama from 2009 to 2010. So Bush being “one of the best presidents” and not “the best president” means he was actually the worst president of the first decade of the 21st century.
The Overthinker

Thank you for taking the time to read what I actually wrote….

dobokun

lol high interest lol 男の人が俺を聞くますか？

The official Japanese government position on Obama’s Special Olympics joke

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