Barack Obama & Wellesleyan, part II
You may remember some of the confusion by Fox News and possibly by Barack Obama about Wesleyan vs. Wellesley, way back when there was a lot of buzz about Obama's commencement address here.
But it seems that confusion continues. Jared Paul '11 sends in a hilarious (even if a little saddening) anecdote:
An exchange today at Obama's town hall meeting in Raleigh, NC.
Girl asking question: ...I'm a recent Wellesley graduate, and...
Barack: I know your school, I spoke at your commencement! ...Er, wait, was that...
Me (shouting): WESLEYAN!
Barack: Wesleyan, yeah, I get those two mixed up.
Just thought I should share that one with y'all.
16 comments:
ohhhh dear.
I hope you shouted that as loud as physically possible. :-P
Actually, this is excellent. I was really annoyed by everyone who was convinced the misspeak at commencement was a joke.
Lest we let it go to our heads that he spoke at our commencement, we can see that it apparently didn't mean enough to him to truly sink in. Darn.
I'm annoyed by people who didn't think that was a joke. Even here he clearly caught the difference, just slipped up.
well done, big guy.
oh no, now half of wesleyan is going to vote for him!
i mean, big deal, really. Everyone screws it up
I still think that when he said Wellesleyan at commencement it was a joke. Who knows, maybe even this was a joke, but I doubt it. Given the grueling conditions of a campaign, I'm surprised there haven't been that many big slip-ups in general.
haha!
that's kinda fun
first of all, why would someone feel the need to begin a question by identifying the college they just graduated from? That just strikes me as irrelevant, to say the least.
Obama obviously mis-heard the woman, an easy enough thing to do in a large auditorium. He handled it as adroitly as he could, maybe even scoring a few points on the Real American scoreboard ("Hey, I'm just like you, I get them mixed up, too".) I don't see the problem.
the guy has a lot on his plate
johnwesley, that's a bit of a stretch :P
In my opinion, the commencement "Wellesleyan" thing was definitely a joke. He was informed of the Wesleyan/Wellesley thing in a report before he got to school, I'm sure, and made a point to include something a little personalized. Still, he does have quite a bit on his plate at the moment, so he himself gets them confused. The fact that he said something like "Oh, wait, or was that..." leads me to believe that he remembers that this is a common mistake to make... that he managed to make this time :P
>>>The fact that he said something like "Oh, wait, or was that..." leads me to believe that he remembers that this is a common mistake to make...
That was my feeling. I don't know or really care whether the commencement thing was a joke, but it's easy enough to get the two mixed up if you're not that familiar with the difference, and if what was quoted was exactly what happened then he knows the difference.
The Obama commencement "gaffe" was definitely still a joke. a pretty funny joke. that the entire crowd laughed at. because Obama wanted them to laugh. at his joke. which was a joke.
Why should Obama have to remember the very slight difference between Wellesley and Wesleyan (and this time he confused Wellesley with Wesleyan, not Wesleyan with Wellesley, and there is a difference)? Let's remember why Obama was here in the first place. It was at the request of Ted Kennedy - a personal favor to a friend in need, not out of some great love for Wesleyan.
SO, stop making like FOX News and jumping on the least significant bit of news, misinterpreting it, and grossly overstating its importance.
In closing,
GOBAMA!
I feel so used.
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