O's infamous "shout out"

Obama bombed. Odd how similar those words are to each other.

When addressing the American people concerning the Fort Hood incident, he instead stuck to his scripted lighthearted speech until the teleprompter signaled it was time to cue the "heart felt" portion.



The American public, and the world, awaited word from the President to offer the only thing the man has ever accomplished: eloquence. Here's how the NBC affiliate in Chicago put it:

But instead of a somber chief executive offering reassuring words and expressions of sympathy and compassion, viewers saw a wildly disconnected and inappropriately light president making introductory remarks. At the event, a Tribal Nations Conference hosted by the Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian affairs, the president thanked various staffers and offered a "shout-out" to "Dr. Joe Medicine Crow -- that Congressional Medal of Honor winner." Three minutes in, the president spoke about the shooting, in measured and appropriate terms. Who is advising him?

That would be Rahm Emanuel. E-M-A-N-U-E-L. Also Axelrod, one word.

Anyone at home aware of the major news story of the previous hours had to have been stunned. An incident like this requires a scrapping of the early light banter. The president should apologize for the tone of his remarks, explain what has happened, express sympathy for those slain and appeal for calm and patience until all the facts are in. That's the least that should occur.

The telepromter said "shout out", so the man gives a "shout out." Blame it on TOTUS.

Tim Slagle at BigGovernment.com penned an excellent column about this moment in comparison our previous President. It wins a full-portion posting and a set of ginsu knives.

Obama’s Pet Goat Moment
by Tim Slagle

For the Left, one of the most defining images of the previous administration can be summed up in three words “ My Pet Goat.”

my-pet-goat

If you remember, when President Bush was informed of the second plane crashing into the World Trade Center, while his photo op with school children at the Emma E. Booker elementary school was about to start. For the next several minutes, (much maligned by Michael Moore, in “Faranheit 9/11″) we saw a man confused by the situation. It has been joked about by comedians as him wanting to see how the story ended.

Every time I watch this footage, I always saw a strong man, who knew that twenty school children had looked forward to their chance to read to the President, for weeks. He decided they would not be disappointed. And knowing that this was an attack on the United States, the President did his best to neither disappoint nor alarm the children.

I’ve always imagined his narcissistic predecessor bolting straight out of the room and into a bunker, stepping over any children in his path. In reality, what could the President do? In that moment of confusion there really was nothing that could be done, other than have him sit there uncomfortably, and pretend that everything was normal. It takes a strong man not to flinch under adversity.

After he left the classroom, he went in front of the cameras, for what was supposed to be a prepared speech about education in America, and his initiatives. Instead, he went completely off-script, and directly into a speech that was most probably ad-libbed due to time constraints. He said that this is a difficult time for America, and promised to get the folks responsible.

Fast forward to last week. President Obama was also supposed to pose for a photo op, when possibly the biggest attack on US soil since September 11th occurred. While the other media still tries to sort out the motive for the shooting at Ft. Hood, I think most of us are pretty clear on what “Allah Akbar” means.

But there was no moment of reassurance from this President. Instead, he went into his prepared speech, and made a special point to give a “shout-out” to “Dr. Joe Medicine Crow” before he even addressed the issue.

In the President’s defense, I’m fairly certain that the “Shout-Out” had already been loaded into the teleprompter, and the tech didn’t know whether to delete it or not. The tech was obviously eMailed a Ft. Hood statement, but it took a while to get it up.

If you watch the video, you can see the clumsy transition (around 1:38). He stalls for a couple seconds while the new speech is being loaded: “Now, …I have to say though, ..that uhhh,…beyond that… uh I had planned to make some broader remarks, uh about the challenges that lay ahead for Native Americans as well as collaboration with our administration..”

Then suddenly his eyes lock on the right teleprompter as his Ft’ Hood statement begins to roll, and the stuttering stops: “uh but as some of you might have heard there has be a tragic shooting at the Ft. Hood Army base in Texas…”

I think this will be defining moment for this Administration. While he might be unclear on whether this was just a rampage, or an attack on the United States, I am certain that there is no question in the minds of the men and women of our military, that this event only differed from Pearl Harbor in scale.

And let it be known, that from this day forward, anytime a Leftie brings up “My Pet Goat” it will be retaliated with a “Shout Out to Dr. Joe Medicine Crow.”