Kawamura offers his take on Obama's Special Olympics gaffe

Tuesday 24th March, 06:06 AM JST

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papasmurfinjapan at 08:47 AM JST - 24th March

Obama's apology was apparently "Those goofy bastards are about the best thing I've got going".
LFRAgain at 08:47 AM JST - 24th March

Umm... I don't think picking on people with mental disabilities in a "good natured" way was what Obama was shooting for.

It was a careless slip that he realized was disrespectful. And he gave an appropriate apology. Nothing else to see or say here.
neverknow2 at 09:04 AM JST - 24th March

The remarks triggered uproar among Special Olympics supporters

Yeah all 17 of them.

I thought the special olympics were mainly persons with physical disablities not intellectual disabilities?
bamboohat at 09:16 AM JST - 24th March

The remarks triggered uproar among Special Olympics supporters, and Obama later offered them his apologies.

This is wholly innaccurate. He called the president of the special olympics BEFORE the show aired on TV. Before anybody even knew about it, people from the special olympics had already been invited and ACCEPTED an invitation to bowl at the white house.

This has ZERO similarities with Aso's Gaffe's, as much as the current Japanese administration would like to think.

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,

Another completely erroneous statement. He said what he said because in the U.S. the special olympics are generally used to jokingly (albeit in very bad taste) put down somebody's capabilities.

J-politicians are merely trying the old political "Me Too!" tactic in an attempt to steal popularity rather than earn it.
IvanCoughalot at 09:19 AM JST - 24th March

‘‘It is necessary for Aso to make well-balanced remarks after fully taking into account different things,’’ Kawamura told a press conference in the afternoon.

Has anybody ever heard a more vapid sentence?
bobbafett at 10:21 AM JST - 24th March

Obamas comment was funny. He was not disrespecting Special Olympians. If he was then everyone is by calling it "Special Olympics".
Noripinhead at 11:55 AM JST - 24th March

The thing about Obama is that he frequently tries to go for self-effacing jokes. That was the intention, I'm sure; he just picked the wrong organization for his analogy. Obama is basically a humble person at heart, maybe too humble for America. That is his Asian (Indonesian) upbringing coming out.
m0l0 at 12:46 PM JST - 24th March

Obama didn't make a big mistake.

The Special Olympics organization is doing a great job of capitalizing on this publicity opportunity. It's not every day that the president of the US provides this kind of opportunity to an organization that relies on sponsorship.
teleprompter at 01:23 PM JST - 24th March

You have to laugh at the contortions Obama's defenders twist themselves into trying to defend something as cynical and cowardly as mocking the disabled.

No thinking person can help but see how transparent and calculated Obama's talk of overcoming "discrimination" and setbacks blah blah blah is when he is ready, for cheap laughs on national TV before the smart set, to poke fun at members of society who have overcome far, far greater challenges than worrying about acceptance from people of other races. Especially since the challenge of battling racial "discrimination" (yes, in quotation marks - to emphasize the comparison to what the physically handicapped face) is little more than an exercise in narcissistic self-pity in the basically post-racial America that Obama and those of us under 50 grew up in.
Noripinhead at 02:34 PM JST - 24th March

I have to agree that Obama is being treated with kid gloves. But that's the media for you. If Bush had made the same lame joke and apologized, there would still be protesting in the streets. Off the cuff humor for a politician is tricky. You need script writers beforehand. Remember Bush's toast joke: "Al Gore wrote a book in college. I read one." ? Now that is that is self-deprecating humor that is safe and PC.
anshin at 03:06 PM JST - 24th March

Obama did not make a mistake. He cannot.
Ninjazilla at 03:15 PM JST - 24th March

Neverknow2-I think you are thinking of the Paralympics
jessssicaaa at 08:25 PM JST - 24th March

anshin.. your so sure obama cannot make a mistake? everybody makes mistakes. Hes yet to do one that people really notice. But dont count him out before he even warms the presidential seat. Nobodys perfect after all ;]

Now on a lighter note ! Obama's joke, was funny. It was obvious it would make a few people angry.. as usual, peoples over-reactions are just showing they can't take a joke. He was joking around, he knows, i know, and im sure alot of other people do too. lets just say he didnt go to far with it, if he had then it might have been a different story im writing here. ^_^
cracaphat at 11:34 PM JST - 24th March

Ｉｔ　ｗａｓ　ａｎ　ｏｆｆ　ｔｈｅ　cuff,said whilst Leno was talking remark.Half of you probably didn&'t hear or see it until Yahoo put on its front page. Just more ado about nitpicking.
Ke11iente at 01:45 AM JST - 25th March

I'm sorry. Are they saying Special Olympians AREN'T bad at bowling???