Obama the Gaffe Machine

Most of us Republicans are tired of defending cringe-inducing statements by President Bush, whose inability to communicate has turned out to be very damaging to the country. It looks like our position soon will be reversed vis-a-vis our Democrat friends. They will soon be on the defensive as President Obama sweeps into power and heals our nation.

So in anticipation of that, let's take a look at why Jake Tapper, ABC's Senior National Correspondent, calls Obama "a one-man gaffe machine:"

One reason why Obama may be so forgiving (even if his campaign was not) about Sen. Hillary Clinton's assassination reference?

The man has been a one-man gaffe machine.

Why does Tapper say that?

On Friday afternoon in Sunrise, Florida, Obama said, "how's it going, Sunshine?"

Wrote the local Sun-Sentinel: "It wasn't clear if Barack Obama knew exactly where he was Friday afternoon when he spoke at his mass rally at the BankAtlantic Center."

He did the same thing in Sioux Falls, SD, calling it "Sioux City."

"Obama starts speech with a gaffe," wrote the Argus Leader.

But those are the relatively silly ones. There have also been gaffes of more consequence.

As ABC News' David Wright and Sunlen Miller wrote, Obama seemed to either think Arabic is spoken in Afghanistan or he misunderstands the nature of military translators.

More recently, Obama as he traveled through Florida seemed to give some contradictory statements about Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and the Colombian terrorist group FARC. . . .

Now, Tapper's a pretty objective guy. Not so objective is good old Brent Bozell:

Imagine that John McCain named a young running mate to campaign with him, and this national rookie suggested America had 58 states, repeatedly used the wrong names for the cities he was visiting, and honored a Memorial Day crowd by acknowledging the 'fallen heroes' who were present, somehow alive and standing in the audience. How long would it take for the national media to see another Dan Quayle caricature? Let's raise the stakes. What if it was the GOP presidential candidate making these thoroughly ridiculous comments? This scenario is very real, except it isn't McCain. It's the other fellow.

Anyway, maybe over the next 8 years we can have fun watching the Democrats defend cringe-inducing statements by their Messianic candidate.