Before presenting tennis legend Billie Jean King with the Medal of Freedom Wednesday, President Obama ticked off some ...
... of her accomplishments: 12 Grand Slam titles, 101 doubles titles, 67 singles titles.
“Pretty good, Billie Jean,” he quipped.
But he didn’t get any of it right, according to King herself.
“They didn’t get any of my facts right,” King lightheartedly noted afterward.
“Did you see all the – how many titles I won? I was cracking up.”
“Not even in the ballpark,” she continued.
Nope, not even close. Wikipedia states that Ms. King won a total of a 129 singles titles, not 67 as the President stated. And it only took me all of 5 seconds to find this information on the Internet. Surely, there is someone in President Obama's employ who has access to the Internet.
Like Camille Paglia, "I must confess my dismay bordering on horror at the amateurism of the White House apparatus ." Indeed, if you cannot get your facts straight when awarding someone the HIGHEST CIVILIAN HONOR in the United States, then I do not feel comfortable trusting your promises on what is and is not in your health care reform plan. Please understand that it is nothing personal. It's just that you have shown a lot of incompetence over the past few months.
I agree with you. The amateurism of this White House is incredible. Seriously. It's not just Billie Jean King. It's everything. It's the fact that they could not imagine people who oppose health reform would show up at town halls and voice their discontent. It's that people couldn't believe that simply insulting the messenger -- Palin, Gingrich, Boehner, Rednecks -- would not work, that they'd actually have to articulate what they're for.
ReplyDeleteSeriously. I voted for the guy. He needs -- desperately -- to enter the political shop. get rid of that hack Rahm Emanuel and allow the governing process to take shape. As soon as Obama took control of his campaign during the bad days of Rev. Wright, he took command of the race and never looked back. The same is true here. He should have an open town hall every day for the next month, before Congress reconvenes. And, if he cannot do that, he will never -- ever -- pass health care. Sitting back and allowing Baucus (let alone Grassley, who would never vote for reform) to control the timetable and the debate is ridiculous.
It's embarrassing. We voted for Obama. We didn't vote for Rahm Emanuel or for Max Baucus or for Charles Grassley. Now, I can certainly appreciate that he is trying to delegate, but he's delegating in an ridiculously naive way. And this is what people meant about his lack of experience.
He shoves aside gay rights like it's something the public cannot handle (is this 1993 or 2009, when all of us have a gay co-worker, friend, parent, relative). He discards torture investigations, even though they are essential to make sure no White House lawyer ever gets to tell the rest of us that Americans are allowed to torture. He discards tax hikes on those making over $250K while saddling the rest of us with a massive, massive spending spree (where did he think the stimulus cash was going to come from? Better tax revenues from lower unemployment? That is the biggest scam Bush ever gave the public). He needs a seriously remade political shop -- one that recognizes that he won 55% of the vote against a military hero who called him a socialist on a daily basis. He needs to grow up -- and govern.
Enough venting. Thanks.