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NEWS >POLITICS > SPECIAL OLYMPICS CHALLENGES OBAMA TO COUNT TO POTATO
SPECIAL OLYMPICS CHALLENGES OBAMA TO COUNT TO POTATO
March 23 2009
Washington, DC – The fallout from President Obama’s Special Olympics comment while appearing on ‘The Tonight Show’ continues to reverberate around Washington. From advocates for the disabled to Maria Shriver (whose mother founded the Special Olympics and is an Obama supporter) to Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (whose youngest child has Down syndrome) the noise deafening for the President who 
probably just wants to cover his ears and hide in a corner. Despite his apologies for the crack the rhetoric is still coming down heavily on Obama and likely will continue to until something shiny comes into view.
Obama’s comment came after needling from host Jay Leno about his bowling skills and immediately sparked a firestorm of criticism both for his cavalier attitude towards the disabled and his apparent connection of bowling and mental retardation. Immediately after the comment officials for the Special Olympics demanded an apology for his comments and more than a few challengers arose to take on the President in a friendly game and offer their advice.
“Focus, take his time, and relax. Keep your eyes on the alley.” said Tim Malony, a Down Syndrome sufferer and a 165 bowler. “I stay around my dad and my friends and loved ones” he added irrationally.
Kolan McConiughey, a mentally disabled 300 bowler also challenged the President to a game. It’s not yet clear if the President is interested in taking up the challenge presented by the bowlers.
“President Obama is an athlete and so is by his nature very competitive. If he were to lose, well he would be losing to a retarded person and that would give enemies like Iran a natural platform on which to criticize him,” said Scrape TV Political analyst Gabriel Kinsey. “If he were to win he would be beating a retarded person and I can’t imagine anyone would see that as a positive thing, especially if he started gloating. He’s kind of in a no win situation with this and should probably just brush it off and get back to important issues like running the country.”
It’s not clear if any of the challengers to Obama’s bowling skills would allow him to win because he is the President. Most who have challenged the President to his native game, Basketball, have reportedly lost despite superior skill.
“Most people lose to their bosses on purpose and this is the President so you would think they would be bending over backwards to make him happy but it’s always hard to tell what’s going on in the minds of the mentally disabled. They just don’t think like you or I,” continued Kinsey. “The bigger issue that this comment has stirred up is the partisanship especially on the part of Sarah Palin. Sure she has a disabled child but Obama had already apologized and she used it as an opportunity to get herself attention and show the public how she is sensitive towards disable people. Any suggestion that the leader of the free world would openly advocate prejudice to mentally disabled people is just retarded.”
Maria Shriver, who was one of the most vocal supporters of Obama during his campaign for the Presidency accepted the President’s apology and used it as an opportunity to speak on the rights of the disabled, partially because she had no ability to use it in a partisan manner.
“If say Rush Limbaugh had made that comment you can bet that Shriver would have used it to promote the Democratic agenda but that doesn’t make her rational and calm reaction any less
valid. The bigger concern with her input is the fact that anyone is listening to what
Maria Shriver has to say. History and family doesn’t really matter unless it comes to having to interpret what you husband is saying and in that respect Shriver can say whatever she wants about the mentally disabled,” continued Kinsey. “Really it’s probably a good thing the President is bad at bowling being that he is The President of the United States and all, the last thing he should be doing is practising his 7-10 split.”
Asked for comment, bowlers at a local alley responded with a line from the Johnny Knoxville Special Olympics movie ‘The Ringer’, “I can count to Potato!” They declined to show off their counting skills despite patient efforts to encourage them.
Edward Bastil, Political Correspondent
NEWS >POLITICS > SPECIAL OLYMPICS CHALLENGES OBAMA TO COUNT TO POTATO
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