10,000 Died!!

Well actually it was 12, but don’t tell Barack Obama that!

“In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died—an entire town destroyed,” the Democratic presidential candidate said in a speech to 500 people packed into a sweltering Richmond art studio for a fundraiser.

Yeah, guess I missed it.

As the Illinois senator concluded his remarks a few minutes later, he appeared to realize his gaffe.

“There are going to be times when I get tired,” he said. “There are going to be times when I get weary. There are going to be times when I make mistakes.”

Okay, but please, don’t make a mistake with that red button that launches the nukes. That isn’t the emergency call button the White House Pastry Department.

FILED UNDER: 2008 Election, Natural Disasters, US Politics, , , ,
Steve Verdon
About Steve Verdon
Steve has a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles and attended graduate school at The George Washington University, leaving school shortly before staring work on his dissertation when his first child was born. He works in the energy industry and prior to that worked at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Division of Price Index and Number Research. He joined the staff at OTB in November 2004.

Comments

  1. Anderson says:

    Well, but 12 people in Kansas is proportionate to 10,000 people in NYC.

    (E-mail me, Mr. Obama — your campaign needs me!)

  2. legion says:

    And 600,000 in Iraq. Thank god it wasn’t a McCain speech…

  3. Billy says:

    Of course, we should never vote for someone who has made a mistake in a speech.

    Or is it just people who realize and admit their mistakes that are at fault?

  4. Steve Verdon says:

    Billy,

    Try to grow a sense of humor. Of course, this one little gaffe does not mean one shouldn’t vote for Obama.

    Anderson,

    They’d probably benefit from having you on their campaign.

  5. carpeicthus says:

    Steve,

    I’m going to go out on a limb and say Billy was being sarcastic.

  6. Andy says:

    I’m pretty sure that Republicans shouldn’t be particularly critical of speaking gaffes.

  7. Don Surber says:

    Back in 1973, when he was 10,000 years old …

  8. Anderson says:

    They’d probably benefit from having you on their campaign.

    God, for their sake, I hope not.

  9. Hmm…, is it tougher to run for president or to be president?

  10. Rodney Dill says:

    Potatoe

  11. Bithead says:

    The amount of excuse making going on by Democrats over this, provides an interesting contrast to their complants about President Bush’s verbal slipups…