Even Obama, famous as the “high-IQ” president, has made geographical blunders. In April 2012, when he attended the Summit of the Americas, a dispute arose between Argentina and the U.K. over the ownership of the Malvinas Islands (British Falkland Islands). Obama expressed the neutral position of the U.S. on this issue. Perhaps to convey friendliness toward Argentina, he tried to refer to the islands using their Argentinean name, Malvinas. Unfortunately, he misspoke, instead calling them the Maldives Islands, a nation in the Indian Ocean and former British colony. This slip of the tongue can be described as shooting oneself in the foot: It caused the Argentinians even greater displeasure.
Many remember when U.S. President Barack Obama incorrectly recited the presidential oath, which consists of only 35 short words, back in January 2009 during his first inauguration.
Even worse than geographical errors are those involving someone's name.
Regarded as the 20th century’s greatest spiritual teacher and success guru, American writer Dale Carnegie once said, “One of the simplest, most obvious and most important ways of gaining good will [is] by remembering names.”
But it seems Obama has not read Carnegie’s book.
In November 2012, during his visit to Myanmar, Obama declared the country’s “importance,” yet he still did not do his homework. While meeting with Myanmar President Thein Sein, Obama called him “President Sein,” following the Western custom of using the "latter" name in formal address. In fact, “President Thein Sein” would have been the appropriate title. When meeting Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Obama gave her an American-style affectionate kiss, but during a subsequent news conference, he mispronounced her name several times as “Aung Yan Suu Kyi,” making Suu Kyi, who stood beside Obama, rather embarrassed. The U.S. media pronounced that Obama’s errors would generate unease among the Burmese and cause them to wonder if the U.S. president really placed that much importance on their country.
Of course, mispronouncing names is not a patented American trait. In June 2010, at the G-8 Summit held in Canada, Naoto Kan, Japanese prime minister at the time, successively mispronounced the names of then South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, both of whom he had met previously. He also substituted the English phrase “emerging companies” for “emerging countries” and erroneously said G-7 instead of G-8. Obama, who also attended the summit, could not even say Naoto’s name and simply referred to him as “the new prime minister.” Interestingly, two years later, in December 2012, newly elected Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe spoke with Obama on the phone and, afterward, unexpectedly told the person next to him that he had been speaking with U.S. President George W. Bush. Although he immediately corrected his mistake, Abe still attracted media ridicule.
On May 29, 2012, Obama held a ceremony at the White House to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the late Jan Karski in recognition of his historical achievements: Karski was a Polish-American who first exposed the atrocities of the Holocaust. Obama said Karski personally went to “the Warsaw Ghetto and a Polish death camp” and witnessed the massacre. Obama’s use of the term “Polish death camp” immediately provoked strong protests in Poland. The Polish government believed that Obama’s wording would cause people to think that Poland was responsible for the Holocaust. The correct reference should have been to “German concentration camps in Nazi-occupied Poland.”
Polish President Komorowski said that Obama’s words “do not reflect views or intentions of our American friend,” but maintained that his choice of words was “unfair and painful.” Komorowski also sent a letter to Obama, who later replied, “I regret the error.”
Watching America **:** » A Slip of the Tongue Leads to Obama’s Verbal ‘Bomb’
And then there was that good old time Obama had at Mandela's funeral. WOW!
View attachment 67169758
View attachment 67169759
View attachment 67169760
View attachment 67169761
View attachment 67169762