Our view: Gaffe turns Bears’ fans anti-Obama
August 16, 2011 8:48PM
Barack Obama appears on ESPN in 2006.
THE FIRST AMENDMENT
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Updated: October 19, 2011 3:29AM
Regardless of your political persuasion, most of us have a sense of pride knowing that President Barack Obama hails from Hyde Park on the South Side of Chicago, just a stone’s throw from Northwest Indiana.
Yet, there are times when we would prefer that the president watch what he says when talking about Chicago — specifically the city’s professional sports teams.
Largely because he is a South Side guy, Obama is a fan of the Chicago White Sox. That’s all well and good, but we had to cringe the day he referred to the Sox’s former stadium as Cominskey Park rather than Comiskey Park. It kind of made you wonder how often he had been there.
There have been a number of Obama gaffes. Some of the more notable are:
† When he said he had been to 57 states and thought he had one more to go.
† The day he was referencing a tornado in Kansas and the fact that 10,000 had been killed. Actually, 12 died.
† When he talked about “the bomb” being dropped on Pearl Harbor.
We all make mistakes, and Obama likely has decent explanations for the gaffes mentioned above.
The president last week was put in the difficult spot of having to welcome the 2011 Super Bowl-champion Green Bay Packers to the White House. That’s pretty heavy duty for a president who calls Chicago home and happens to be a staunch supporter of the Chicago Bears.
“I’m just gonna come out and say it,” Obama said. “This hurts a little bit. This is a hard thing for a Bears fan to do. It doesn’t hurt as much as the NFC Championship Game hurt, but it still hurts.”
Most Bears fans still have an empty feeling after losing to Green Bay last January at Soldier Field, thus being denied a trip to the Super Bowl.
Then, the Packers did the unthinkable during the ceremony on the South Lawn — they gave the president a few shares of the publicly owned Packers, thus making him a part owner.
Then, Obama did the unthinkable by saying, “Well, if I’m a part owner, I think ... we should initiate a trade to send (Packers quarterback Aaron) Rodgers down to the Bears.”
Oh, my. We hope that comment gets the Bears fired up enough to reach the Super Bowl this season.
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