Obama Loses His Cool
Teleprompter troubles and All-Star gaffes
By STEVE RHODES
Updated 12:01 PM CST, Wed, Aug 5, 2009
The most viewed story on the Chicago Tribune website as of this writing is a column asking if President Obama wore Mom Jeans to the mound when he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Tuesday night's All-Star Game.
So much for the president being the coolest guy on Earth.
"It’s been a tough week for President Obama's cool factor," Politico reports.
Even the foreign press picked up on the meme.
"When The Coolest US Prez Had A Flurry Of Flusters," IndianExpress.com writes.
Pundits mostly pile on Obama for a series of gaffes at the All-Star Game, but date the shaky week to the crashing of a teleprompter on Monday that left Obama "in absolute discomfort."
But Obama's series of goofs began long before this week. In March, for example, another teleprompter meltdown led to the Irish prime minister repeating Obama's statement word-for-word - while Obama thanked himself for being there.
In May, a teleprompter blew over in high winds in Colorado and Vice President Joe Biden, referring to Obama's reliance on the devices, joked, "What I am going to tell the president when I tell him his teleprompter is broken? What will he do then?!"
The Los Angeles Times declared The End of Obamania this week after an overseas trip the president made was positively George W. Bush-like.
"Mr. Obama has seemed tired here," the New York Times reported, 'several times fumbling the pronunciation of Mr. Medvedev’s name and Mr. Putin’s title. Beginning a speech here, he mistakenly said he first met his wife in school instead of at the law firm where they actually met. And he misstated his younger daughter’s age."
And then came the All-Star game, where he called the place where his beloved White Sox play "Cominskey Field" and threw a first pitch lollipop that would have bounced in front of the plate had Albert Pujols not stepped up with his glove and saved him the ignominy.
And - no gender bias meant but - he threw like a girl.
Wearing Mom Jeans is just the least of it, though a downward trend when the media was asking if he had been wearing Dad Jeans.
The truth is, Obama was never "cool."
Not riding a bike, nor playing basketball.
Apparently even the marketing magic of the Obama team, and the blind idol worship of the president's fans, can't last forever.
Especially if he's going to keep wearing those jeans.
Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter, a Chicago-centric news and culture review.
Copyright NBC Local Media
First Published: Jul 17, 2009 9:19 AM CST
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