Our Genius President: ‘Happy Cuatro de Cinco!’

I like to note these little incidents when they happen, not because I think it makes Obama an idiot because he occasionally stumbles over his words, but because his somewhat overblown reputation as the most cerebral, eloquent, utterly erudite president of all time could really use a pricking every now and then. Also, because if Bush had made such a blunder, it would have been the basis of a four-part MSNBC investigative series on the malapropism’s deleterious effects on the Republican Party’s attempts to woo Hispanic voters, Mexican-American relations, and our “place in the world.” So, Obama, I will not turn your tendency to mispeak (and, then reprimand your Teleprompter) into an international incident, but I will note it with some glee:

On the eve of the Mexican holiday, Obama on Monday had an event in the East Room of the White House with Mexico’s Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan (sahr-oo-KHAN’). Obama joked that it was “Cinco de Cuatro,” botching a play on the Spanish word for “four” when he meant to say “Cuatro de Mayo,” or the Fourth of May. He tried again, but he still did not get it right.

This from a unilingual man who’s embarrassed that more of us can’t speak French. If only he were as conversant in Spanish as he is in noted non-language “Austrian,” this wouldn’t have happened.

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