President Obama has been solidifying his celebrity status as he makes the final rounds on late-night comedy shows before his reelection bid next month. But on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Wednesday, Mr. Smooth stepped in it big time when he seemed to confuse U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock’s (R-IN) pro-life comments about babies conceived via rape with that of the “legitimate rape” gaffe by Missouri Senate Candidate Todd Akin (R-MO).
When Leno prompted the president to comment on the Mourdock controversy, Obama bluntly stated that “Rape is rape. It’s a crime.” But when President Obama followed up with, “These various distinctions about rape don’t make too much sense to me…” many think his remarks don’t reflect Mourdock’s comments on Tuesday night when he said “even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that is something that God intended to happen,” during a debate against opponent Joe Donnelly.
Instead, President Obama’s “distinctions about rape” comment more directly applies to Akin’s remark in August when he said, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
During the interview, The President admitted confusion over what are presumably Mourdock’s and Akins’ statements when he told Leno, “I don’t know how these guys come up with these ideas.”
He then curtailed the segment into a discussion about women’s reproductive health when he said, “This is exactly why you don’t want a bunch of politicians, mostly male, making decisions about women’s health care decisions.” He continued on about the involvement of politicians, stating, “Women are capable of making these decisions in consultation with their partners, with their doctors. And for politicians to want to intrude in this stuff, oftentimes without any information, is a huge problem. And this is obviously part of what’s stake at this election.”
The President’s head-scratching foray on a controversy largely generated by the media only adds to the confusion for the American public, and serves to further the narrative that the GOP cares only about social issues.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney endorsed Mourdock in an ad released on Monday and when it was discovered that Romney will stand behind him, team Obama had a strong reaction. “It continues to be perplexing to us that Mitt Romney would stand behind an ad that is for a candidate whose comments were so outrageously offensive to women,” Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki said during a briefing with the press aboard Air Force One this afternoon.
What’s truly perplexing is how anyone could describe Mourdock’s position, which is that all human life whether created intentionally or unintentionally is purposed by God, as “outrageously offensive.”
Host Jay Leno asked President Obama a myriad of questions that ranged from the serious inquisition about Mourdock’s rape comment, to the silly, asking the president which team he supported for the World Series and whether or not the First Lady would pass out healthy snacks for Halloween this year.
