Patterico's Pontifications

9/27/2011

Simple Flub or Freudian Slip?

Filed under: General — Aaron Worthing @ 8:06 am



[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.  Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]

Via the LA Times Top of the Ticket we learn that Obama had a bit of a slip of the tongue during the CBC banquet.  He was supposed to say:

If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a janitor makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor. I have no problem with that.

Except he actually said…

If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as Jew– as a janitor makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor. I have no problem with that.

Go ahead, watch the video and listen for yourself.  The Top of the Ticket’s Andrew Malcolm says he was confusing Jews with Janitors, and maybe so…  but I tend to think that when he was discussing billionaires he couldn’t get the word Jew out of his mind.

Yeah, I am beginning to think he has a prejudice problem.  There, I said it.

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

UPDATE BY PATTERICO: I’m happy to take a shot at Obama when I can do so fairly, but to me it seems clear that he meant to read “Junior” and then recognized the word on his little TeleCrutch.

But still I think he has a spending problem. There, I said it.

87 Responses to “Simple Flub or Freudian Slip?”

  1. I think he was reading his TelePrompter, saw the letters “J N O R,” and was starting to say “junior” when he caught himself. The guy’s dealt with a LOT more people with “junior” in their title than he has with janitors.

    But that’s just my theory.

    J.

    Jay Tea (f9a258)

  2. All I can say is I want the janitor tax rate. I didn’t know we had different tax rates for Jews.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  3. Yeah, I am beginning to think he has a prejudice problem. There, I said it.

    I think the way he has flubbed on the economy and foreign policy offer much richer targets with which to beat him next year.

    vor2 (6c8528)

  4. I agree with Jay Tea — I don’t think there’s any real story here. I think he started to say “ju—”, not “Jew”.

    Robin Munn (d6c85d)

  5. Maybe he was going to practice counting jooooooooos with epwj later. I often say jooooooo when I am trying to say janitor. Who hasn’t?

    JD (1e48bc)

  6. All I can say is I want the janitor tax rate. I didn’t know we had different tax rates for Jews.

    I just want everyone to have the same rate. Cain has the right idea. The debate with legislators then becomes whether to lower or raise it — much easier for voters to follow than all the different exemptions in play.

    vor2 (6c8528)

  7. Comment by JD — 9/27/2011 @ 6:44 am

    I suspect you were saying noooooo in the final seconds of the Steelers-Colts game the other night!

    Sorry JD couldn’t resist…

    vor2 (6c8528)

  8. You would suspect incorrectly then, vor2. The Colts motto should be Suck for Luck. 1-15 or 2-14 should get us Andrew Luck from Standford, where he can apprentice under #18 for a few years much like Young, Rogers, etc …

    JD (ae55d7)

  9. Comment by JD — 9/27/2011 @ 6:52 am

    LOL

    vor2 (6c8528)

  10. “I think he was reading his TelePrompter, saw the letters “J N O R,” and was starting to say “junior” when he caught himself.”

    Jay Tea – It doesn’t really matter why he said what he said, because we can have fun with it one way or another. He also blew his Buffet analogy of secretaries paying higher rates than billionaires in the same speech.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  11. I wonder what his long-time spiritual mentor, Jeremiah Wright, would have to say about that.

    Kevin M (563f77)

  12. Vor2 – it is a long term view, to be sure. Winning 4 or 5 games would just be pointless. They did play hard, despite being overmatched.

    JD (318f81)

  13. JD,
    I agree they did play hard. I shouldn’t admit this but I’ve been a Browns fan for 45 years. Seeing the Saints get a ring before them was .. painful.
    When they moved to Baltimore I gave up on it for several years. My son started getting interested in football in the interim and guess who he chose as “his team”?
    Yep, the Steelers…. *Siiiiigh*

    vor2 (6c8528)

  14. For this season, I am alright with playing hard, and losing.

    JD (318f81)

  15. “I wonder what his long-time spiritual mentor, Jeremiah Wright, would have to say about that.”

    Kevin M. – I do not believe Rev. Hatey, Obama’s moral compass, nor his good buddy Louis Farrakhan are huge fans of the Joooooos.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  16. I don’t think it was more than a tip of the slongue on President Obama’s part, and I want to say that I wholeheartedly agree with the statement he meant to make:

    If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a janitor makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor. I have no problem with that.

    I absolutely agree that a billionaire ought to be paying the same tax rates as janitors, as concrete plant workers, as construction laborers, as attorneys, as doctors, and as teachers. And I welcome President Obama’s conversion to a sensible conservatism, one which says that we should all be treated equally.

    The economist Dana (3e4784)

  17. Well, if this thread is going to mutate into one about football, didja notice how my Oakland Raiders stomped the New York Jets on Sunday? 🙂

    The Oakland Raiders fan Dana (3e4784)

  18. Well, Attack Watch is going to hear about this!

    Have fun in Idealogical Realignment Camp, philistines.

    Leviticus (624ba1)

  19. And didja notice how badass the Lions are now that Stafford’s healthy and they have The D-Line of Endless Nightmares?

    The Detroit Lions fan Leviticus (624ba1)

  20. It was deliberate. Remember when he acknowledged people he did not like and scratched the side of his face with his middle finger?

    AZ Bob (f67ff0)

  21. Maybe he has the word “juniper” on the brain. Maybe he’s been heavy on the gin lately.

    Karl (37b303)

  22. we should ask Jessie Jackson Jew-noir if this is a common problem

    happyfeet (3c92a1)

  23. Karl – Good point. His azz could still have been chapped from another standout performance by Bibi, smacking down the idea of a Palestinian state at the U.N.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  24. Jesse Jackson Jew-noir was raised by Rev Hymietown, no?

    JD (1e48bc)

  25. What I want to know is: did Gwen Awful send out a haughty little tweet about this Jew flub as she did when Sarah mentioned “party like it’s 1773” in reference to the Boston Tea Party –and Gwen, like so many on the left, thought the stupid stupid lady had made a grievous error (1776) that needed to be publicized and mocked?

    “Sarah Palin: party like its 1773! ummm,”

    elissa (a864f0)

  26. And didja notice how badass the Lions are now that Stafford’s healthy and they have The D-Line of Endless Nightmares?
    Comment by The Detroit Lions fan Leviticus — 9/27/2011 @ 7:25 am

    As a life-long Lions fan, I await their inevitable meltdown. Out of several character flaws, this is one I hold dear. 😉

    (Remember this?)

    Stashiu3 (601b7d)

  27. What he meant to say was, “If asking a Jew to pay the same tax rate as a janitor makes me a warrior for the working class…”

    aunursa (33da2f)

  28. Dead Meat==Lord of the Flies==the antiChrist.

    There I said it.

    gary gulrud (790d43)

  29. _______________________________________________

    Freudian Slip?

    I thought the real Freudian slip occurred several days ago, when Obama said something about how it was wrong that working-class stiffs, such as the secretaries in the office described below, were paying less in taxes than that a limousine liberal like Warren Buffett (or NYC’s mayor, for that matter—although he at least isn’t as phony or disingenuous about economics as certain other left-leaning tycoons are) was paying too much.

    Truth be told, but a lot of leftists are far, far more bothered that affluent people aren’t paying more in taxes than that modest-income folks are paying too much.

    nydailynews.com, Sept 25:

    Mayor Bloomberg Sunday slammed billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s call for higher taxes on the super-rich, dismissing it as political theater. “The Buffett thing is just theatrics,” Hizzoner said speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

    In August, Buffett – known as “The Oracle from Omaha” – said he forked over a little less than $7 million in taxes last year, which added up to roughly 17% of his income. That percentage was lower than the secretaries in his office, he pointed out.

    Bloomberg said Buffett’s use of the figures was a bit of a smoke and mirrors game. “If Warren Buffett made his money from ordinary income rather than capital gains his tax rate would be a lot higher than his secretaries. And in fact a very small percentage of people in this country pay a big chunk of the taxes,” the billionaire mayor argued.

    A following Associated Press review revealed that millionaires on average pay 29.1% of their income in taxes.

    desmoinesregister.com, Sept 26: Warren Buffett has recently been in publications and on television stating that the super rich should pay more taxes.

    Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, is currently involved in legal action with the Internal Revenue Service disputing taxes between the years 2002 and 2009. The IRS states that Berkshire Hathaway owes approximately $1 billion in taxes.

    Buffett’s income is not based on ordinary income like the rest of us but is derived entirely from dividends and capital gains. He is deliberately avoiding paying taxes by choosing to pay himself in the manner which is subject to the lowest tax rates.

    abcnews.go.com, Sept 21: Warren Buffett, the billionaire businessman and high-profile supporter of President Obama’s effort to increase taxes on the wealthy, will host a campaign fundraiser for the president in Chicago next month.

    The event, scheduled for Oct. 27, will take place at the private North Shore home of Byron Trott, a former Goldman Sachs executive whom Buffett calls his “favorite investment banker.” Guests will primarily include financial supporters of the president’s 2008 campaign, an Obama aide said.

    The ticket price for the Buffett event will be $35,800, the legal maximum an individual can contribute to both Obama for America ($5,000) and the Democratic National Committee ($30,800), a campaign official said.

    ^ I believe something is truly deficient in the brain of a person who is well past his or her, say, 40th birthday and still is wedded to leftist sentiment. It’s like a case of arrested development, of intrinsic immaturity.

    Warren Buffett is over 70 years old, Obama is over 50 years old.

    Mark (411533)

  30. I’m pretty sure that a guy who sat in the pews of Wright’s church of racism thinks that the Jews get a better tax rate …

    SPQR (26be8b)

  31. I think his misspeak was a boo boo, not a slur. If it were used in a negative to Jews way, it wouldn’t have been as a substitute for janitor. The janitor is the good guy in this sentence, so the substitution would be a compliment, not a slur.

    It is a fun flub to work with for humor though.

    I think there should be a website devoted to all his speaking flubs. As a whole, I think he’d actually come off even worse than Bush did. Even with the press pushing against Bush really hard, I don’t remember this level of screwups. Such a site would be nice to link to every time they try it against the next Republican president.

    Jeff Mitchell (b15200)

  32. This is what comes from being reliant on a teleprompter. If he had actually read the speech in advance, he might seem more like the “greatest orator of our times .. like a god” but instead he looked like a janitor.

    A. Weiner (d1c681)

  33. I just want everyone to have the same rate...
    except those with prior political experience in the Executive and Legislative branches should have to pay the “Reynolds Tax“!

    Another Drew - Restore the Republic / Obama Sucks! (ade72a)

  34. Just another confirmation of Teh Won’s maroon status.

    Another Drew - Restore the Republic / Obama Sucks! (ade72a)

  35. ==I think there should be a website devoted to all his speaking flubs==

    Indeed. Normally I’d be much more willing to give a guy some slack (after all who of us hasn’t stumbled over a word in a public setting). But his, and his handlers’ and the media’s insistence that he is the smartest guy in the room and the greatest orator of our time leaves far less room for acceptance of his bumbles than for someone who is not supposed to be a god. They made this bed. Let them lie in it.

    elissa (a864f0)

  36. It’s good to see how we give Obama the benefit of the doubt, just like liberals always explore alternative explanations for conservative gaffes before they fly off the handle and accuse them of being evil haters.

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH… sometimes I’m so funny I just kill myself!

    sherlock (99fe47)

  37. Hot Air’s Obamateurism of the Day has collected a lot of Obama’s flubs. It would be nice if Hot Air could also collect all of them in one post/list.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  38. The useful idiots worship Ho Chi Obama Minh.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  39. ==I think there should be a website devoted to all his speaking flubs==

    Not a website, but EIB does a pretty good job of putting together montages of his slip-ups, particularly when he’s Off TOTUS.

    Another Drew - Restore the Republic / Obama Sucks! (ade72a)

  40. Comment by DRJ — 9/27/2011 @ 9:53 am

    Do they have that much bandwidth?

    Another Drew - Restore the Republic / Obama Sucks! (ade72a)

  41. Heh. Good point, AD.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  42. This anti-Semitic slip-of-the-tongue is no surprise. I began thinking he had a prejudice problem when he called his grandmother a “typical white person.” There is no non-racist interpretation of a statement like that. If a GOP candidate derisively referred to an African-American relative as a “typical black person” he’d be off the ballot before the day was over.

    CrustyB (69f730)

  43. Obama’s Team Announces Visit to 57th State of Wyomorado

    A. Weiner (d1c681)

  44. Priceless, A. Weiner. I am afraid some young OFA’s geography techer needs to be fired. Isn’t it great that these WH geniuses are the ones telling everybody else what we should think and do?

    elissa (a864f0)

  45. “I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly, I know a Jew from a janitor.”

    Mokum (20a906)

  46. Herman Cain has his problems but I wanna vote for him anyway if he gets the nom.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  47. Troy Davis executed a cop you commie slobs. 7 of the 9 who recanted were Davis’s cronies.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  48. I was raised by a black nursemaid in the 50s in Chicago. The level of antisemitism in her thinking was astonishing. I can’t imagine Obama’s grandmother being very anti-Semetic in Hawaii when he was growing up there in the 60s. I wonder where it came from ?

    Mike K (4c76c8)

  49. Well, Sigmund, I suggest you look at the sentence and idea structures together and include the fact that it is obvious that Obama wanted to compare the billionaires with those in the audience in front of him — “you.”
    But he realized he and/or his handlers had already put the the janitor example in his quiver. (Always need to head off the dittos in this little room: of course Republicans carry quivers of pat terms and phrases; “job-killing” Republicans are the best at keeping on the page.)

    So replacing “you” with “janitor” in a free-wheeling speech just might come out “jew.”

    But that for you would be sophistry unless perhaps its spoken by a Palin or Bachman or some other Republican brilliant-future-leader du jour.

    Larry Reilly (5fd82a)

  50. Typical of Larry Reilly’s dishonesty that Obama’s verbal flub is evidence of others covering up for Republican anti-semitism.

    That’s the kind of backhanded slander Larry trades in.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  51. ==I wonder where it came from ?==

    Mike–Great question. Perhaps some of the crack investigators in the MFM could take up that assignment and ferret out the answers for us?

    elissa (a864f0)

  52. DRJ, or publish a book of Obamateurisms … or a desk calendar of Obamateurisms.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  53. the least he could do is apologize for his vicious anti-semitic slanderings

    his momma didn’t raise him right

    happyfeet (a55ba0)

  54. Ah, good old Mr. Reilly. Remember how bad it is to label others, Larry? Yet here you are, insulting people you don’t even know. But then, it is only bad when it isn’t you doing it.

    Or your mancrush. It’s okay when that fellow or his flacks do it.

    And I laughed at loud at this particular individual having the testicular fortitude to accuse anyone else of sophistry. Then I remembered that he probably doesn’t have a dictionary handy…so he had to go copy some flack’s use of the word.

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  55. Larry Reilly, as if on cue, provides the MFM JournoLista perspective. I ofteb interchange janitor and joooooooooooo. Happens daily.

    JD (6d8a47)

  56. Bye Bye Obama

    Shalom

    EricPWJohnson (719277)

  57. “Remember how bad it is to label others”

    What?

    Labelling is great. I do it all the time.

    Example: Mawy is an idiot.

    See what I mean? That was awesome.

    Dave Surls (28f866)

  58. Maybe they could pay these people’s rates

    EricPWJohnson (719277)

  59. SPQR,

    I like your desk calendar idea, especially for 2012 and with illustrations by Chris Muir.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  60. ==I wonder where it came from ?==

    I’ll put my money on Frank Marshall Davis, reinforced by Jeremiah Wright!

    Another Drew - Restore the Republic / Obama Sucks! (ade72a)

  61. What does bigoil earnings have to do with the joooooooooos and Barcky, epwj?

    JD (68ff46)

  62. “Sarah Palin: party like its 1773! ummm,”

    Comment by elissa — 9/27/2011 @ 7:57 am

    The Boston Tea Party occurred on December 16, 1773. Careful when calling someone a moron when they are right and you are wrong.

    Kevin M (4eb9c8)

  63. Ooops, soory elissa. misread that.

    Kevin M (4eb9c8)

  64. Kevin M–wtf? I think you maybe did not read my comment very carefully did you? That was a quote from Gwen Awful–not moi!

    elissa (a864f0)

  65. Kevin M–our 67 and 68 posts crossed. s’okay.

    elissa (a864f0)

  66. Yeah, and maybe I should take my own advice.

    Kevin M (4eb9c8)

  67. I’m reminded of Jacob Weisberg (author of Bushisms, Palinisms) telling Althouse there would be no Obamaism book because he isn’t prone to gaffes or speaking in an odd cadence or strange syntax… I don’t remember the exact quote, but something about him being too professorial in his speech…

    Dana (4eca6e)

  68. I’m convinced the President is not only a marxist, but a racist and anti-Semite as well.

    Jones (deed08)

  69. When I first heard this I thought he meant to double back on billionaire to make it ‘Jew billionaire’. As in ‘how can we have a billionaire, a Jew billionaire (no less)’.

    I hated the mind reading crap during the Bush years, though, so he gets a full pass from me. Inconclusive.

    East Bay Jay (19f566)

  70. We are all guests on this planet.

    God could off you libturds if he wanted to.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  71. 1. I’ve no shortage of other faults to find with Obama.

    2. If this is one, I don’t particularly care. To confirm what this president thinks about Israel in particular, one can look at speeches and actions in which his intent is patently clear. Whether his antipathy to Israel is symptomatic of a broader antipathy to Jews generally, I don’t know. But if it is, he’s going to take pains to conceal that, and to moderate his conduct accordingly. Even if this was a true Freudian slip that reveals some hidden viewpoint, no one is likely to ever prove that (not, at least, without a confession, which will never happen), and it’s not productive to debate. (See paragraph 1.)

    Beldar (5a73df)

  72. Sorry if my comment went too far.

    Obama is a Cockbutt.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  73. I agree with Beldar and others that there are ample opportunities to criticize what we know he meant that to spend time with this is only for those who enjoy doing it.

    As far as football goes, I’ll have more to say (hopefully) after Wisconsin and Nebraska play Sat. night.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  74. UPDATE BY PATTERICO: I’m happy to take a shot at Obama when I can do so fairly, but to me it seems clear that he meant to read “Junior” and then recognized the word on his little TeleCrutch.

    But still I think he has a spending problem. There, I said it.

    Patterico (f724ca)

  75. “If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a janitor makes me a warrior for the working class…”

    No, it just makes you an idiot, because billionaires set the prices for goods and services that working class folks have to buy, and billionaires will simply adjust their prices to offset any tax that’s levied, in order to maintain their profit margin.

    Always has been that way, always will be that way.

    Dave Surls (28f866)

  76. as Jew– as a janitor makes me a warrior for the working class


    Let us all give a shout out for Der Jewinator!!

    There, I said it.

    But still I think he has a spending problem. There, I said it.


    Yes, but THAT goes without saying

    IgotBupkis, President, United Anarchist Society (c9dcd8)

  77. I have listened to that passage several times, and I hear the sylable “ju” then a change in wording.

    I am Jewish myself, but just can’t find a reason to believe King Putt was starting to say “Jew”.

    Yes, he is not exactly a friend of Jews, and I think he is a real momser. But come on, people. Is it at all possible that he WASN’T saying “Jew”?

    The Friendly Grizzly (fe9257)

  78. This was a Ron Burgundy ‘Go F Yourself San Diego’ moment?

    This kind of stuff is amusing. I don’t think anyone’s really reading more into than to laugh at the fancy pants leader who can’t speak and read properly.

    Dustin (b2fb78)

  79. Imagine the reaction if Bush had done this.

    JD (0d246e)

  80. I agree with Patterico. He misread / misspoke.

    carlitos (e5b9d4)

  81. It isn’t the slip of the tongue that makes him an idiot, it’s the substance of what he said that makes him an idiot.

    And, brother he is one serious idiot if he actually believes the drivel he’s spewing.

    Dave Surls (28f866)

  82. He learned at the feet of his mentor, Jeremiah Wright, well-known friend of The Jew.

    ColonelHaiku (a4b693)


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