But what the Obama administration exhibits is quite different: Institutional sloppiness. It’s one thing for an individual to sometimes make mistakes; it’s quite another when a large organization repeatedly churns them out. And let’s place this in perspective.
Some may note that Internet news and commentary websites are rife with mistakes as well, and this is true. However, this is often a function of manpower. Most e-zines simply do not have the staff necessary to achieve near perfect presentation, as they usually operate on a shoestring budget. In contrast, if you write for even a small magazine, their superior finances allow for tremendous oversight. A piece will be filtered through a number of different editors. It then may be returned to the writer for review, allowing him to assess the editorial changes and make a few more alterations before the work ever makes it into print. The result of this collaborative process is that you really can cross all your t’s and dot all your i’s.
Now, the fact that the Obama administration isn’t achieving quality even approaching that of a small magazine is striking. This is the White House, remember, with the endless resources government provides. Hasn’t the person or people writing Obama’s press releases ever heard of a spell-check program? Wouldn’t it be reasonable to have at least two different individuals proofread the material before disseminating it to the whole world? Such institutional sloppiness is inexcusable.
Some may say I’m being picayune, that this is much ado about nothing. But if you think this sloppiness somehow magically limits itself to the issuance of press releases, then you’d probably believe that Michelle Obama buys her sneakers at Wal-Mart. In point of fact, it tells us something about those at the helm of our listing nation.
It’s not that they’re stupid. A genius, even a responsible one, can transpose letters while typing just as he can fail to spot the misspelling of a type of starchy tuber. But when such errors are consistently made by large groups of people working together, that institutional sloppiness, it bespeaks a lack of conscientiousness and attention to detail, an absence of the desire to uphold standards.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Glenn Contrarian
Oh, wow! How erudite! Mr. Duke, I think we completely misunderestimated you!
2 - Silas Kain
This piece speaks many truths. However, the blatant demonization of so-called liberals isn't quite even handed.
They are people who don’t cross their t’s and dot their i’s in anything, be it philosophy, personal life or policy. They are ruined souls. And they are bringing us to ruin.
Are you speaking of these so-called liberals? Or are you speaking of folks like John Ensign, Larry Craig, Mark Sanford, Charlene Crist or Saint Rick Santorum? When it comes to dotting the i's and crossing the t's, George W. Bush and his Administration under the tutelage of Comrade Spotted Dick let details and facts be damned in favor of advancing their own Cold War era style agenda.
All that being said, it seems we agree on one fundamental. Education. There must be a reintroduction of civics, personal accountability and quality standards in our schools. Less union influence is key, followed by a dismantling of the present lobbyist system in Congress. Revolt. Reform. Renew. Those are the new three R's for this generation.
In 2010, every incumbent member of Congress must be sent home permanently regardless of political ideology. There are many fine sitting members but what's more important is the message sent to Washington. We have a clear choice in the next election -- perpetuate the status quo or shake up the house. I prefer the latter.
3 - Baronius
The tagline to this article is "The White House's frequent minor errors presage major problems." This article is really impressive, but it doesn't quite live up to the description. Selwyn, you could have closed the deal by including more cases of their sloppiness (the Russian mistranslation, the British diplomatic gaffes, the initial reaction to the Honduran crisis, etc.), along with naming some potential consequences of such errors.
4 - Cindy
Oh pullease, Dan Quayle's one blunder??? What about what he said about Murphy Brown. What about the United Negro[e] College Fund or the Holocaust?
It was a silly way to measure a man, but image is everything in politics.
The guy was a dimwit!
As far as your article goes, all I can say is this:
And they are bringing us to ruin.
My personal feeling is that many people need to experience ruin. People are too self-centered. They will never care about anything unless it happens to them personally. As I am wont to say, some people have to be set on fire before they can empathize with others. No problem.
I hope your ruin is speedy and sufficiently painful. And by 'your' I mean the vast sea of selfish people. Let it collapse. Bring it on.
5 - El Bicho
"a person’s failure to attend to detail tells you much about him."
you mean like a person who improperly capitalizes words after a colon?
"This is one reason why [the left] can embrace nonsensical, illogical ideas."
Yeah, no one the right does that. Hmm, looks like rain. Can you gather a pair of all the animals while I build a boat big enough to hold them all?
6 - Irene Wagner
Yeah, no one the right does that.
I blame it on text messaging.
7 - Baronius
What blunder about Murphy Brown?
8 - Ruvy
Boy, am I in trouble. I'm a lousy typist. And I do mean lousy. From what Selwyn writes, I need scads of editors to check every single comment I type. One wife (who hasn't got time to do these things) may not be enough!
Seriously, though, folks. American "liberal" administrations often seem to have an air of carelessness about them. "Friends of Bill" (remember them?) often seemed to have major career problems or shortened life-spans and it did not seem to bother Slick Willie one bit. Little "mistakes" seemed to happen all over the place.
And now we see an administration that lectures Africans while kissing up to Arabs, that bullies Jews while backing off from Persians, that undermines democracies while it hangs with thieves.
And they can't spell or be bothered to check their mistakes! Maybe if they are that careless, they can tack on an extra zero to the dollar amount on my Social Security checks (if they ever get around to them)....
9 - Irene Wagner
Baronius, you've probably already googled "Murphy Brown" "Dan Quayle" and had a blast from the past. Today it would've been more politically expedient for Quayle to have praised Murphy Brown's character for deciding to keep the baby.
The network that carried her program? not so much.
10 - Dr Dreadful
What an unbelievably stupid, petty and churlish article.
11 - Glenn Contrarian
Selwyn -
The editors may have given you some encouragement - but that's part of their job. Some on the far right may have liked your article - but the points you bring up are as nonsensical as those of the 'birthers'.
What you apparently don't realize is how the majority of readers would see your article. Those few who would agree with you would likely agree with today's supermarket tabloid about Obama's "secret Muslim conspiracy". In other words, you're not trying to convince those who disagree with you, but you're only 'playing to the base'.
But most of us see your article for what it is, and Doc gave the most accurate descriptive: "petty".
P.S. Next time you castigate someone else's skill at English, make doggone sure your own is beyond question. Don't feel badly about that admonition, because I learned that lesson the hard way, a long time ago.
12 - Baronius
OK, since this thread might not be going anywhere, I don't feel guilty about a digression.
The most interesting thing about the Quayle story to me is that he was caricatured as being stupid, and he tried to fight it. That's an impossible situation because it dares the media to catch you doing something stupid. It's like being on a reality show.
W learned the lesson. He was labelled stupid, and didn't put up a fight. Good short-run strategy. I think it cost him in the long run, though, because he gave up on trying to communicate. There's got to be a balance in there.
13 - Cindy
The moral is, if you actually are stupid, try not to keep opening your mouth and thereby repeatedly proving it, do what W did--just shut up.
14 - Dr Dreadful
Every president and vice-president in history has been lampooned and caricatured, some more unkindly than others. Often that caricaturing paints a picture of stupidity, as with Reagan and with Bush Mk. I (to a lesser extent, since unlike his predecessor he clearly DID retain all his marbles throughout his presidency). Clinton didn't get the Stupid tag, because he manifestly wasn't stupid, so instead he got painted as a sex maniac. Bush Mk. II got the Stupid tag taken to extremes - there are entire book collections of 'Bushisms' - while his deputy was painted as a sociopath.
Obama's a harder one to peg so far. If a primary caricature does emerge, it's probably going to be either the teleprompters or his wordiness.
15 - Joanne Huspek
Spelling is not that tough. There should be someone in the White House who can proofread.
I thought this article was not churlish, but instead humorous. For a guy who just yesterday stood outside a local community college and pledged millions of money for more training (for what? No jobs in Michigan.)to have a staff that can't spell is rather funny.
We all laughed at Dubya for his mispronunciation of "nuclear" right?
16 - Dr Dreadful
Joanne, it's churlish because we see stupid typos on official documents, public notices and even vehicles and buildings every day. I've long since given up the battle, although my wife occasionally loves to annoy the perpetrators by calling the phone number displayed on the side of the "Glorias Flower's" van we just passed on the street and point out their error.
It's a societal ill and to focus on the White House just for the sake of throwing mud is cynical.
17 - Baronius
Joanne, I just heard a funny one on Limbaugh. Rush was talking about his new iphone charger (I think) that he was very happy with. He talked about the company that makes it, and the small Michigan town in which it's located. He ended by saying that in the last 3 minutes he'd done more for the economy of Michigan than Jennifer Granholm had done in two terms.
18 - MarkSaleski
mmmmm.....satyre!
19 - Clavos
It's a societal ill and to focus on the White House just for the sake of throwing mud is cynical.
Perhaps.
But Selwyn's observation about the Obama lack of attention to detail is nonetheless accurate.
20 - Dr Dreadful
Baronius,
I thought you weren't listening to Limbaugh any more? Or was that Savage?
:-)
21 - Glenn Contrarian
This whole topic on typos is useless for two reasons:
1) Is Obama making any mistakes that approach the level of the Bushisms? For instance, can one imagine what the right wing would say if Obama were to say (and as Bush DID say), "Al Qaeda never stops thinking of ways to hurt America, and neither do we!"
Boy, what would Rush and Hannity do with that one? The typos of a few Obama staff do NOT compare with how Bush himself mangled the English language.
2) My oldest son just got his bachelor's in business, and he would help the professor with grading the tests of the underclassmen. One of his biggest gripes is how so many would answer NOT in proper English, but in 'text language', like that used when texting on a cell phone.
In other words, we are all watching the English language evolve before our eyes.
Okay? Get it yet? Y'all ain't gonna grok dis thang 'fore y'all git dat clue 4 sale n Craigslist!
Again, Selwyn, your post was petty, another wonderful example of the conservatives insisting on seeing a few rotten trees around them while not comprehending the living forest as a whole.
22 - Baronius
Limbaugh, yes. Savage, maybe twice in my life. Medved, currently.
23 - Ed
It seems like some of you didn't read the article. What Bush did doesn't matter. Like the author said, individuals will make mistakes when speaking off the cuff. But it's a lot different when the White House puts out PREPARED press releases that seem like they were written by a hung-over college student.
24 - Clavos
I'm amused by the defensiveness that arises any time anyone criticizes Obama, however mildly.
Entire books have been written about the Bush malaprops, but one article on a blog about Obama staff errors engenders indignant retorts from otherwise rational people.
Must be the Democratic inferiority complex.
25 - Glenn Contrarian
Clavos and Selwyn -
Do you not remember a time when ANYone who criticized Bush was labeled a traitor and accused of 'giving aid and comfort to the enemy'?
I remember it quite well - but now that we stick up for our guy (while NOT being so crude and unAmerican to call those on the Right traitors for such criticisms (as they did us)), all of a sudden we're suffering from an 'inferiority complex'.
Well gee whiz, why don't we look at some of the ABSOLUTELY FREAKING BRILLIANT statements made by Selwyn?
1) "Some of [those liberals] may entertain communism, completely ignoring the simple fact that if people were good enough to make a communist government work, we wouldn’t need government."
Response - First, very few of us do so (I helped fight the Cold War, remember), for we know just as well as you how communism can't work. Second, if Selwyn's going to try to taint all liberals with those few on the far Left with the 'communist' descriptive, how about we do the same for the right with 'Nazi', hm? Because you know very well which party - if given a choice between Dems and Republicans - skinheads will choose. AND while we're at it, how many Americans have those far-Left-liberal-communists killed in acts of domestic terrorism? Very few.
On the other hand, how many Americans have far-RIGHT-Nazis killed in acts of domestic terrorism? We can start with Oklahoma City back in '95....
2) "They embrace multiculturalism, oblivious to the plain fact that nations without a unifying culture descend into disunity."
Response: Has Selwyn traveled in America lately? Has he heard of 'Little Italy' and and the Creoles and the Deep South and the scores of Indian nations and the French Quarter and Chinatown? ALL of these were a part of America, and part of the Greatest Generation that fought WWII!
Here's a WONDERFUL question for Mr. Selwyn - Out of the ENTIRE American army in WWII, WHAT is the most highly decorated military unit in the history of the United States Armed Forces, including 21 Medal of Honor recipients, earning the nickname “The Purple Heart Battalion”? Here's a clue - they were the Fighting 442nd. See