Internet When a Politician Makes a Blunder

¶ … Internet When a Politician Makes a Blunder in Speech President Obama is noted for blunders of speech and one of the worst blunders involves his presentation of the Medal of Honor to a serviceman who is deceased for nearly three years and the blunder of President Obama goes as follows: "First time I saw 10th Mountain Division, you guys were in southern Iraq. When I went back to visit Afghanistan, you guys were the first ones there.

I had the great honor of seeing some of you because a comrade of yours, Jared Monti, was the first person who I was able to award the Medal of Honor to who actually came back and wasn't receiving it posthumously." (Zurko, 2011, p.1) In May 2012 President Obama was forced to apologize after he called the Nazi death camps that were constructed in Poland "Poland death camps." (Bates, 2012, p.1) Statement of Thesis The blunders of speech committed by President Obama and other politicians have, due to the Internet, become instant news traveling faster than the speed of light across social media websites and online news websites and play a great role in the public perception of a politician in the present highly technologically enabled age.

I. Speech Blunders Are Natural In Politics There is always someone ready to pounce on a blunder in speech and to stretch and skew the misstated information to the greatest extent possible due to the competitive nature of politics. While speech blunders are natural what seems surreal is the rate of speed at which such gaffes travel on the World Wide Web. For example, one merely need to Google the phrase "Obama sex joke" to see how extensively these speech blunders are discussed via the Internet.

For the purpose of this study, the writer of this work did just that and what resulted as the top 10 Googled websites are those as follows: (1) Did Obama make a joke about oral sex? (2) Obama makes oral sex joke about Michelle; (3) Media fabricate obama sex joke (4) Did Obama make sex joke about Michelle? (5) Now That's a Gaffee: President Obama Makes Accidental Oral Sex Joke (6) Classy, Obama Cracks Sex Joke About His Wife; (7) Obama's Oral Sex Joke Abut His Wife Michele (8) Reports swirl about Obama Sex Joke (9) Did Obama Crac, an Oral Sex Joke About Michelle? (10) Poll: Was Obama Sex Joke appropriate? (Google, 2012) Of these ten Googled items there are: Blogs 2 News reports 6 Social Media Websites 1 News Polls 1 Total 10 II.

Reactions of the Public to Political Speech Blunders To answer the question of the public's reaction to political speech blunders this to the 'The Week' Opinion Brief published addressing the President's speech blunder that was perceived as a sex joke about the First Lady, Michelle Obama.

Opinions stated include those reported as follows: (1) Tom Maguire at 'Just One Minute' stated "It could have been a harmless mistake." (2) The Sundries Shack stated "This was not a harmless mistake." (3) Risk Moran at 'The American Thinker' "Ribald jokes are not unknown among president -- though most commanders-in-chief wisely reserve such cracks for private gatherings. In the days when Washington's Gridiron Dinner was closed to the press, "presidents weren't shy about being off color there." (4) Rick Moran at 'The American Thinker' stated "Okay.

But other presidents have made dirty jokes, too: Yes, this joke was "beneath the dignity of the office. But "ribald jokes are not unknown among presidents" -- though most commanders-in-chief wisely reserve such cracks for private gatherings.

In the days when Washington's Gridiron Dinner was closed to the press, "presidents weren't shy about being off color there." (The Week, 2012) Analysis While the President's joke does seem to have been other than sexually intended since his remark was the following in regards to Michelle and Ellen Degeners push up match which was televised: "Michelle didn't go all the way down." (Zurko, 2012) The President, as a public figure is a criticism magnet for anything he says either innocently or intended that might be taken more than one way by the public.

Conclusion Because the President.