Sardonic is hard to do.  Some great authors–Twain, for instance, or Ambrose Bierce, or Jim Treacher (all of whom are people of profound morality, by the way, unlike this personage)–are able to pull it off.  But somewhere along the way, somebody convinced The One that he had the chops to pull off a very difficult kind of humor, and he doesn’t.  His remark regarding the Special Olympics is a perfect example, and although it’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, it does remind us of some of his other stupid and pointless gaffes, such as condescendingly calling a reporter “sweetie,” or scratching his face with his middle finger while talking about a political opponent, or flipping the bird to our military families in the health coverage dust-up while sending Worfette to do community outreach.  You can add your own examples in the comments, since they are legion.

David Brooks tells me that this President fellow has a first-class intelligence and a first-class temperament, as well, though I’m mystified how Brooksie is supposed to recognize these things.  A first-class temperament probably realizes its limitations in ways that The One clearly does not.  Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but it seems to me that the only way that someone performs an epic miscalculation of this sort, if he’s not drunk, is if he’s used to being surrounded by ill-tempered sycophants who believe that he and they are exempted from decency by virtue of their special insight into the human condition.  In other words, it stems from narcissism.

It may be that I’m particularly repulsed by this because of the time that I spent working with Special Olympians in Valdez at Harbor View, at times when the fishing season was put on hold by the DNR, and afterwards in Wisconsin when I lived there.  And it may be in part because one of my sons has schizophrenia, and I don’t personally buy into the “short bus” vein of humor.  As far as I can recall, though, I never have, because, Oliver Willis notwithstanding, I’ve always felt that nagging there but for the grace of God sense of vulnerability towards the physically and mentally handicapped, a sense of sacred awe towards what I cannot understand and fear at its mystery.  Maybe, too, this is a romantic sensibility, but it is mine and it has been with me always.

I’ve sometimes indulged in rough humor, and pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable.  I acknowledge that I’ve offended people’s sensibilities.  I just can’t see myself making that kind of a joke, though, even among friends, even among drunk friends, much less in the person of the POTUS to a national television audience.  What Obama said was, as Digital Publius might say, “ghetto.”  He was looking for a way to concede that his bowling is epic fail, and what he found ready to hand to compare himself with reveals an unfortunate superfluity of a certain kind of pride and lack of another, to my mind.  I think this performance was shameful, or would be to a normal person, and I’m not outraged so much as deeply disgusted.

Yeah, I outed you, Treacher.  Deal.

Apology:

After comparing his bowling to the Special Olympics on “The Tonight Show” Thursday, President Obama called Special Olympics Chairman Tim Shriver to apologize before the program even aired.

“He expressed his disappointment and he apologized, in a way that was very moving,” Shriver said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “It’s important to see that words hurt, and words do matter. And these words that in some respect can be seen as humiliating or a put-down of people with special needs do cause pain, and they do result in stereotypes.”

Obama told Shriver he wants to have some Special Olympics competitors over to the White House for basketball or bowling.

Disappointment in . . . ?

Via Surber on Twitter, Jules has a reax roundup, and via Allah, also on Twitter, Special Olympian challenges Pres.

Amen, brother:

To the extent we dwell on this sort of thing – and we really do dwell far more on matters of substance on Obama’s torpedoing of the economy and the Constitution – it is because they invented political correctness and they impose it on us, destroying First Amendment rights in the process, not the other way around.

Still, he speaks perfect Farcey.

O! the humanity!