In Which I Defend Barack Obama–A Little

A couple things have been said about Barack Obama that need at least a little clarification. Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air writes:

How many times did Quayle misspell potato before the American media and popular culture proclaimed him an idiot?

With Dan Quayle, mis-spelling “potato” was the last in a line of silly quotes that put him into Yogi Berra territory. Examples:

Welcome to President Bush, Mrs. Bush, and my fellow astronauts.

[It's] time for the human race to enter the solar system.

One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is ‘to be prepared’.

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy – but that could change.

We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a *part* of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a *part* of Europe.

Now, I love Dan Quayle. Great guy who is for the most part quite solid. He has a speaking problem and, like President Bush, makes miscues, and he made a lot of them; “potatoe” was only his most famous gaffe. Barack Obama makes a lot of verbal gaffes, but he’s not quite hit the rarefied air of Yogi Berra and Dan Quayle. Give him four years in the White House, or a career in the Senate, and he might make it.

The legitimate issue with the American left is that, with President George W. Bush and Vice-President Quayle, the gaffes were made to define who they were. “Well, these are obviously idiots, because they make verbal mistakes.” We might very well have said the same thing of some of the Founding Fathers if we shoved microphones in their faces 24 hours a day and then quoted them for a big yuck yuck. If liberals will agree (after conservatives have had appropriate fun with Barack Obama) to cease the gaffewar, I’ll be open to hear.

But again, Obama is just not to the Berra-Quayle level quite yet. Just give him time.