Bush, Obama and a Media Double Standard by Gregory Hilton

Austria’s official language is German. There are some minority languages (Turkish, Serbian, etc) but there is no language called Austrian. President Obama did not know that. At his press conference in Strasbourg he said “I don’t know what the term is in Austrian for wheeling and dealing.” This was a minor error, but the media would have had a field day if the mistake had been made by George W. Bush.
President Obama is intelligent and articulate. His communications skills are outstanding, and everyone makes minor errors. My criticism is not directed at Obama but at the media double standard.
George W. Bush was discussing the NATO alliance 15 months before he entered the Oval Office. On October 23, 1999 he should have used the word “Greeks.” He instead said “We need to keep good relations with the Grecians.” We heard about it for the next 9 years. It was a staple on the Jon Stewart Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I doubt they will ever mention the Austrian language.
Bush is a graduate of Yale where he had a higher GPA than John Kerry. Bush also has an MBA from Harvard, and he is the only President to receive that distinction.
The comedians and cartoonists really miss Bush. A number of newspapers reprinted a story with the headline “Lovenstein Institute Reports George W. Bush has Lowest IQ of all Presidents.” The story appeared despite the fact that there is no Lovenstein Institute, and we do not have IQ data on all the Presidents.

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