All the President’s Gaffes



The following
is reprinted from Bathroom Reader Plunges Into the Presidency

Forty-two men have occupied the office of U.S. president; if each one made only one mistake or misspoke just once during his time in office, we’d already have a substantial collection of presidential faux pas. Fortunately for the cynics among us, most of these men have made more than a few boo-boos over the years. A few of our favorites bear special mention:

- Franklin Delano Roosevelt served hot dogs to the king and queen of England on their state visit. Here’s hoping they served him bangers and mash when he crossed the pond!

- Harry S. Truman was known as a no-nonsense straight shooter whose desk bore a sign reading, "The buck stops here." While running for reelection, he told a campaign-stop crowd, "I don’t give ‘em hell, I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell," which led to his nickname: "Give ‘em hell Harry."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower was asked by a journalist what significant decisions his vice president, Richard Nixon, had helped him make. "If you give me a week I might think of one," he replied. (He later apologized to Nixon).

- John F. Kennedy wins the award for the "gaffe that never was," his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech. For years the media and the public believed that Kennedy had misspoken, saying "I am a jelly doughnut" (a Berliner is indeed a type of Berlin jam-filled pastry) instead of "I am a citizen of Berlin." However experts now say that Kennedy did speak correctly, so there’s a little jam on the face of his critics.

- On September 16, 1968, Richard Milhous Nixon, in an effort to appeal to the young people, made campaign history on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, the hippie-esque sketch comedy television show. During a fast-paced montage sequence, this president with the stuffed-shirt persona appeared and cried out the show’s most famous catchphrase, "Sock it to me!"

- Gerald Ford was prone to all manner of physical gaffes, from locking himself out of the White House to tripping and falling down the steps of Air Force One during a visit to Austria. His clumsiness was famously parodied by comedian Chevy Chase on NBC’s Saturday Night Live.

- Jimmy Carter caused a minor scandal when he admitted in a Playboy interview that he had "lusted after women" in his heart. Most Playboy readers instantly agreed that they had, too.

- Testing the microphone during what he thought was a sound check before a radio address, Ronald Reagan joked, "My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." Only he didn’t realize that they were broadcasting. The joke fell flat with Cold War-era listeners.

- George H.W. Bush declared that he disliked broccoli and scores of irate farmers sent bushels of the green stuff his way. He stuck to his guns, saying "I’m the president and I don’t have to eat broccoli if I don’t want to."

- Bill Clinton created a minor scandal dubbed "Hair Force One." He received a $200 haircut from celeb stylist Christophe on Air Force One, reportedly shutting down two runways at Los Angeles International Airport for an hour, at an estimated cost to airlines of $76,000.

- George W. Bush has made plenty of grammatical gaffes, but one of his biggest missteps was when, believing his microphone was off, he turned to Vice President Dick Cheney and pointed out a reporter by calling him a "major league a**hole." It’s a good thing his mom Barbara Bush wasn’t there, he’d have found his mouth filled with soap - in a major league way.

The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into the Presidency.

This book is jam-packed with everything you could ever want to know about the highest office in the United States … you’ll find the slogans and smears, the legends and lore, the people and places, and the digs and the dirt - everything about the U.S. Presidency bound up in one book.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. Check out their website here: Bathroom Reader Institute


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Posted on February 4, 2008 at 8:05 am by Alex
Category: Bathroom Reader, Politics



19 Comments to "All the President’s Gaffes"

  • unohav_1
    February 4th, 2008 at 8:23 am

    Correct me if I’m wrong, 10+ years out of high school German, but I recall my German teacher commenting on Kennedy’s infamous “Berliner” gaffe. What he said was “Ich bin EIN Berliner” with the “ein” he referred to himself as being a jelly-filled doughnut, and that was why the German crowd cheered because they thought it funny as hell. In German when referencing their place of Origin the article is left out, thus what Kennedy MEANT to say was “Ich bin Berliner.”

  • Jacques
    February 4th, 2008 at 12:44 pm

    How embarrassing, FDR should have served them cake. And then cut off their bloody heads.

  • bean
    February 4th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

    The vast majority of those were not gaffes. The ones by Eisenhower, Truman, and Carter clearly helped them rather than hurting.

  • Mark
    February 4th, 2008 at 2:03 pm

    I don’t think that gaffe of Bush’s is a good choice to represent his extensive work in this area. As I understand it, that reporter really is a major league a**hole.

  • Bryan
    February 4th, 2008 at 2:38 pm

    FDR serving hot dogs to the K&Q isn’t a gaffe either - they had requested “authentic American cusine” so he threw a barbeque for them in the backyard at FDR’s house in Hyde Park, NY. They loved it.

    The author seems to have a non-standard definition of “gaffe.”

  • kj
    February 4th, 2008 at 2:57 pm

    The author of that article was a moron. JFK’s speech writer had no idea how to speak proper German. The Berliners cheered because they got the idea, but he di say ich bin ein Berliner, I’ve heard the speech. And none of the other things were gaffes.

  • meghan
    February 4th, 2008 at 7:16 pm

    Harry S Truman’s name is punctuated incorrectly. He had no full middle name…his parents didn’t want to offend either of his grandfathers (whose names both began with S), so they just put an “S” there, which is technically his real middle “name”.

  • Myleti
    February 4th, 2008 at 7:38 pm

    The whole “Ich bin ein Berliner” is an Eddie Izzard gag in this stage show “Dress to Kill”. [YouTube link- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mu02xUgE4k ]

    He often says he is a citizen of Frankfurt and Hamburg as well.

    :)

    For those of you that don’t know the joys of Eddie Izzard, he is a comedian, but also a transvestite as well.

  • Nicholas Dollak
    February 4th, 2008 at 8:18 pm

    Among Dubyuh’s many gaffes is the classic line from the unveiling of his official portrait: “I’d like to thank y’all for comin’ to my public hangin’.”

    Had Mark Twain said it, it would have been the pinnacle of wit. But Dub had zero idea how his words came across. As the guy in “Spinal Tap” puts it, “There’s a fine line between genius and stupid.”

  • Tony LaRocca
    February 4th, 2008 at 9:01 pm

    I guess the gaffe that got Clinton impeached wasn’t worth mentioning?

  • Allison Slater
    February 4th, 2008 at 11:24 pm

    I think a bigger gaffe than all of these was George Bush, Sr. throwing up all over the Japanese prime minister…

  • Aramax
    February 5th, 2008 at 2:50 am

    I never saw that video where Bush chocked on pretzels… does it still exist?

  • DCer
    February 6th, 2008 at 3:09 pm

    My half-brother is a linguist living in Germany and he said that JFK absolutely spoke correctly. There is nothing overly strange about saying “I am a Berliner” and at the time, what with the air drops and all, he was cheered because the US saved the Berliners from starvation. He said that it’s common for Americans in Germany to ask about the gaffe, but no German would ever think it was a gaffe.

    This reminds me of the Chevy Nova story. In high school we asked out Spanish teacher about the Chevy Nova, meaning “it doesn’t go” in Spanish and she yelled at us. She claimed that was pure racism. Nova is a Spanish word meaning Nova- a star going Nova. She said in Mexico they used to joke that buying Notable Furniture meant you weren’t getting a table. haw haw. Any English speaker knows that we don’t confuse “no table” and notable.

    It’s nothing but ugly americanism to think Germans or Spanish speakers aren’t also as sophisticated as we are.

  • DCer
    February 6th, 2008 at 3:11 pm

    And as far as Roosevelt serving hot dogs- that was on an outdoor picnic meant to represent the average American and the current queen of England wrote a letter a few years back declaring the event as “great fun.” She was a teenager at the time. Some gaffe. Snopes is calling.

  • a person
    February 7th, 2008 at 2:25 am

    How is serving hot dogs to a king and queen a faux pas? What, are they too good for hot dogs? Hot dogs are good food. People should be more grateful for what they get.

  • harry
    February 8th, 2008 at 2:53 am

    @1:
    It is absolutely correct german calling yourself as being a Berliner and that what your german teacher told you makes no sense.
    The inhabitants of the town Hamburg are called Hamburger, and no one will think of them as being some kind of McDonals sandwich :-)
    another example: in german a condom is also known as a “Pariser”, but if some french is telling me “Ich bin ein Pariser” I’m not asking him if he has a strawberry or a banana flavor :-))

  • whodathunkit
    February 16th, 2008 at 12:45 am

    The Bill Clinton haircut story is false as well, and was disproved many, many years ago. No flights were delayed, none were diverted, etc.

    http://mediamatters.org/items/200702090015

  • Kate
    February 19th, 2008 at 10:08 pm

    The vast majority of those were not gaffes. Check http://horsematch.com/blogs

  • Niona
    April 21st, 2008 at 10:26 am

    Serving hot dogs to the King and Queen is not a gaffe - the Royals have had to eat far worse on some state visits. And once again - The King and Queen of GREAT BRTAIN or UNITED KINGDOM - not England! England is one country in the UK or Britain! It’s like calling George Bush President of California

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