THE SUPREME VERBAL GAFFE – AT 8:08 A.M. ET:  I wanted to comment on Mr. Obama's latest verbal gaffe, now making the rounds on TV and across the internet. 

If you haven't seen or heard it, it's here.

The president, in remarks about Haiti read from his brotherly teleprompter, makes three references to a Navy corpsman.  Incredibly, he pronounces it "corpse-man."

Is there anyone in America who doesn't know that the proper pronunciation is "core-man," and that the mission of the corpsman is to save lives? 

Now, several notes:  If this had been George W. Bush or Sarah Palin making the error, the mainstream media would have gone completely bananas (and I apologize to any yellow-skinned fruit that may be offended.)  Ignorant!  Moron!  Poor education!  But it's Obama, so it just passes by.

More important:  What does the gaffe tell you about the president's experience, the kinds of things he's read all his life, the kinds of films and documentaries he's seen, the people with whom he's spent time? 

To the pseudo-intellectual, it doesn't matter.  So he doesn't know how to pronounce a Navy term?  It's far more important that he understand and appreciate – let's see if I get this right – the multicultural, class, gender and racial issues involved in social conflict.  But I'm not so sure he's got much of a handle on that stuff either.

The fact is that the president, for all his eloquence, is a very narrow man, not well read and certainly not well experienced.  We went with an amateur, and an amateur is what we have.  He's going through on-the-job training, and, because of the generosity of the United States Government Corporation, receives full salary and benefits, along with public housing and transportation. 

Maybe some of the training will stick.  America's personnel managers, at the polls, will decide.  Among them will be a number of active and retired corpsmen.

February 5,  2010