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"If we don't deepen our ports all along the Gulf..."
Tuesday night, President Obama made headlines during his appearance on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," one of his numerous appearances over the years (back in 2009, he was the first sitting president to appear on the show). The President talked with Jay about a myriad of topics such as the NSA (he says that we don't have a domestic spying program), the threat from Al Qaeda, and Trayvon Martin. However, it was when the discussion turned to infrastructure that the president failed on some fairly basic American geography -- and it's not getting much attention.
How did he screw up? A clip from the official transcript of the interview -- sent out by the White House* -- says it all:
LENO: You mentioned infrastructure. Why is that a partisan issue? I live in a town, the bridge is falling apart, it’s not safe. How does that become Republican or Democrat? How do you not just fix the bridge? (Laughter and applause.)THE PRESIDENT: I don't know. As you know, for the last three years, I’ve said, let’s work together. Let’s find a financing mechanism and let’s go ahead and fix our bridges, fix our roads, sewer systems, our ports. [You know], the Panama [Canal] is being widened so that these big supertankers can come in. Now, that will be finished in 2015. If we don't deepen our ports all along the Gulf -- places like Charleston, South Carolina, or Savannah, Georgia, or Jacksonville, Florida -- if we don't do that, those ships are going to go someplace else. And we’ll lose jobs. Businesses won’t locate here.
The president was talking about deepening our ports along the Gulf, and yet he only referenced cities along the Atlantic Ocean coastline.
Eagle-eyed Blaze Radio host Joe Pags caught the screw-up and posted it on Twitter (@JoeTalkShow):
Here's a look at the Gulf of Mexico and the port cities (like Houston and New Orleans) where large tankers and shipping is big business.
And here's a look at the the map showing the three cities mentioned by the President. All three cities are along the east coast of the US, on the Atlantic Ocean:
Watch the comments below starting at the 2:15 mark:
TheBlaze spoke with Joe Pags about the Presidential faux pas, and the affable host wondered what the media reaction would be if President Bush might have made a similar mistake.
*We've corrected the official transcript against the video of the interview and updated it. We've indicated our additions in brackets.
Follow Mike Opelka on Twitter - @stuntbrain
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