What I really noticed most about this story, though, is that it fits this administration’s “gaffe template” almost perfectly. Here’s how the template looks:

1. The administration overreaches and tries to do something it can not or lacks the authority to do.
2. When called on it, the administration either lies about what it is doing or attempts to blame someone else for approving the attempt.
3. The Administration fixes the problem then either acts like it never existed or declares it a “distraction”.

This is almost exactly what happened with the school speech fiasco and it need not have gone as badly as it has. If the President had released the speech a week ago, along with a set of guidelines clearly labeled as a draft, this wouldn’t have been a story at all. Of course, that’s not what happened. The White House decided to run out the insulting and dismissive talking points. Worse, the responses came most loudly from Robert Gibbs, who is physically unable to give an empathetic and sincere explanation for anything. The White House reaction sounded like a blow-off, which made people even more angry.

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Tags: Education, President Barack Obama

Above is an excerpt from Jimmie Bise’s post on the gaffe that is the school speech. The whole piece is worth reading (and funny, too!), but I’m most interested in his the excerpted theory.

What other gaffes from President Obama and his administration fit this template?