Anyone catch President Obama’s appearance on The Tonight Show yesterday evening? I didn’t, mainly because I prefer Letterman or Nightline during that hour. Plus, I knew I would be able to catch the highlights on any number of websites and blogs the next day. Unfortunately, it turns out the President made an insensitive remark that implicitly insulted the Special Olympics and its athletes. He has apologized, but the damage has been done and many of his veteran critics now have new fodder to blast him with.
I frankly had mixed feelings about Obama appearing on the Tonight Show, not because it wasn’t “presidential” or because no previous sitting president has done such a thing (I like that he wants to reach the everyman), but because the very nature of a late-night talk show is to be loose and silly and offhanded. You feel obligated to be a little more crude and crass; you want people to find you humorous. In that kind of environment, with that kind of casual mindset, a lot of unintended comments can fly. And you would think that after Obama’s mindless crack about Nancy Reagan at his pre-inaugural press conference, he would be more careful.
Still, I’m sure we’ve all mindedlessly cracked jokes that we’ve later regretted. (I almost got my butt kicked in high school by a black belt in Karate one night for making a joke, at his expense, during a Friday-night football game. I learned a lot from that gaffe, though I’ve gone on to make many more verbal blunders over the years.)
This article from DiversityInc magazine shares some useful tips about what do when you’ve said something stupid and hurtful to another person. The list could be helpful to anyone seeking to add another tool to his or her reconciliation resource kit.
Reconciliation Blog 