Update: Sarah Palin has issued a statement which basically hits at what I previously wrote. Says Palin, “By the way, these athletes can outperform many of us and we should be proud of them.” Again, since Special Olympians often are more skilled than ‘many of us’ why can’t the reference be used without a negative connotation?

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President Obama has great self-awareness, so when he compares his game to the Special Olympics he probably is not lying. Some logic produces the true meaning of such a statement. Obama’s score of 129 is, in fact, better than most people bowl. I’ve seen plenty of completely healthy people score in the 60-100 range (myself included). Odds are that a Special Olympian has bowled over Obama’s score, and most probably score in the sub-100 range along with everyone else. Essentially, we can conclude that Obama took a roundabout way of saying that he bowls like an average person. (Yes, the President should have rephrased his critique).

From ABC News:

Toward the end of his approximately 40-minute taping on the “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” Obama talked about how he’d gotten better at bowling and had been practicing in the White House bowling alley.

“I bowled a 129,” he told Leno.

“That’s very good, Mr. President,” Leno said sarcastically.

But then came the foot-in-mouth moment: “It’s like the Special Olympics or something,” the president said.

Special Olympic Board Chairman Tim Shriver gave a lengthy response, including these wise words:

“This kind of language needs to be a teachable moment for our country, I think. I would hope every parent that’s at home this morning watching this show could turn to their children and say, ‘This is a chance for us to recognize that when we talk about Special Olympics, when we talk about people with special needs, let’s make sure we talk about it in an affirming way,” he said.

Finally, let us not forget that Special Olympians can be excellent bowlers. Loretta Claiborne, named the Special Olympics Female Athlete of the Year by the United States Olympic Committee in 1988 and the Special Olympics Athlete of the Quarter Century by Runner’s World magazine in 1991, is also a skilled bowler.