After Sunglasses Gaffe, Bush Apologizes to Legally Blind Reporter

[NFS4]

😛

President Bush, who often teases members of the White House press corps, apologized Wednesday after he poked fun at a reporter for wearing sunglasses without realizing they were needed for vision loss.

The exchange occurred at a news conference in the Rose Garden.

Bush called on Los Angeles Times reporter Peter Wallsten and asked if he was going to ask his question with his "shades" on.

"For the viewers, there's no sun," Bush said to the television cameras.

But even though the sun was behind the clouds, Wallsten still needs the sunglasses because he has Stargardt's disease, a form of macular degeneration that causes progressive vision loss. The condition causes Wallsten to be sensitive to glare and even on a cloudy day, can cause pain and increase the loss of sight.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co...rticle/2006/06/14/AR2006061402064.html

 

[blackdogdeek]

doh!

the reporter luckily has a good sense of humor.

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: blackdogdeek
doh!

the reporter luckily has a good sense of humor.

Yeah, he took it well. Cool that Bush called to apologize as well

 

[TitanDiddly]

Called him on his cell phone. How would you go about that?

-Hello?
-Hi, this is George.
-George who?
-Bush, as in, the president. You know.
-Oh, right. How's it hanging? How's the fam'?

 

[acemcmac]

BAHAHAHHAHA

LOL that the president was too much of a chicken dick to answer his question anyway. ****** BUSH!!

 

[Queasy]

If you look at the transcript you can see that they were kind of joking with each other:

Yes, Peter. Are you going to ask that question with shades on?
Q I can take them off.
THE PRESIDENT: I?m interested in the shade look, seriously.
Q All right, I?ll keep it, then.
THE PRESIDENT: For the viewers, there?s no sun. (Laughter.)
Q I guess it depends on your perspective. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: Touche. (Laughter.)

Here is a better clip on the apology:

Wallsten said Bush called his cell phone later in the day to apologize and tell him that he didn?t know he had the disease. Wallsten said he interrupted and told the president that no apology was necessary and that he didn?t feel offended since he hadn?t told anyone at the White House about his condition.
?He said, `I needle you guys out of affection,?? Wallsten said. ?I said, ?I understand that, but I don?t want you to treat me any differently because of this.??
Wallsten said the president said he would not treat him differently, so Wallsten encouraged him to ?needle away.?
?He said, `I will. Next time I?ll just use a different needle,?? Wallsten said

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: Queasy
If you look at the transcript you can see that they were kind of joking with each other:

They were joking about the glasses, but Bush still didn't know about his disease. The reporter just played along and gave Bush the benefit of the doubt.

It's not like he was going to stand that there and call Bush out. Could you imagine that? 😀

 

[czech09]

My friend just sent me this - hilarious.

 

[loic2003]

another notch on the "look what this goon that the yanks voted in twice has gone and done again" post.