No doubt Sen. Ted Cruz‘ speechwriter and senior communications advisor Amanda Carpenter, who can get pretty rambunctious on Twitter, regretted her words almost as soon she uttered them: “For real? President Obama is having a Katy Perry concert at the WH? Do they even care about optics anymore,” she spat on Twitter last night.
To make matters worse, it was that d–khead Oliver Willis over at Media Matters who busted her for not realizing it was actually for the Special Olympics, the third rail of American politics, apparently. Willis promptly wrote up a completely predictable left-wing style hit piece on The Daily Banter. He blasted her, writing, “She’s one of the people who simply have blind rage towards Obama, and will even attack him for hosting the widely appreciated Special Olympics because they believe this sort of thing will hurt him and make themselves feel better. Instead they just expose themselves for being a horse’s ass.”
(That statement doesn’t make a ton of sense — the GOP believes what will hurt Obama, hosting a Special Olympics event? Come on, Willis. Eye roll.)
Willis also didn’t waste any time taking Carpenter to task on Twitter, saying, “Ted Cruz spokesperson @amandacarpenter attacks Obama for hosting Special Olympics dinner w Katy Perry. Classy.”
Carpenter soon apologized, saying, “Didn’t see earlier the WH Katy Perry concert was for kids. I’m sorry for the mistake. Have a nice night folks.”
Meanwhile, HuffPost‘s Jen Bendery, who was writing up last night’s White House Pool Reports, had a comical quasi-related correction: “Obama said ‘I love Katy Perry.’ He does not merely ‘like’ Katy Perry,” she wrote. Oh, if only Carpenter had read the other Pool Reports, one of which read:
“Before she performed, Timothy Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, came on stage with seven Special Olympians. Shriver thanked Obama for “bringing change to America” and noted that his mother, Eunice Shriver, stood in Chicago some 40 years ago and fought for change too, by starting the Special Olympics.”
But for Carpenter it was too late. A portion of the unforgiving Twittersphere still wanted Ms. Carpenter’s head on a platter. Some of the more memorable responses she received were: 1. “BITCH shut the fuck up.” 2. “That doesn’t excuse your egregiously callous and cold hearted comments. Hope your conscious lets you sleep well tonight.” 3. “How the fuck you call yourself a communication director if you doesn’t [sic] know President’s schedule?”
There was even a call for her resignation. “My tax dollars is [sic] paying for your fucking incompetence and stupidity. You should resign,” wrote one really fired up tweeter who forgot about verb tenses.
One guy, Trevor Beauknight, a freelance researcher in South Carolina, probably put it best: “Talk about optics.”
Of course they shouldn’t be so quick to judge.
In 2009, President Obama went on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno and made a crack about the Special Olympics that quickly required a phone call apology to Tim Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics. Obama had joked about being a bad bowler. “It’s like the Special Olympics,” he said.
So at least Carpenter and Obama have this in common.