Bogus Gold

There's plenty amusing about President Obama's teleprompter dependency, and the amusing gaffes it sometimes causes. But in one particular case, I think I've spotted a legitimate defense.

When speaking about Orion Energy Systems the other day, much ado was made about how Pres. Obama pronounced the name of the company wrong.

All terrific press for Orion, except that Obama kept pronouncing the company’s name wrong, calling it OAR-ee-on.

After finishing his remarks and talking with a few people, the president returned to the microphone and said his prepared remarks led him to pronounce the firm's name wrong.

“I suspect this is Or-EYE-on as opposed to OAR-ee-on. Just wanted to make sure that when I’m giving you a plug, that we’ve got the right plug. It’s Or-EYE-on.”

So Obama blamed his teleprompter. The teleprompter blamed a different teleprompter.

I blame Orion, Illinois.

Having grown up in the vicinity, I'm quite accustomed to the president's mispronunciation, as the people of the fair city of Orion have insisted upon being called "OAR-ee-on" - exactly as the president mispronounced the company of the same spelling it should be noted - from time immemorial.

Having campaigned for - and ever so briefly served as - Senator from Illinois it is quite plausible that Pres. Obama has been forced to memorize the odd pronunciation of Orion in the past. And that's not all. Look out if he's ever called upon to talk about Milan, Italy or Cairo, Egypt. The Illinois cities of the same name might have screwed those up for him as well (where they're pronounced MI-[sounds like "eye"] -lan, and KAY-ro respectively).

Anyway, I'm giving the president AND the teleprompters a pass on this one.