This past Friday you likely came across President Obama making an amusing geeky gaffe. In response to a White House press corp question, the President stated he couldn’t just perform a “Jedi mind meld” and make Republicans agree to his plans.
The internet took it and ran, as is the internet’s way. Personally, I’m not one to begrudge the leader of the free world over a mix-up of sci-fi terms (I would begrudge myself, but getting that correct is literally part of my job.) and just ignored the development.
But then I saw the White House’s response to Obama’s unwitting mash-up and I had to admire the cheekiness of it. By the end of the day the White House Twitter account had posted the following meme photo, which in one fell swoop owned the error, proved that the White House knew its stuff in regards to Star Wars and Star Trek, and informed those following the story of the issue that the President was discussing when he made the slip-up.
While odds are that this was not the same White House office that answered the public’s request for a Death Star, I can’t help but admire the White House’s effectiveness at turning geeky memes into educational opportunities without being condescending.
Chris Lough is the production manager of Tor.com and gets a little excited about the efficient transmission of information, thank you very much.
