Obama's old "57 states" gaffe

The claim was made, long ago, that Barack Obama declared the US had 57 states. I don't recall ever seeing a video or listening to any audio, over the years, that confirmed Obama said this. Ridiculous—everyone knows the US has only 50 states. Right?

Well, just a few days ago, someone linked to a video clip of the infamous moment when Obama said there were 57 states. I finally got up the gumption to click on the link, and I watched the video.

And you know what? It's pretty clear to me that Obama was joking. He said "57" on purpose, after a deliberately comic pause. The context is that he was trying to explain that he'd been on a long and tiring trip that had led him through "57 states." This is like the Beatles singing about "eight days a week" or a Korean convenience store claiming it's open "25 hours a day." The exaggeration is there to make a humorous point about going over and above the minimum requirement for something, and that's all Obama was saying. It's incredible to me that any conservative would latch onto Obama's joke as some sort of mental lapse.

I don't agree with most of Obama's political positions, and I think he was, ultimately, a terrible president who set the stage for, or exacerbated, the deep racial/cultural divisiveness we see today. That said, Obama is no dummy, and from what I saw, he was merely joking when he talked about traveling through "57 states." See for yourself and tell me what you think. Do you think that a man of Obama's intellect would seriously believe the US has 57 states? I know some of my readers might think Obama is outright dumb, but I disagree. He might be misguided or even a bad-faith actor, but he's not dumb.

A comment below the above-linked YouTube video notes that, if Trump had done something like that, the press would have been after him and would not have let the matter go. I agree. But the fact that the "57 states" gaffe is cited even today is evidence that the other side won't let go, either. There are plenty of reasons to criticize Obama, but this isn't one of them.