Obama has been to 57 U.S. states. (We only have 50.)

**Universal Mind** · 05-23-2008 11:07 PM

Obama has been to 57 U.S. states, and he only has 1 to go, but he has not been to Alaska or Hawaii.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGH02DtIws

For those who don't know, there are 50 U.S. states, 48 on the mainland plus Alaska and Hawaii. It is very, very common knowledge here.

**Kushna Mufeed** · 05-23-2008 11:09 PM

Excuse my ignorance of America, but what are the 8 non-existing states?

**Universal Mind** · 05-23-2008 11:15 PM

Originally Posted by Kushna Mufeed

Excuse my ignorance of America, but what are the 8 non-existing states?

He said he had not been to Alaska or Hawaii, so he apparently did not count them in the first 57. He said he has one to go and also Alaska and Hawaii, so he never even counted them as states at all. That means we have 10 unaccounted for states.

**Kushna Mufeed** · 05-23-2008 11:27 PM

Unless the state he's going to is either Alaska or Hawaii. In which case there are only 9.

**ninja9578** · 05-23-2008 11:28 PM

Did he mean the regular states plus the Us territories?(Guam, DC, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands...) I don't know how many US territories there are.

**Oneironaut Zero** · 05-23-2008 11:33 PM

CNN reported this, and apparently Obama was showing signs of sleep deprivation when he made the mistake.

In unrelated news, though (to be fair

) it seems that Vladamir Putin is has recently been elected president of Germany.

This, from Mr. Foreign Policy.

**Universal Mind** · 05-23-2008 11:35 PM

Originally Posted by ninja9578

Did he mean the regular states plus the Us territories?(Guam, DC, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands...) I don't know how many US territories there are.

We have 12 definite provinces in addition to the 50 states, plus another three provinces that we are having disputes with other countries over. So we have 62-65 territories.

**NeoSioType** · 05-23-2008 11:36 PM

Notice the laughter in the background when he says 57. How stupid is he? Like I said earlier we only have 54 states.

**Universal Mind** · 05-23-2008 11:39 PM

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

CNN reported this, and apparently Obama was showing signs of sleep deprivation when he made the mistake.

In unrelated news, though (to be fair

) it seems that Vladamir Putin is has recently been elected president of Germany.

This, from Mr. Foreign Policy.

That was a quick slip, like a Freudian slip. Obama thought for a moment and spoke slowly when he made his point. However, I have watched the video some more, and what seems to link everything together is that he was trying to say he has been to 47 states, has 1 mainland state to go, and has not been to the two non-mainland states. I tried to figure out how that blunder might have happened, and that is what I came up with.

**Bearsy** · 05-23-2008 11:41 PM

Originally Posted by NeoSioType

Notice the laughter in the background when he says 57. How stupid is he? Like I said earlier we only have 54 states.

Please, do enlighten the stupid masses... I could've sworn there were only 50. What are the other 4?

**Oneironaut Zero** · 05-23-2008 11:50 PM

Originally Posted by Universal Mind

That was a quick slip, like a Freudian slip. Obama thought for a moment and spoke slowly when he made his point. However, I have watched the video some more, and what seems to link everything together is that he was trying to say he has been to 47 states, has 1 mainland state to go, and has not been to the two non-mainland states. I tried to figure out how that blunder might have happened, and that is what I came up with.

Makes sense to me. I simply posted the clip because I figured it would be unfair to take a cheapshot at Obama by showcasing such a blunder while failing to do so with McCain. Neither video (IMHO) is truly worthy of saying "OMFG Look!

" I was just leveling the playing field.

**NeoSioType** · 05-23-2008 11:54 PM

Originally Posted by Elis D.

Please, do enlighten the stupid masses... I could've sworn there were only 50. What are the other 4?

The other 4 are states of course!

**Bearsy** · 05-23-2008 11:56 PM

Are you that dense on purpose?

**Universal Mind** · 05-23-2008 11:56 PM

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

Makes sense to me. I simply posted the clip because I figured it would be unfair to take a cheapshot at Obama by showcasing such a blunder while failing to do so with McCain. Neither video (IMHO) is truly worthy of saying "OMFG Look!

" I was just leveling the playing field.

I think I see that now, but it really looked at first like a big deal. I did the math on how the mistake must have happened, and that gave me a differernt perspective on it.

**NeoSioType** · 05-23-2008 11:58 PM

Originally Posted by Elis D.

Are you that dense on purpose?

Would you seriously wonder if I said no? No comment.

**Original Poster** · 05-24-2008 03:59 AM

It makes sense if he meant 47...

**Sandform** · 05-24-2008 04:56 AM

Lol it appears to me Obama was joking...

**wasup** · 05-24-2008 12:40 PM

Naw, if he was joking he would have made it much more obvious. "It feels like I've been to 57 states." He didn't even smile. Regardless, the fact that this seems to be a big deal is a testament to Obama's eloquence. Not only does he never make silly gaffes like that (we should whip out the bosnia clip and any speech by Bush), but if you actually listen to his speeches you'll find he almost never stutters or even rephrases as he's talking. He is an amazing speaker.

**Serkat** · 05-24-2008 12:40 PM

Originally Posted by Sandform

Lol it appears to me Obama was joking...

LOL no. First, he'd have to alter his tone MUCH more. And second, probably 1-2% of the population would actually get the joke, the rest would think he's dumb.

It seems to me to be fairly obvious that he had "forty-" in his mind, but started with "fifty-" and didn't notice. These things happen as a public speaker.