John Hodgman Wishes Obama Wouldn’t ‘Admit Failure All the Time’

Back in 2009, when the world was shiny, and the words “Hope” and “Change” still had that effervescent Axelrodian glow, author and comedian John Hodgman gave a speech at the White House Radio and TV Correspondent Dinner in which he celebrated Barack Obama‘s ascendancy as the first “nerd president.”

Six years later, Philadelphia Weekly caught up with the erstwhile Daily Show correspondent to ask whether Obama had lived up to that designation.

“Unfortunately, rather well,” Hodgman replied, “in that there are aspects to jock culture which, when properly deployed, are very positive.”

He continued:

Now, I denounce superstition even slightly more than I denounce the glorification of dumb running and kicking games, but jockism does value bold choices made on gut instinct. And while all choices with regard to, say, the Middle East are odious, while I do prefer the president’s caution in terms of deploying force, I wish he would not, in a nerdy sort of way, go around admitting failure all the time. Because he is just sharpening knives for his enemies.

While it’s a slight change of tune from his ecstatic celebration of Obama’s nerdery — Hodgman worked himself into a comedically asthmatic fit over the end of Bush’s “jock” administration in his speech — let’s face it: we all kind of feel that way.

Here, reminisce about the good times below and watch his original (utterly hilarious) speech below, via C-SPAN:

[Philadelphia Weekly]
[Image via screenshot/C-SPAN]

—

>> Follow Tina Nguyen (@Tina_Nguyen) on Twitter

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!