President Obama's Special Olympics gaffe on the Tonight Show.

Occasionally I get comments saying that I am unfair. That I am partisan. That I jump on Sarah Palin over every little thing while giving Barack Obama a free pass. And people say these things because essentially they are true.

I am a liberal. I tend to lean Democratic and have a deep distrust for Republicans. Those are the facts.

So this morning when I started to hear that Barack Obama made a gaffe about the Special Olympics on Jay Leno last night, I thought "Oh please, they are probably blowing this thing way out of proportion!"

So I watched it.

In my opinion what Barack Obama said on camera about the Special Olympics was a stupid thing to say on national television. (Now if any conservative website wants to take that comment and use it so show that even "super liberal Gryphen in Alaska thinks Obama's comment was stupid" you can do that. It would be an accurate quote. If you do I would appreciate a link back to my site, if you don't mind.)

However. It was NOT malicious or mean spirited in anyway. Obama was really trying to make fun of himself in an inarticulate manner. Don't get me wrong, it was still STUPID.

But let me share this with you.

I used to work in a facility that cared for very difficult special needs children. many of them had FAS, ADHD, bi-polar disorder, psychotic episodes, and some very unacceptable behaviors.

ALL day long we had to be positive and supportive. We had to smile when we really wanted to cry, and we had to try and love children that did EVERYTHING in their power to reject us. It was beyond difficult.

Once a week we had a "staff meeting". Many times these meetings turned into pseudo therapy sessions for us where we acted out the more bizarre behaviors we had dealt with, and made jokes at the expense of the children, and essentially unburdened ourselves of all that we had seen and dealt with all week.

If anybody outside of our group had walked in on us (and it did happen once) they would have thought we were horrible unfeeling jerks. But they would have been completely wrong in that assessment. On the contrary the people in those meetings were the most loving and compassionate people I have ever worked with. But they were PEOPLE, and they needed to have an outlet to keep their job from breaking their heart.

These meetings took place on Fridays, and every Monday these same people showed up to once again put on their happy faces and give everything they had to support a child who would call them horrible names, spit in their face, and often threaten their very life.

I am happy to say that many of those children went on to become contributing members of society and that when I happen to meet one, now an adult, they are always so grateful that we did not give up on them.

I have no doubt that Barack Obama, like us, has nothing but compassion in his heart for those who face a life with more obstacles then most. His remark may upset a few people who have children with special needs, but I have to imagine that a large majority of those who actually work with these kids found the joke less offensive and possibly even funny.