White House Misspells Brazilian Leader’s Name, Bumps Visit With Obama to Saturday

Associated Press ^ | March 13 2009 | Bradley Brooks

[Free ThinkerNY]

Rio de Janeiro (AP) - His meet-and-greet with the U.S. president was bumped to Saturday, and when the White House announced his official visit, they misspelled his name.

But when Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva becomes the first Latin American leader to sit down with President Barack Obama this weekend, he brings undisputed clout.

Silva runs the world's fifth-most-populous nation and ninth-largest economy and has close ties with leaders across the political spectrum. He's been asked to lobby Obama for free trade on behalf of conservatives in Colombia and for dropping the U.S. embargo against communist Cuba. Even Hugo Chavez has asked Silva to carry an olive branch to the new administration.

[a fool in paradise]

So, they misspelled his name, hey, no harm no foul-after all, it’s not like they were Republicans, right?/s;)

It's not like he misspelled POTATO or MACACA.

[TravisBickle]

There is something very odd going on in the White House.

Obama seems to have little time for foreign leaders and the underlings handling the details are very sloppy.

This indicates something far more important is going on.

I think it's more arrogance than sloppiness.

[caseinpoint]

I never knew St. Patrick’s Day was a federal holiday.

[Spunky]

"How did they mispell his name?

Silva aides said the trip was pushed forward from Tuesday because of the St. Patrick's Day holiday -- making Latin America once again look like an afterthought. Then, the White House announcement misspelled his name as "Luis Ignacio" and put "Lula" -- a nickname that decades ago became a legal part of the Brazilian leader's name -- in quotes.

Correct name: Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva The White House quickly corrected the mistake.

[dforest]

nah, democrats are just incompetent when they are in charge. All of this should have been expected.

Remember it is the democrats and their MSM propaganda machine that spread the rumor that they are the smartest people on earth.

With democrats, it is always the opposite of what they claim.

[1010RD]

This same stuff happened under Clinton. Remember when coffee went through the roof. Clinton fired his protocol staff - mostly military IIRC. I had a friend there. They insulted the Brazilian top brass.

Makes me wonder if Obama kicked his protocal staff out of the WH before he moved in.

[TheKidster]

If that Fargin Bastage doesn’t stop snubbing dignitaries it’ll be fargin war.

[MortMan]

Can we deport him to Sweden?

[autumnraine]

Yeah, he’s an incompetant and lazy boob who hires incompetant boobs.

[Spunky]

Actually I just realized they mispelled both names.

"Luis Ignacio" Correct name: Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

[Cicero]

Yeah, I’m usually not too bad at foreign names, but I’manutjob’s name just continues to escape me.

[villagerjoel]

Quick, somebody send Brazil a 25 DVD set!

[lonevoice]

Silva runs the world's fifth-most-populous nation and ninth-largest economy and has close ties with leaders across the political spectrum

I guess it's not that important to spell his name correctly. Idiots.

[Unam Sanctam]

Let’s hear it for the new “smart” diplomacy!

[opus86]

No, no, no...This can't be true, it doesn't fit the template! See, Bush is the idiot - he does stuff like this. In fact he did stuff like this for the last eight years. Obama, on the other hand, is intelligent and thoughtful and open-minded; he'd NEVER do anything careless or stupid. /sarc

[expatpat]

I guess you figured Cuba should have no problem....

'Luiz Inacio' is mispelled to 'Luis Ignacio'? I guess the incompetents in the new White House didn't know that Brazil speaks Portugese, not Spanish.

[Nailbiter]

“I guess the incompetents in the new White House didn’t know that Brazil speaks Portugese, not Spanish.”

Considering that they were educated in public school, what do you expect.

I would laugh except it makes the USA look truly bad in the eyes of the world.

[Redbob]

AP also misspelled his name in this article...

[Redbob]

"He's been asked to lobby Obama for free trade on behalf of conservatives in Colombia and for dropping the U.S. embargo against communist Cuba. Even Hugo Chavez has asked Silva to carry an olive branch to the new administration."<>P>Maybe they offended him on purpose, rather than just have to tell him, "GTF out of here!"

[MNlurker]

I didn’t want to try...I can pronounce it and thats good enough in my book. :)