Embarrassing: Obama Accidentally Shoots Down NBC’s Puffery of His ‘Mastering the Indonesian Language’

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NBC News may actually be more pro-Obama than Barack Obama himself. Back in March, a celebratory NBC Nightly News story about Obama’s childhood in Indonesia described the future candidate as “mastering the Indonesian language.” But Obama — who this week has voiced displeasure that many Americans do not speak a foreign language — admitted on Friday: “I don’t speak a foreign language. It’s embarrassing!” he said.

On Tuesday, Obama voiced regret over Americans’ lack of language skills. He revisited the topic on Friday, this time admitting that he speaks no foreign languages himself. Via Jake Tapper’s “Political Radar” blog:

 

At a town hall in Dayton, Ohio the presumptive Democratic nominee attempted to explain his statements, blasting the interpretation of his original remarks....“I said something the other day down in Georgia, and the Republicans jumped on this. I said, you know, absolutely immigrants need to learn English, but we also need to learn foreign languages,” he said Friday....

While the Obama campaign says that Obama speaks a little bit of Indonesian, Obama himself admits that he isn’t bilingual.

“I know because I don’t speak a foreign language. It’s embarrassing!” he said.

The admission undercuts NBC’s claim that Obama “mastered” Indonesian as a young child. Back on March 14, correspondent Ian Williams offered a sappy report on all of Obama’s former friends and classmates from Jakarta, Indonesia, who were rooting for him in the presidential race:

He arrived in Jakarta in 1967, age 6 with his mother who'd married an Indonesian student. His stepfather, first in the army, later worked for an oil company. Young Barry's half sister Maya rounded out the family photo. Obama was the only foreigner at the upscale Menteng school, mastering the Indonesian language. He towered over classmates who remembered him as a happy-go-lucky child.

It’s possible that Obama was fluent in Indonesian as a child, but has lost those skills as an adult. Or perhaps NBC’s eagerness to tout the Senator’s amazing abilities has now bumped up against Obama’s own testimony of exactly which languages he can and cannot speak.