Obama's 'oops' moments with Jay Leno: How the president got in a muddle over the Olympics and U.S. geography

I'll take sports and geography for $1,000, Jay: President Obama got his Olympic seasons confused on Tuesday night, along with his East Coast geography

I'll take sports and geography for $1,000, Jay: President Obama got his Olympic seasons confused on Tuesday night, along with his East Coast geography

President Obama's much-anticipated sixth appearance Tuesday night on The Tonight Show won him praise from liberal partisans and shoulder-shrugs from conservatives, but he made two gaffes during the interview involving U.S. geography and the upcoming Olympics Games in Russia.

When host Jay Leno asked the president if he was concerned about anti-homosexual laws in Russia interfering with the experience of gay and lesbian athletes, he responded by defending the honor of Americans who compete in Summer Olympic Sports.

The Sochi, Russia event will be the 2014 Winter Olympics.

'I think Putin and Russia have a big stake in making sure the Olympics work,' Obama said, 'and I think they understand that for most of the countries that participate in the Olympics, we wouldn’t tolerate gays and lesbians being treated differently.  They’re athletes, they’re there to compete.'

'And if Russia wants to uphold the Olympic spirit, then every judgment should be made on the track, or in the swimming pool, or on the balance beam, and people’s sexual orientation shouldn’t have anything to do with it.

'Good enough for me,' Leno replied, without noting that the president had just named three Summer Olympic sports. 

Host Jay Leno (L) shared a few private moments with Obama during a commercial break Tuesday, but it's unknown whether the TV legend was giving the president a recommendation on a good U.S. atlas

Host Jay Leno (L) shared a few private moments with Obama during a commercial break Tuesday, but it's unknown whether the TV legend was giving the president a recommendation on a good U.S. atlas

Short-term memory FAIL: Texas Gov. Rick Perry relived his 2012 campaign 'Oops!' moment in New Orleans, when he told his audience he was glad to be in Florida

Short-term memory FAIL: Texas Gov. Rick Perry relived his 2012 campaign 'Oops!' moment in New Orleans, when he told his audience he was glad to be in Florida

Moments later in the interview, Obama was asked about whether his programs aimed at jump-starting critical infrastructure programs have led to partisan fights in Washington.

'I live in a town, the bridge is falling apart, it’s not safe. How does that become Republican or Democrat?' Leno asked. 'How do you not just fix the bridge?'

Obama said his goal was to 'find a financing mechanism, and let’s go ahead and fix our bridges, fix our roads, sewer systems, our ports. The Panama [Canal] is being widened so that these big supertankers can come in. Now, that will be finished in 2015.'

'If we don't deepen our ports all along the Gulf – places like Charleston, South Carolina, or Savannah, Georgia, or Jacksonville, Florida – if we don't do that, those ships are going to go someplace else.  And we’ll lose jobs.  Businesses won’t locate here.'

Those three cities – Charleston, Savannah and Jacksonville – are all on America's Atlantic coast. None is on the Gulf of Mexico.

The White House did not immediately respond to a question about whether it would issue a correction. 

President Obama's sixth appearance on The Tonight Show featured mostly softball questions about intelligence-gathering, NSA leaker Edward Snowden and the U.S. middle-class economy

President Obama's sixth appearance on The Tonight Show featured mostly softball questions about intelligence-gathering, NSA leaker Edward Snowden and the U.S. middle-class economy

The president is not the only politician with a recent 'oops' moment. This weekend during a conservative conference, Texas Gov. Rick Perry mistakenly assured his audience that many U.S. states share his conservative values.

'I'm in one today, in Florida,' Perry said.

'You're in Louisiana!' one audience member shouted at him.

The RedState Gathering event – and Gov. Perry – was in New Orleans.

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