"I bowled a 129," Obama told Leno.
 
"That's very good, Mr. President," Leno said sarcastically.
 
But then came the foot-in-mouth moment: "It's like the Special Olympics or something,"  said Obama
 

"didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any séances."

B. Obama

"Instead of worrying whether immigrants can learn English, they'll learn English. You need to make sure your kids can speak Spanish."

Barack Obama

"Let me introduce to you the next President -- the next Vice President of the United States of America, Joe Biden." --slipping up while introducing Joe Biden at their first joint campaign rally, Springfield, Illinois, Aug. 23, 2008

"Why can't I just eat my waffle?" --after being asked a foreign policy question by a reporter while visiting a diner in Pennsylvania

"I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go." --at a campaign event in Beaverton, Oregon (Watch video clip)

We're not going to baby sit a civil war.
Barack Obama
Voicing skepticism of President Bush's plans for a US military buildup in Iraq, January 2007.

"Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us . . . . Iran, they spend 1/100th of what we spend on the military. If Iran ever tried to pose a serious threat to us, they wouldn't stand a chance."

Obama OLama

"It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." --explaining his troubles winning over some working-class voters

"The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person, who, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know, you know, there's a reaction that's been bred in our experiences that don't go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way, and that's just the nature of race in our society."

"Come on! I just answered, like, eight questions." --exasperated by reporters after a news conference

"In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died -- an entire town destroyed." --on a Kansas tornado that killed 12 people

In Africa, you often see that the difference between a village where everybody eats and a village where people starve is government. One has a functioning government, and the other does not. Which is why it bothers me when I hear people say that government is the enemy. They don't understand its fundamental role.
Barack Obama
Profile in The Independent Magazine, March 10, 2007.

"I’m not denouncing the church, and I’m not interested in people who want me to denounce the church. It’s not a church worthy of denouncing" OLama

I've got two daughters, nine years old and six years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby.
Barack Obama
Town Hall Meeting in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, March 29, 2008.

But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.
Barack Obama
Speech on race, March 18, 2008.