For a month now we've been excitedly talking over all the possibilities brought up by J.J. Abrams directing Star Wars Episode VII, jumping over from rebooting the Star Trek universe and potentially finally uniting the warring sci-fi factions. But as it turns out, we don't have to wait for Abrams to unite the worlds of Trek and Wars. President Obama has already done it-- and completely by accident.
Talking to the press day about the sequester-- a government financing mess that's ongoing and about which we're not remotely qualified to talk-- Obama responded to a question asking why he didn't simply lock the disagreeing congressional leaders in a room and force them to hammer out a compromised. Obama started his answer by saying "I am not a dictator, I'm the president," and said that while most people agree his ideas for ending the sequester are reasonable, he can't force Congress to agree. His answer was typically long-winded, so read through the full sentence to get to the geeky stuff:
I know that this has been some of the conventional wisdom that’s been floating around Washington that somehow, even though most people agree that I’m being reasonable, that most people agree I’m presenting a fair deal, the fact that they don’t take it means that I should somehow, you know, do a Jedi mind meld with these folks and convince them to do what’s right.
The Star Wars and Star Trek fanatics out there are already leaping in outrage, but if you missed it, here's the problem. There's such a thing as a Vulcan Mind Meld, which is used on Star Trek. And then there's a Jedi Mind Trick, which comes from Star Wars. They are not the same thing, and there is no such thing as as Jedi Mind Meld. You can watch Obama's remarks in the video below, plus a handy comparison of the Mind Meld vs. the Mind trick, in this video from Politico:
In the hour or two since Obama's gaffe lit up the Internet, the White House has also managed to get in on the joke, posting the below image on their Twitter feed:
I have no idea whether or not this silliness is good or bad for actually solving the issues that created the sequester, but I'm definitely a little delighted that my annual write-up about Star Wars has somehow come from the President.
