President Bush, the other day, mistakenly made a joke about reporter Peter Wallsten wearing sunglasses during a press conference- not knowing, to his embarrassment, that Wallsten is legally blind. Not only did Wallsten say he wasn't offended, but it's done wonders for his book sales:
"[Wallsten] has a book coming out later this summer, and in 24 hours it had moved from about 500,000th on Amazon’s preorder list to 2,500th."Reminds me of those long-held rumors that Bush once waved to Stevie Wonder. Though I'm not sure that ever did anything to help Stevie's album sales. Posted by Stephen Silver at June 15, 2006 02:46 PM
The President called Wallsten on his cellphone when informed of Wallsten's condition. Wallsten broke off the President's apology, saying he wasn't offended, as he had never informed anyone at the White House about his vision problem. Wallsten's has Stargardt's disease, a type of macular degeneration.
Posted by: DBrooks at June 16, 2006 01:26 PM