Ah, Yes, Speakers Still Need Research, the Still-Continuing Case of Donald Trump,

Trump speaks to African leaders, WH image

Research is good. Of course I would say that, since I'm a retired college professor. Still, look at President Donald Trump's recent Africa speech. He talked about economic progress in the nation of "Nambia." No such country. Maybe Mr. Trump mixed up Namibia with Zambia. The White House official transcript corrected this to read "Namibia." Too late.

Salesman Dale Carnegie's best-selling 1936 book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, talked about how important it is to get people's names right. Mr. Trump was for many years a professional, high-level salesman. How much would we ridicule an African leader who visited our region and called us the "United Provinces of America" or the "Untied States of America" or some other careless error? If the President doesn't know basic geography, surely there are people in the State Department who could brief him. As it was, he surely either insulted the African leaders by getting "Namibia" wrong, or he lost respect in their eyes. Probably both.

Was this just a meaningless gaffe? Maybe. We all make mistakes. I make plenty. When you are in the public eye, people notice little gaffes.

Research is good.

P.S.: The White House "corrected" the transcript to what Mr. Trump should have said. The lesson here, if you want to know what he actually said, is to go back to the primary source which, in this case, is the video of the speech itself. Another principle of research is - go to the original source!

P.P.S.: Was this Mr. Trump's mistake, or an error by his speechwriters? Who knows? It doesn't matter, because the speaker, and the speaker alone, is responsible for what comes out of the speaker's mouth.