--- title: Barack Obama Confuses Dan Malloy, Martin O'Malley description: President Obama mixed up two Democratic governors before a roomful of the only Americans who would know the difference. canonical: https://time.com/3719057/barack-obama-dan-malloy-martin-omalley/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-23T18:12:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:38:12.312Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama Gets His Governors Wrong og:description: Your regular reminder that the president is fallible. og:url: https://time.com/3719057/barack-obama-dan-malloy-martin-omalley/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d5151d011302969/69878097f887dc6d55e8a42b/obama-immigration1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Barack Obama og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama Gets His Governors Wrong twitter:description: Your regular reminder that the president is fallible. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d5151d011302969/69878097f887dc6d55e8a42b/obama-immigration1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama Gets His Governors Wrong by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Feb 23, 2015 6:12 PM UTC  President Barack Obama speaks in Chicago on Feb. 19, 2015. President Barack Obama speaks in Chicago on Feb. 19, 2015.Evan Vucci—AP by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Feb 23, 2015 6:12 PM UTC You might be forgiven for confusing Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy for former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley. Two northeastern Democratic governors with similar names. They even have similar close-cropped haircuts. Still, the differences matter. Malloy is getting ready to be the next liberal bulldog, the Democratic governor who’s not afraid to throw a few punches at Republicans, as my colleague Zeke Miller [reported over the weekend](http://time.com/3717736/dan-malloy-chris-christie-connecticut/). Now out of office, O’Malley is possibly[ running for president](http://swampland.time.com/2013/08/03/martin-omalley-steps-closer-to-2016-presidential-run/), and though he’s a longshot against Hillary Clinton, well, so is everyone else in the primary. But at a Democratic Governors Association event Monday, Obama mixed the two up. “In Connecticut, Gov. O’Malley announced his Second Chance Society, a plan to help former prisoners rejoin their communities,” [Obama said](http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/23/obama-flubs-conn-governors-name-white-house-speech/), to a roomful of the only group of Americans who would know the difference between the two men. Now, this is not a big deal. Neither was it a big deal when Obama [mixed up](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeffrey-george-president-barack-obama-confuses-uk-chancellor-osborne-for-his-favourite-rb-singer-during-g8-presentation-8666112.html) British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne with ’70s R&B singer Jeffrey Osborne three times in a speech. Or when he [confused](http://time.com/3642783/obama-confuses-franco-flacco/) actor James Franco with quarterback Joe Flacco. Or [mixed up](http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/24/news/la-pn-obama-mistake-medal-of-honor-20110624) two Medal of Honor winners. Or even when the president [jumbled up](http://www.wired.com/2013/03/obama-jedi-mind-meld/) his “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” references. The President is a human being, after all, and one who is filmed pretty much nonstop whenever he’s in public. He’s going to make simple mistakes. Obama, the former college professor, is generally given a pass by all but the conservative media on these mistakes. His predecessor, George W. Bush, [wasn’t](http://www.slate.com/articles/news%5Fand%5Fpolitics/bushisms/2009/01/ws%5Fgreatest%5Fhits.html). But it’s worth remembering as the 2016 campaigns ramp up, that similar goofs by Obama’s would-be successors don’t really matter as much as they might seem at the time. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3719057/barack-obama-dan-malloy-martin-omalley/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3719057/barack-obama-dan-malloy-martin-omalley/"},"headline":"Obama Gets His Governors Wrong","datePublished":"2015-02-23T18:12:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:38:12.312Z","description":"President Obama mixed up two Democratic governors before a roomful of the only Americans who would know the difference.","url":"https://time.com/3719057/barack-obama-dan-malloy-martin-omalley/","keywords":["White House","2016 Election topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d5151d011302969/69878097f887dc6d55e8a42b/obama-immigration1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7d5151d011302969/69878097f887dc6d55e8a42b/obama-immigration1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Barack Obama","caption":"Barack Obama","creditText":"Evan Vucci—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3719057/barack-obama-dan-malloy-martin-omalley/","name":"Obama Gets His Governors Wrong"}}]}] ```