During yesterday's gathering of the Council of Foreign Relations, GOP Presidential hopeful Jeb Bush made the kind of public gaffe that would-be U.S. Presidents are not supposed to make. Put simply: he confused Malia Obama with Malala Yousafzai.
In a speech meant to be a none-too subtle dig at First Lady Michelle Obama's decision not to attend a 2013 energy summit held in Palm Springs, Bush seemingly forgot the First Daughter's name and went with another famous-sounding "Mal-."
"Every meeting I had in Beijing started out for the first 10 minutes started out lambasting me about why it was, as an American, why it was that we insulted China," Bush recounted. "And I’m thinking, you know what, it could be that Mrs. Obama was worried about the science project of Malala."
Bush's point was that the First Lady's decision not to go to the summit was a sign of disrespect to Chinese President Xi Jinping and First Lady Peng Liyuan, who were there.
Whether the Chinese president and First Lady were displeased at First Lady Obama's absence is unclear, but one imagines that the Chinese government would be just as incensed if an American president couldn't remember the names of another leader's child.
And this is not the first time Bush has…creatively remembered Malia's name:
To be fair, "Malala" and "Malia" do (sort of) sound similar and they begin with the same three letters, but the two young women are, in fact, very different people.
As a public service to all, we've put together a quick and easy quiz to make sure that the next time you have to remember Malia Obama's name, you won't mistake her for Malala.