slavish attention to rules, details, etc.

The Jedi Meld is used for 3 purposes.

1) To communicate over great distances… not useful here.

2) To increase the power of all the members… not useful here UNLESS you’re arguing Obama wants stronger opposition.

3) For the majority collective of the meld to persuade the lone dissident… and Obama would be that dissident.  Not useful here UNLESS you’re arguying that Obama wants to have HIS MIND changed so he thinks he’s wrong.

NONE OF THAT helps with the context where Obama would be using that with those who OPPOSE HIS PLANS.

Yes the term exists; no it doesn’t make any sense in context with what Obama said.

You can find a guy from MIT going “hey, there is a term” all you want… it still doesn’t make sense in context. 

Unless the context is “Obama hopes the opposition wins and he loses the budget fight” Jedi Meld doesn’t work in context.

And the mere possibility it was should preclude this entire non-issue.

Is anyone else depressed by the fact that more of our peers seem more outraged about the “mind meld” remark than the automatic spending cuts that will begin kicking in today, affecting middle-class workers and families the most?

No, because I can tell the difference between satirical mock outrage and serious outrage, so getting depressed over a bunch of my fellow nerds have a laugh to relieve some tension seems like it would be a poor judgment call on my part. I’m afraid I don’t accept your implied thesis that we can’t laugh at his nerd faux pas (even while appreciating the effort) and be outraged at our dysfunctional government at the same time. As for any nerds who are seriously
outraged at this…I feel more sorry for them than depressed.

http://civic.mit.edu/blog/petey/sorry-nerds-but-obama-was-right-about-the-jedi-meld-and-metaphysics

Obamas remark was simply a brilliant piece of realpolitik statecraft.

That picture on the other hand…the overly muscled arm shooting phaser into stratosphere for no apparent reason, impressively endowed woman presenting mammaries for the universe to suckle…I’m ok with that.

But the Star Fleet emblem on his bare chest?  No. 

Upon further thought, a Vulcan wouldn’t give a tribbles hair for the discomfort thereof…

“Our Prime Directive is to bring balance to the Force.”

That’s it. Done. But no. Of course not.

Following it to the high resolution image will expose you to explicit animated porn ads.
 

Interestingly, it seems to have worked as a distraction from the sequester debate, but it’s also drawing attention to it at the same time. I am not sure I would have heard anything about the press conference if this hadn’t happened (I normally stay well-informed and probably would have heard it on NPR – if I drive anywhere today, which I might not – but I have a lot of other things on my plate at the moment and I’m not sure why I’m even wasting time on this comment).

Also, I, for one, don’t mind knowing that Obama isn’t actually a nerd or a geek. At least he’s aware of our existence and attempts to pander to us sometimes, which is a lot more than can be said for most politicians. Whether or not that counts for anything when it comes to legislation and so on that may be important to us… well that’s another discussion altogether. If nothing else, now we know how it must feel to be part of one of the groups that are normally targets for pandering from politicians, which is informative. It’s also informative to note who falls for the pandering and who doesn’t (depending on the cynicism inherent in the pandering… the Death Star petition response, for example, was all in good fun).

Jedi Mind trick DOES work in context; if he said that.  A Battle Meditation used by Jedi allies isn’t what you’d do to force the opposition to do what you want.

So maybe he’s both more of a nerd than we imagine, and making incoherent statements?

I think he’d prefer to have you assume he misspoke and not that he’s incapable of making a sentence that makes sense.