Obama Cracks On Special Olympians

His controversial joke hadn't even aired yet when President Obama got on the phone from Air Force One Thursday night to apologize for comparing his notoriously bad bowling skills to the Special Olympics.

The president's late-night gaffe comes as he faces criticism over AIG."He expressed his disappointment and he apologized, I think, in a way that was very moving," Tim Shriver, the chairman of the Special Olympics board, told "Good Morning America" today.

"He expressed that he did not intend to humiliate this population, certainly didn't want to embarrass or give anybody any more reason for pain or just suffering, I would say," said Shriver, who received the call from Obama as the president was flying back to Washington.

"He was very sincere, expressed an interest and an openness in being more engaged in the movement, and said he was a fan of the movement and I think, importantly, he said he was ready to have some of our athletes over to the White House to bowl or play basketball or help him improve his score."

It began with the president joking about how bad a bowler he is.

Toward the end of his approximately 40-minute taping on the "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," Obama talked about how he'd gotten better at bowling and had been practicing in the White House bowling alley.

"I bowled a 129," he told Leno.

"That's very good, Mr. President," Leno said sarcastically.

But then came the foot-in-mouth moment: "It's like the Special Olympics or something," the president said.

Shriver told "GMA" that these moments can worsen the stereotypes of people with special needs.

"I think it's important to see that words hurt, and words do matter -- and these words can, in some way, be seen as humiliating or [a] put-down to people with special needs," he said. "[They] do cause pain, and they do result in stereotypes, and they do result in behavior that's neglectful and almost [an] oppressive moment of people with special needs.

"This kind of language needs to be a teachable moment for our country, I think," he added. "I would hope every parent that's at home this morning watching this show could turn to their children and say, 'This is a chance for us to recognize that when we talk about Special Olympics, when we talk about people with special needs. Let's make sure we talk about it in an affirming way,'" he said.