Did Obama mean ‘fortunately’ and misspeak when he said ‘unfortunately’?
No.
If he was really wanting to underline the fact that car accidents pose a vastly greater threat to Americans than does terrorism, then he would be acknowledging that this administration and its predecessor have got their priorities wrong — that is, if they truly believe it’s their job to keep Americans safe.
So, he wasn’t celebrating the fact that terrorism poses a minimal risk to the average American.
Neither, presumably, was he saying that it’s unfortunate that terrorists aren’t doing a better job at killing people.
All he could have been implying was while it’s unfortunate that lots of people get killed in car accidents, there’s not much the government can do to reduce that risk. The resources of the U.S. government (provided by U.S. taxpayers) are much better being dedicated to minimizing what is already statistically a virtually non-existent risk posed by the threat of terrorism.
In the pathology of Washington-speak which marches in lock-step with the interests of the Military-Technology Complex, this is what it means to keep things in perspective.
He’s a constitutional Law expert? Give anyone enough rope, they will hang themselves sooner or later, if they’re flim-flam artists like the “O” has shown himself to be.