Post by: nico on May 27, 2008, 12:05:01 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV1sxq8mqvA
If Bush had said something like this, the MSM would be all over it calling him an idiot. Who wants to bet they'll either ignore this, or act like he just misspoke?
Post by: ilbob on May 27, 2008, 12:48:11 PM
Post by: Marnoot on May 27, 2008, 12:58:16 PM
Post by: Scout26 on May 27, 2008, 01:29:44 PM
Here's another Obama-ism that I heard on Limbaugh's show today as I waited for new tires to be installed on the Mrs. Scoutmobile.
Quote
OBAMA: On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in...in the audience here today -- our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.
That's a real head scratcher.......
Here are some more:
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2007/03/sweet_column_item_obamas_gaffe.html (Yes, the Chicago Sun-Times, that impregnable bastion of the VRWC....
Quote
Lynn Sweet's column: Obama's gaffes start to pile up.
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign, 46 days old on Tuesday, has run into some speed bumps, created because of a series of missteps magnified because he is under microscopic scrutiny.
It's too early to say whether the gaffes slow Obama's momentum -- or if they become barricades, extracting a more significant price for the Illinois Democrat's White House bid. They are getting noticed.
Consider the items that have been accumulating since Obama announced on Feb. 10:
" Marking the anniversary of the March 1965 "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, Ala., Obama, speaking at a church, said his parents got together "because of what happened in Selma." Obama was born in 1961.
" Obama told Larry King on CNN -- asked about that anti-Hillary Rodham Clinton YouTube ad, a doctored version of a spot created for Apple computers -- "We don't have the technical capacity to create something like that."
Obama did not know what he was talking about. Any professional media consultant can manipulate images on video. Turns out the creator -- unmasked last week as a political operative who worked for a firm overseeing the technical side of Obama's Web site -- made it at home on a Mac.
" Obama, asked if homosexuality was immoral, in the wake of comments by Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Peter Pace, sidestepped the question. After pressure from gay groups, Obama issued a statement stating he did not agree with Pace "that homosexuality is immoral."
Cynicism is like terrorism?
" One of Obama's stump lines is that the biggest obstacle he fights is not any of his rivals, it is cynicism. He used a variation of it during a reception he hosted at a conference here sponsored by AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Displaying a tin ear, Obama said that one of the enemies is not "just terrorists" or "just Hezbollah" or "just Hamas" -- "it's also cynicism."
" The Tribune dug this up: Obama, in his memoir, Dreams of My Father, writes of a story in Life magazine that influenced him -- about a black man trying to bleach his skin white. No such article could be found in Life or Ebony.
Insider or outsider?
" Another Obama stump line -- he said it again Tuesday morning to the Communications Workers of America here -- is that "I've been long enough in Washington to know that Washington needs to change." He is running against Washington yet his campaign is populated with political professionals who are Washington insiders.
" Obama's embrace of some rhetoric used by rival John Edwards is getting attention. Edwards, in a 2003 speech made for his first presidential run said, "I've spent enough time in Washington to know how much we need to change Washington."
Bill Burton, an Obama spokesman, said in reaction to the Obama stumbles: "If there are people looking for a candidate running to be the darling of the Washington insider crowd, this campaign is not for them. We are encouraged by the growing, unflinching support of Americans who believe we can transform our country by changing our politics."
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign, 46 days old on Tuesday, has run into some speed bumps, created because of a series of missteps magnified because he is under microscopic scrutiny.
It's too early to say whether the gaffes slow Obama's momentum -- or if they become barricades, extracting a more significant price for the Illinois Democrat's White House bid. They are getting noticed.
Consider the items that have been accumulating since Obama announced on Feb. 10:
" Marking the anniversary of the March 1965 "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, Ala., Obama, speaking at a church, said his parents got together "because of what happened in Selma." Obama was born in 1961.
" Obama told Larry King on CNN -- asked about that anti-Hillary Rodham Clinton YouTube ad, a doctored version of a spot created for Apple computers -- "We don't have the technical capacity to create something like that."
Obama did not know what he was talking about. Any professional media consultant can manipulate images on video. Turns out the creator -- unmasked last week as a political operative who worked for a firm overseeing the technical side of Obama's Web site -- made it at home on a Mac.
" Obama, asked if homosexuality was immoral, in the wake of comments by Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Peter Pace, sidestepped the question. After pressure from gay groups, Obama issued a statement stating he did not agree with Pace "that homosexuality is immoral."
Cynicism is like terrorism?
" One of Obama's stump lines is that the biggest obstacle he fights is not any of his rivals, it is cynicism. He used a variation of it during a reception he hosted at a conference here sponsored by AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Displaying a tin ear, Obama said that one of the enemies is not "just terrorists" or "just Hezbollah" or "just Hamas" -- "it's also cynicism."
" The Tribune dug this up: Obama, in his memoir, Dreams of My Father, writes of a story in Life magazine that influenced him -- about a black man trying to bleach his skin white. No such article could be found in Life or Ebony.
Insider or outsider?
" Another Obama stump line -- he said it again Tuesday morning to the Communications Workers of America here -- is that "I've been long enough in Washington to know that Washington needs to change." He is running against Washington yet his campaign is populated with political professionals who are Washington insiders.
" Obama's embrace of some rhetoric used by rival John Edwards is getting attention. Edwards, in a 2003 speech made for his first presidential run said, "I've spent enough time in Washington to know how much we need to change Washington."
Bill Burton, an Obama spokesman, said in reaction to the Obama stumbles: "If there are people looking for a candidate running to be the darling of the Washington insider crowd, this campaign is not for them. We are encouraged by the growing, unflinching support of Americans who believe we can transform our country by changing our politics."
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MWZjY2YzZWVkMjdkMDEzMGQ0MjJkNTUyN2FkNmMzYTc=
Quote
All it takes is one gaffe to taint a Republican for life. The political establishment never let Dan Quayle live down his fateful misspelling of potatoe. The New York Times distorted and misreported the first President Bushs questions about new scanner technology at a grocers convention to brand him permanently as out of touch.
But what about Barack Obama? The guys a perpetual gaffe machine. Let us count the ways, large and small, that his tongue has betrayed him throughout the campaign:
Last May, he claimed that tornadoes in Kansas killed a whopping 10,000 people: In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died an entire town destroyed. The actual death toll: 12.
Earlier this month in Oregon, he redrew the map of the United States: Over the last 15 months, weve traveled to every corner of the United States. Ive now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.
Last week, in front of a roaring Sioux Falls, S.D., audience, Obama exulted: Thank you, Sioux City. ... I said it wrong. Ive been in Iowa for too long. Im sorry.
Explaining last week why he was trailing Hillary Clinton in Kentucky, Obama again botched basic geography: Sen. Clinton, I think, is much better known, coming from a nearby state of Arkansas. So its not surprising that she would have an advantage in some of those states in the middle. On what map is Arkansas closer to Kentucky than Illinois?
Obama has as much trouble with numbers as he has with maps. Last March, on the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march in Selma, Ala., he claimed his parents united as a direct result of the civil rights movement: There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Ala., because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born.
Obama was born in 1961. The Selma march took place in 1965. His spokesman, Bill Burton, later explained that Obama was speaking metaphorically about the civil-rights movement as a whole.
Earlier this month in Cape Girardeau, Mo., Obama showed off his knowledge of the war in Afghanistan by homing in on a lack of translators: We only have a certain number of them, and if they are all in Iraq, then its harder for us to use them in Afghanistan. The real reason its harder for us to use them in Afghanistan: Iraqis speak Arabic or Kurdish. The Afghanis speak Pashto, Farsi, or other non-Arabic languages.
Over the weekend in Oregon, Obama pleaded ignorance of the decades-old, multibillion-dollar massive Hanford nuclear-waste cleanup: Heres something that you will rarely hear from a politician, and that is that Im not familiar with the Hanford, uuuuhh, site, so I dont know exactly whats going on there. (Applause.) Now, having said that, I promise you Ill learn about it by the time I leave here on the ride back to the airport.
I assume on that ride, a staffer reminded him that hes voted on at least one defense-authorization bill that addressed the costs, schedules, and technical issues dealing with the nations most contaminated nuclear-waste site.
Last March, the Chicago Tribune reported this little-noticed nugget about a fake autobiographical detail in Obamas Dreams from My Father: Then, theres the copy of Life magazine that Obama presents as his racial awakening at age 9. In it, he wrote, was an article and two accompanying photographs of an African-American man physically and mentally scarred by his efforts to lighten his skin. In fact, the Life article and the photographs dont exist, say the magazines own historians.
And in perhaps the most seriously troubling set of gaffes of them all, Obama told a Portland crowd over the weekend that Iran doesnt pose a serious threat to us cluelessly arguing that tiny countries with small defense budgets cant do us harm and then promptly flip-flopped the next day, claiming, Ive made it clear for years that the threat from Iran is grave.
Barack Obama promoted by the Left and the media as an all-knowing, articulate, transcendent Messiah is a walking, talking gaffe machine. How many more passes does he get? How many more can we afford?
But what about Barack Obama? The guys a perpetual gaffe machine. Let us count the ways, large and small, that his tongue has betrayed him throughout the campaign:
Last May, he claimed that tornadoes in Kansas killed a whopping 10,000 people: In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died an entire town destroyed. The actual death toll: 12.
Earlier this month in Oregon, he redrew the map of the United States: Over the last 15 months, weve traveled to every corner of the United States. Ive now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.
Last week, in front of a roaring Sioux Falls, S.D., audience, Obama exulted: Thank you, Sioux City. ... I said it wrong. Ive been in Iowa for too long. Im sorry.
Explaining last week why he was trailing Hillary Clinton in Kentucky, Obama again botched basic geography: Sen. Clinton, I think, is much better known, coming from a nearby state of Arkansas. So its not surprising that she would have an advantage in some of those states in the middle. On what map is Arkansas closer to Kentucky than Illinois?
Obama has as much trouble with numbers as he has with maps. Last March, on the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march in Selma, Ala., he claimed his parents united as a direct result of the civil rights movement: There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Ala., because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born.
Obama was born in 1961. The Selma march took place in 1965. His spokesman, Bill Burton, later explained that Obama was speaking metaphorically about the civil-rights movement as a whole.
Earlier this month in Cape Girardeau, Mo., Obama showed off his knowledge of the war in Afghanistan by homing in on a lack of translators: We only have a certain number of them, and if they are all in Iraq, then its harder for us to use them in Afghanistan. The real reason its harder for us to use them in Afghanistan: Iraqis speak Arabic or Kurdish. The Afghanis speak Pashto, Farsi, or other non-Arabic languages.
Over the weekend in Oregon, Obama pleaded ignorance of the decades-old, multibillion-dollar massive Hanford nuclear-waste cleanup: Heres something that you will rarely hear from a politician, and that is that Im not familiar with the Hanford, uuuuhh, site, so I dont know exactly whats going on there. (Applause.) Now, having said that, I promise you Ill learn about it by the time I leave here on the ride back to the airport.
I assume on that ride, a staffer reminded him that hes voted on at least one defense-authorization bill that addressed the costs, schedules, and technical issues dealing with the nations most contaminated nuclear-waste site.
Last March, the Chicago Tribune reported this little-noticed nugget about a fake autobiographical detail in Obamas Dreams from My Father: Then, theres the copy of Life magazine that Obama presents as his racial awakening at age 9. In it, he wrote, was an article and two accompanying photographs of an African-American man physically and mentally scarred by his efforts to lighten his skin. In fact, the Life article and the photographs dont exist, say the magazines own historians.
And in perhaps the most seriously troubling set of gaffes of them all, Obama told a Portland crowd over the weekend that Iran doesnt pose a serious threat to us cluelessly arguing that tiny countries with small defense budgets cant do us harm and then promptly flip-flopped the next day, claiming, Ive made it clear for years that the threat from Iran is grave.
Barack Obama promoted by the Left and the media as an all-knowing, articulate, transcendent Messiah is a walking, talking gaffe machine. How many more passes does he get? How many more can we afford?
Post by: longeyes on May 28, 2008, 05:07:27 AM
Obama is the great beating heart of an America that never was.
Post by: MechAg94 on May 28, 2008, 05:48:49 AM
Post by: longeyes on May 28, 2008, 05:55:35 AM
Post by: The Annoyed Man on May 28, 2008, 06:45:51 AM
The thing about Obama is that he is, in essence, a storyteller, a mythmaker. If it sounds good he will say it. If his stories and myths were something we could all take strength from and live by, that would be a plus, but he is just part of the age of pap and bullcrap that is contemporary pop culture. He thrives in the world of Oprah and The View. This is what happens when you churn out morons and give them the vote.
Touche. Are there any woods deep enough to hide me from the mob?
Post by: HankB on May 28, 2008, 07:14:45 AM
Yes He Can!
Post by: MicroBalrog on May 28, 2008, 08:24:01 AM
So unless Obama had a really long-lived uncle in the Russian Army.
Post by: Scout26 on May 28, 2008, 08:38:07 AM
The thing about Obama is that he is, in essence, a storyteller, a mythmaker. If it sounds good he will say it. If his stories and myths were something we could all take strength from and live by, that would be a plus, but he is just part of the age of pap and bullcrap that is contemporary pop culture. He thrives in the world of Oprah and The View. This is what happens when you churn out morons and give them the vote.
Not only that, but he demonstrates his ignorance/stupidity on an almost daily basis and doesn't get called on it by the MSM.
A good storyteller weaves a tale that is plausable and believable. What Obama is trying to do is what Bill Clinton is good at, the believable lie. It's sad that so many of my fellow Americans "Hope for Change They Can Believe In" without know exactly what that Change will entail.
Post by: MechAg94 on May 28, 2008, 11:54:58 AM
Quote
Oh wait a minute, talk about mis-spoke. If we are to believe this web-site the World War II Kansas Veterans Index, Charles W. Payne[there are two so take your pick] - Obama's great uncle we are talking about - both enlisted in the US Navy.
Sen. Obama still has some explaining to do.
Sen. Obama still has some explaining to do.
Not sure if this is completely true until I can see other information backing it up. Very amusing if true though.
Post by: seeker_two on May 28, 2008, 01:24:23 PM
Auschwitz was not liberated by American forces.
So unless Obama had a really long-lived uncle in the Russian Army.
So unless Obama had a really long-lived uncle in the Russian Army.
I have no problem believing that he has strong family connections with the Soviet/Communist Army....
Post by: MechAg94 on May 28, 2008, 01:47:33 PM
This alone wouldn't bother me if there were not many other gaffes. How smart is this guy? He seems to have a week knowledge of history and about this country in general. He seems to have a fairly weak knowledge of recent political history as well. Neither of those are good qualities in a President.
Post by: longeyes on May 28, 2008, 01:54:08 PM
Post by: nico on May 28, 2008, 05:40:07 PM
Post by: Sergeant Bob on May 28, 2008, 06:26:13 PM
I'm guessing he didn't really think his uncle liberated Auschwitz; just that "Auschwitz" sounded better than "a concentration camp" and "uncle" sounded better than "great uncle."
And.........
Post by: K Frame on May 28, 2008, 08:15:23 PM
So EFFING what?
I called ALL of my great uncles... uncle, including Uncle Ralph, who was a surgeon in the Pacific during World War II, and Uncle Malvern, who was involved in every one of the 82nd Airborn's significant combat operation during the war.
I also called my great aunt Mary Aunt Mary, and she was a nurse on the Hospital Ship Solace during the war.
I even called my great grandmother... Grandma.
People spend far too much time focusing on the most retarded things.
Post by: MicroBalrog on May 28, 2008, 11:13:34 PM
Post by: agricola on May 29, 2008, 01:28:49 AM
So he called his great uncle his uncle.
So EFFING what?
I called ALL of my great uncles... uncle, including Uncle Ralph, who was a surgeon in the Pacific during World War II, and Uncle Malvern, who was involved in every one of the 82nd Airborn's significant combat operation during the war.
I also called my great aunt Mary Aunt Mary, and she was a nurse on the Hospital Ship Solace during the war.
I even called my great grandmother... Grandma.
People spend far too much time focusing on the most retarded things.
So EFFING what?
I called ALL of my great uncles... uncle, including Uncle Ralph, who was a surgeon in the Pacific during World War II, and Uncle Malvern, who was involved in every one of the 82nd Airborn's significant combat operation during the war.
I also called my great aunt Mary Aunt Mary, and she was a nurse on the Hospital Ship Solace during the war.
I even called my great grandmother... Grandma.
People spend far too much time focusing on the most retarded things.
True, but if you ran for political office and used your Aunt Mary's time on the Bismarck to demonstrate a political point, surely its not wrong to suggest that you might have made that bit up?
Post by: K Frame on May 29, 2008, 03:13:16 AM
To say he fabricated it? Yes, that is wrong. He didn't fabricate the basic facts. One rather simple statement can have multiple sets of facts associated with it. Getting two supporting facts incorrect, which Obama did in this case, doesn't poison the entire statement or make the whole thing false.
He neglected to say it was his great uncle. BFD. The man in question is his titurally his uncle. The man's EXACT genealogical pecking order isn't important.
He also got the name of the camp wrong. Another BFD. Auschwitz is the camp that is most in people's minds. Ask 100 random people to name a concentration camp, and I'd bet better than 90% of them say Auschwitz.
As I said, this is much BS ado about nothing. The basic facts are correct, and people are grasping at any straw they can right now to discredit the man.
Post by: Dannyboy on May 29, 2008, 03:31:47 AM
Post by: MechAg94 on May 29, 2008, 04:49:48 AM
I think there was a retraction issued that said he meant to say a couple of camps that were liberated by US forces. I bet they had to hire someone who knew enough about history to figure out which ones to name.
Post by: Sergeant Bob on May 29, 2008, 06:10:45 AM
Post by: agricola on May 29, 2008, 08:43:20 AM
I couldn't care less whether he said "uncle" or "great uncle" or "grammy" of whatever. Although, if a relative of mine had actually been involve in liberating a concentration camp, I'd like to think I might actually know the name of the camp, if it had actually happened, especially if I were going to use the story while running for president.
Exactly. Does anyone else misstate such an (apparently) important piece of family history?
He used this story in his presidential campaign, and so it is open (as it should be) to the most rigorous examination. I also note WND (admittedly not the most reliable of sources) are pointing out that his statements about his grandfather in his speech are not consistent with army documents or statements in his own autobiography.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=65577
Obama runs for office, and mentions the deeds of his forefathers as a reason why people should vote for him - he must expect people to question and verify his statements. Its the same as when he demanded people should lay off his wife - I am sure they would, if only she wasnt making political speeches and statements on his behalf.
Post by: MechAg94 on May 29, 2008, 08:46:53 AM
This is the evil Karl Rove, but I thought the statement toward the end was on target.
Quote
Obama's Revisionist History
By KARL ROVE
May 29, 2008; Page A15
This week's minor controversy about Barack Obama's claim that an uncle liberated Auschwitz was quickly put to rest by his campaign. They conceded that it was a great uncle whose unit liberated Buchenwald, 500 miles away.
But other, much more troubling, episodes have provided a revealing glimpse into a candidate who instinctively resorts to parsing, evasions and misdirection. The saga over Rev. Jeremiah Wright is Exhibit A. In just 62 days, Americans were treated to eight different explanations.
First, on Feb. 25, Mr. Obama downplayed Rev. Wright's divisiveness, saying he was "like an old uncle who sometimes will say things that I don't agree with." A week later, Mr. Obama insisted, "I don't think my church is actually particularly controversial," suggesting that Rev. Wright was criticized because "he was one of the leaders in calling for divestment from South Africa and some other issues like that."
The issue exploded on March 13, when ABC showed excerpts from Rev. Wright's sermons. Mr. Obama's spokesman said the senator "deeply disagrees" with Rev. Wright's statements, but "now that he is retired, that doesn't detract from Sen. Obama's affection for Rev. Wright or his appreciation for the good works he has done."
The next day, Mr. Obama offered a fourth defense: "The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation." Mr. Obama also told the Chicago Tribune, "In fairness to him, this was sort of a greatest hits. They basically culled five or six sermons out of 30 years of preaching."
Then, four days later, in Philadelphia, Mr. Obama finally repudiated Rev. Wright's comments, saying they "denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation." But Mr. Obama went on to say, "I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother. . . ."
Ten days later, Mr. Obama said if Rev. Wright had not retired as Trinity's pastor, and "had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended . . . then I wouldn't have felt comfortable staying there at the church." (Never mind that Rev. Wright had made no such acknowledgment.)
On April 28, at the National Press Club, Rev. Wright re-emerged not to apologize but to repeat some of his most offensive lines. This provoked an eighth defense: "[W]hatever relationship I had with Rev. Wright has changed, as a consequence of this. I don't think that he showed much concern for me. More importantly, I don't think he showed much concern for what we are trying to do in this campaign . . . ." Self-interest is a powerful, but not noble, sentiment in politics.
The Rev. Wright affair is just one instance where the Illinois senator has said something wrong or offensive, and then offered shifting explanations for his views. Consider flag pins.
Mr. Obama told an Iowa radio station last October he didn't wear an American flag lapel pin because, after 9/11, it had "became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues . . . ." His campaign issued a statement that "Senator Obama believes that being a patriot is about more than a symbol." To highlight his own moral superiority, he denigrated the patriotism of those who wore a flag.
Yet by April, campaigning in culturally conservative Pennsylvania, Mr. Obama was blaming others for the controversy he'd created, claiming, "I have never said that I don't wear flag pins or refuse to wear flag pins. This is the kind of manufactured issue that our politics has become obsessed with and, once again, distracts us . . . ." A month later Mr. Obama was once again wearing a pin, saying "Sometimes I wear it, sometimes I don't."
The Obama revision tour has been seen elsewhere. Last July, Mr. Obama pledged to meet personally and without precondition, during his first year, the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea. Criticized afterwards, he made his pledge more explicitly, naming Iranian President Ahmadinejad and Venezuela strongman Hugo Chávez as leaders he would grace with first-year visits.
By October, Mr. Obama was backpedaling, talking about needing "some progress or some indication of good faith," and by April, "sufficient preparation." It got so bad his foreign policy advisers were (falsely) denying he'd ever said he'd meet with Mr. Ahmadinejad even as he still defended his original pledge to have meetings without precondition.
The list goes on. Mr. Obama's problem is a campaign that's personality-driven rather than idea-driven. Thus incidents calling into question his persona and character can have especially devastating consequences.
Stripped of his mystique as a different kind of office seeker, he could become just another liberal politician only one who parses, evades, dissembles and condescends. That narrative is beginning to take hold. If those impressions harden into firm judgments, Mr. Obama will have a very difficult time in November.
By KARL ROVE
May 29, 2008; Page A15
This week's minor controversy about Barack Obama's claim that an uncle liberated Auschwitz was quickly put to rest by his campaign. They conceded that it was a great uncle whose unit liberated Buchenwald, 500 miles away.
But other, much more troubling, episodes have provided a revealing glimpse into a candidate who instinctively resorts to parsing, evasions and misdirection. The saga over Rev. Jeremiah Wright is Exhibit A. In just 62 days, Americans were treated to eight different explanations.
First, on Feb. 25, Mr. Obama downplayed Rev. Wright's divisiveness, saying he was "like an old uncle who sometimes will say things that I don't agree with." A week later, Mr. Obama insisted, "I don't think my church is actually particularly controversial," suggesting that Rev. Wright was criticized because "he was one of the leaders in calling for divestment from South Africa and some other issues like that."
The issue exploded on March 13, when ABC showed excerpts from Rev. Wright's sermons. Mr. Obama's spokesman said the senator "deeply disagrees" with Rev. Wright's statements, but "now that he is retired, that doesn't detract from Sen. Obama's affection for Rev. Wright or his appreciation for the good works he has done."
The next day, Mr. Obama offered a fourth defense: "The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation." Mr. Obama also told the Chicago Tribune, "In fairness to him, this was sort of a greatest hits. They basically culled five or six sermons out of 30 years of preaching."
Then, four days later, in Philadelphia, Mr. Obama finally repudiated Rev. Wright's comments, saying they "denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation." But Mr. Obama went on to say, "I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother. . . ."
Ten days later, Mr. Obama said if Rev. Wright had not retired as Trinity's pastor, and "had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended . . . then I wouldn't have felt comfortable staying there at the church." (Never mind that Rev. Wright had made no such acknowledgment.)
On April 28, at the National Press Club, Rev. Wright re-emerged not to apologize but to repeat some of his most offensive lines. This provoked an eighth defense: "[W]hatever relationship I had with Rev. Wright has changed, as a consequence of this. I don't think that he showed much concern for me. More importantly, I don't think he showed much concern for what we are trying to do in this campaign . . . ." Self-interest is a powerful, but not noble, sentiment in politics.
The Rev. Wright affair is just one instance where the Illinois senator has said something wrong or offensive, and then offered shifting explanations for his views. Consider flag pins.
Mr. Obama told an Iowa radio station last October he didn't wear an American flag lapel pin because, after 9/11, it had "became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues . . . ." His campaign issued a statement that "Senator Obama believes that being a patriot is about more than a symbol." To highlight his own moral superiority, he denigrated the patriotism of those who wore a flag.
Yet by April, campaigning in culturally conservative Pennsylvania, Mr. Obama was blaming others for the controversy he'd created, claiming, "I have never said that I don't wear flag pins or refuse to wear flag pins. This is the kind of manufactured issue that our politics has become obsessed with and, once again, distracts us . . . ." A month later Mr. Obama was once again wearing a pin, saying "Sometimes I wear it, sometimes I don't."
The Obama revision tour has been seen elsewhere. Last July, Mr. Obama pledged to meet personally and without precondition, during his first year, the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea. Criticized afterwards, he made his pledge more explicitly, naming Iranian President Ahmadinejad and Venezuela strongman Hugo Chávez as leaders he would grace with first-year visits.
By October, Mr. Obama was backpedaling, talking about needing "some progress or some indication of good faith," and by April, "sufficient preparation." It got so bad his foreign policy advisers were (falsely) denying he'd ever said he'd meet with Mr. Ahmadinejad even as he still defended his original pledge to have meetings without precondition.
The list goes on. Mr. Obama's problem is a campaign that's personality-driven rather than idea-driven. Thus incidents calling into question his persona and character can have especially devastating consequences.
Stripped of his mystique as a different kind of office seeker, he could become just another liberal politician only one who parses, evades, dissembles and condescends. That narrative is beginning to take hold. If those impressions harden into firm judgments, Mr. Obama will have a very difficult time in November.
Post by: nico on May 30, 2008, 07:50:07 AM
I'm guessing he didn't really think his uncle liberated Auschwitz; just that "Auschwitz" sounded better than "a concentration camp" and "uncle" sounded better than "great uncle."
And.........
haha, I forgot to type the and I was thinking of.
. . . AND he's arrogant enough to think that people would a) be too dumb to figure it out, and/or b) no one would notice. I agree that the great uncle vs. uncle isn't significant, and if it were an isolated incident, it wouldn't be a big deal either. The thing that bugs me is that he's gotten away with so many of these types of things ("I went to all 57 states," "10,000 people died in the tornado," etc.) yet (for example) Dan Quale misspells potato and becomes a permanent laughing stock.
Post by: SteveS on May 31, 2008, 02:15:56 PM
As I said, this is much BS ado about nothing. The basic facts are correct, and people are grasping at any straw they can right now to discredit the man.
You are correct:
Quote
WWII Vet Fires at Conservative Bloggers Re: Obama's Great Uncle Charlie
May 29, 2008 10:04 PM
His name, according to the Obama campaign, was Charles T. Payne.
He was born in February 1925, and he served in the 89th Infantry Division of the Army during World War II.
Checking out Obama's story -- you may recall that on Memorial Day, Obama mistakenly said his great uncle was one of the soldiers who helped liberate the concentration camp Auschwitz, when in fact the 89th helped liberate Buchenwald -- our friends at Politifact looked into the matter.
"Although we were not able to reach Payne directly, Payne's son, Richard Payne, said his father 'definitely served in the 89th Infantry Division' and confirmed that Obama's account was substantially accurate, except for identifying the wrong concentration camp. Richard Payne declined to say anything further."
Politifact spoke with researchers at the National Personnel Records Center, who reported that "Army personnel records for Payne would have been destroyed in a 1973 fire that consumed many such archives, but they dug up a 'Morning Report' dated April 11, 1945, showing Pfc. Charles T. Payne was assigned to the 355th Regiment Infantry, Company K. The Records Center provided a copy of the report."
Then there's the unofficial website dedicated to the 89th Infantry Division. Politifact spoke with Mark Kitchell, son of 89th veteran Raymond E. Kitchell, who has a list of servicemen -- a list that includes Pfc. C.T. Payne, K Company, 355th Infantry Regiment, 89th Infantry Division -- from the official Division History book.
Politifact concluded that while Obama erred in the name of the concentration camp, the story otherwise checked out.
May 29, 2008 10:04 PM
His name, according to the Obama campaign, was Charles T. Payne.
He was born in February 1925, and he served in the 89th Infantry Division of the Army during World War II.
Checking out Obama's story -- you may recall that on Memorial Day, Obama mistakenly said his great uncle was one of the soldiers who helped liberate the concentration camp Auschwitz, when in fact the 89th helped liberate Buchenwald -- our friends at Politifact looked into the matter.
"Although we were not able to reach Payne directly, Payne's son, Richard Payne, said his father 'definitely served in the 89th Infantry Division' and confirmed that Obama's account was substantially accurate, except for identifying the wrong concentration camp. Richard Payne declined to say anything further."
Politifact spoke with researchers at the National Personnel Records Center, who reported that "Army personnel records for Payne would have been destroyed in a 1973 fire that consumed many such archives, but they dug up a 'Morning Report' dated April 11, 1945, showing Pfc. Charles T. Payne was assigned to the 355th Regiment Infantry, Company K. The Records Center provided a copy of the report."
Then there's the unofficial website dedicated to the 89th Infantry Division. Politifact spoke with Mark Kitchell, son of 89th veteran Raymond E. Kitchell, who has a list of servicemen -- a list that includes Pfc. C.T. Payne, K Company, 355th Infantry Regiment, 89th Infantry Division -- from the official Division History book.
Politifact concluded that while Obama erred in the name of the concentration camp, the story otherwise checked out.
From: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/05/wwii-vet-fires.html