On Monday, April 27th, 2009 -- a
perfect storm of idiocy led to a frightening 9/11
flashback for thousands of New
Yorkers Monday when a jumbo jet and two F-16 fighter jets buzzed lower
Manhattan without warning. A "furious" Mayor Bloomberg denounced
the dunces who dreamed up the stunt, as an Obama administration official
said the mission, to get a picture of Air Force One flying around the
Statue of Liberty, was classified "Top Secret."
Bomb
Gaffe
Despite his huge support staff, Obama still manages to screw up
basic American historical facts -- from a speech in West
Lafayette, Indiana (CNN
transcripts) (video).
"Throughout our history, America's confronted constantly evolving
danger, from the oppression of an empire, to the lawlessness of the
frontier, from the bomb that fell on Pearl Harbor, to the threat
of nuclear annihilation. Americans have adapted to the threats posed by
an ever-changing world."
The History Place
tells
us that the Japanese attack force under the command of Admiral Nagumo,
consisting of six carriers with 423 planes -- according to the
Obamamessiah, ONLY ONE HAD A BOMB!
Eight battleships were damaged, with five sunk. Three light
cruisers, three destroyers and three smaller vessels were lost along with
188 aircraft. The casualty list included 2,335 servicemen and 68
civilians killed, with 1,178 wounded. Included are 1,104 men
aboard the Battleship USS Arizona.
That must have been "some bomb" - eh, Obama?
Where Do I
Work Gaffe
In this video, Obama
refers to the Banking Committee as "my
committee."
Obama: "Just this past week, we passed out of the
U.S. Senate Banking Committee, which is my committee, a bill…" (Obama
Press Conference, Sderot, Israel, July 23, 2008) (video)
The problem is, Obama is not on the Banking Committee and is not on
any of its subcommittees.
This probably explains why Obama never called a meeting of his
subcommittee on European relations to discuss the NATO effort in
Afghanistan.
He hasn't been at work in the U. S. Senate enough to even
know what his committee assignments are. He's too busy campaigning
in Europe on the taxpayers dime.
This certainly should give the voter the impression that Obama hasn't got a
handle on his current job, let alone the one for which he’s
campaigning.
Obama Speaks Austrian
Obama
responding to a question from an Austrian reporter at the 2009 G-20
Meeting:
At a news conference
afterward, Obama said his debut on the international stage had convinced
him that "political interaction in Europe is not that different from the
United States Senate," where he served before entering the White House.
"There’s a lot of -- I don’t know what the term is in Austrian --
wheeling and dealing, and people are pursuing their interests, and
everybody has their own particular issues and their own particular
politics..."
Tricky language,
Austrian.
Obama Speaks Mexican
Mary Katharine Ham likes
to note these
little incidents when they happen, not because she thinks it makes Obama
an idiot because he occasionally stumbles over his words, but because
his somewhat overblown reputation as the most cerebral, eloquent,
utterly erudite president of all time could really use a pricking every
now and then.
Also, because if Bush had made such a blunder, it
would have been the basis of a four-part MSNBC investigative series on
the malapropism's deleterious effects on the Republican Party's attempts
to woo Hispanic voters, Mexican-American relations, and our "place in
the world."
So, Obama, Mary Katharine will not turn your tendency
to misspeak (and, then reprimand your Teleprompter) into an
international incident, but she will note it with some glee:
On
the eve of the Mexican holiday, Obama on Monday had an event in the East
Room of the White House with Mexico's Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan.
Obama joked
that it was "Cinco de Cuatro," botching a play on the Spanish word for
"four" when he meant to say "Cuatro de Mayo," or the Fourth of May. He
tried again, but he still did not get it right.
This from a
unilingual man who's embarrassed that more of us can't speak French and
suggested that we all learn Spanish. If only he were as conversant in
Spanish as he is in noted non-language "Austrian," this wouldn't have
happened.
The literal translation of "cinco de cuatro" is "five
of four." Maybe Obama was talking about the time of day? He
quits working at 4 PM -- it's in his union contract -- and was just
warning all present that he was done for the day -- he gets
tired, you know.
Bitter
Obama came
under fire today for saying small-town Pennsylvania residents were
"bitter" and "cling to guns or religion," in comments his rivals said
showed an elitist view of the middle class.
"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a
lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25
years and nothing's replaced them." Obama said.
"And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to
guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or
anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain
their frustrations." he said.
What makes this so
breathtaking is the mindless, casual way in which Obama reveals his
snobbishness and elitism. We saw hints of this from
Michelle Obama, in her assertions about never being proud of her country
until her husband ran for President. We had not seen it from Obama
himself in such a blatant and unmistakable manner. The
matter-of-fact style in which he spoke this shows the unthinking
contempt he has for people he has never engaged -- an acceptance of
stereotypes without questioning them that shows his own bigotry, not to
mention foolishness and poor judgment.
Obama explained that
simple rural folks and other proletarians would abandon their unpleasant
devotion to firearms and religion if only the Executive Branch of the
Federal Government would preserve their factory jobs. If Obama
sounds familiar here, he should. His comments have a proud pedigree.
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a
heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It
is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as
the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real
happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their
condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires
illusions."
That is Karl Marx in Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, 1843.
Obama is saying exactly the same thing as Marx. They each argue
religion exists because the life of a proletarian worker is frustrating
and unsatisfying. Both Obama and Marx argue that the proletarians
cling to religion, not for its own sake, but because the economic system
is not satisfying their social needs. To Marx’s evaluation of
religion, Obama adds firearms and other aspects of rural life in America
that progressives don’t approve of.
This isn’t a mistake. This isn’t a misquote. This is another
insight into how Obama thinks. The comments that he and his wife
make reveal their "progressive" world view. It is socialist, it is
fascist and it is obvious. All you have to do is listen.
"[T]hey cling to guns…" Cling to guns? Americans have "clung" to
guns since the founding of the Republic. It’s such a core value to
this nation that its founders placed it second on the Bill of Rights,
right after freedom of speech and religion. Speaking of which …
"or [they cling to] religion …" People don’t become religious
because the economy hits a few bumps in the road. Obama may have
chosen his religion based on politics, but most people follow a religion
out of a deeper sense of spirituality. I can’t think of a more
condescending and contemptuous analysis of religious dedication than
this statement.
"or [they cling to] antipathy to people who aren’t like them or
anti-immigrant sentiment…" Small-town voters are bigots and
xenophobes; there’s no other way to read the first part of this
statement. The second part, about them being "anti-immigrant," is
a non-sequitur. They may be anti-illegal immigrant, but that’s a
far different issue. Obama offers no proof that small-town voters
are xenophobes, but the Frisco audience didn’t demand any, either.
It’s part of their own bigotry that makes them see middle America in
those terms.
"or [they cling to] anti-trade sentiment …" And this is just jaw-droppingly
hypocritical. This comes from the same candidate who opposes the
Colombian free-trade agreement and wants to throw NAFTA out the window.
Who’s clinging to anti-trade sentiment? Obama, Hillary Clinton,
and Big Labor.
It would be difficult to be any more condescending or insulting in so
many ways to so many voters in a single sentence. It reveals a
deeply elitist and shockingly callow candidate. It’s the "Let them
eat cake" of 2008.
Bitter Too
At North Carolina's Wesleyan College in Rocky Mount, N.C., Clinton
campaign North Carolina chieftain Tom Hendrickson, a former state party
chair,
made much hay out of the "small town" comments made by Sen. Barack
Obama, D-Ill.
"I normally just come and talk about President Clinton and Senator
Clinton at these, but today Senator Obama was out at a fundraiser at I
guess a brie and chardonnay crowd in San Francisco," Hendrickson said.
"But his quote talking about small towns in Pennsylvania -- and which
applies to small towns across eastern North Carolina -- which is why it
is relevant to this tour we are doing today. And his quote is 'and
it is not surprising that they cling to guns and religion or antipathy
to people who aren't like them, or anti-immigrant or anti-trade as a way
to explain their frustration.'"
"I listened to that quote and I got mad," Hendrickson said, "and
I wanted to reach out to Senator Obama and say senator, we are from the
rural part of eastern North Carolina. We are very proud of our
heritage, we are proud of who we are. We are not frustrated.
We are not bitter. We turn to our faith because we believe, and we
hunt and fish because it is part of our culture and we enjoy it."
Obama Flunks World War II History
Obama is a history buff. When
he makes a political point he instinctively reaches for the historical
parallel: the Lincolnesque "team of rivals" making up his cabinet,
Winston Churchill's attitude to torture or his own family's experience
of World War II.
The only
problem is that he sometimes gets
history wrong. His plan to visit Buchenwald is in part a tribute to his
great-uncle, Charlie Payne, who participated in the liberation of Ohrdruf, a satellite camp. Last May, however, Obama said that his
uncle "was part of the first American troops to go into Auschwitz."
Republicans pointed out that it was the Soviets who liberated Auschwitz.
"Unless his uncle was serving in the Red Army, there's no way
Obama's statement can be true," a Republican spokesman said. The
Democratic candidate issued a correction, but critical historians have
found earlier examples of Obama's elastic approach to the facts. In
2002 he cited the wartime experiences of his grandfather, Stanley
Dunham. "My grandfather...heard the stories of fellow troops who first
entered Auschwitz and Treblinka."
Treblinka, like Auschwitz, is
in Poland, and was also liberated by Soviet troops. Last week Obama
extrapolated from another historical example -- the prohibition of
torture in wartime Britain -- to conclude: "Churchill said 'We don't
torture' when ... all of the British people were being subjected to
unimaginable risk and threat." Historians pounced again, pointing out
there was no record of Churchill explicitly banning torture.
In
fact, a November 2005 story in the Guardian
details torture by British soldiers between 1940 and 1948, at the
Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre -- known as the "London
Cage" -- run by MI19, responsible for interrogating enemy prisoners of
war.
The Guardian concluded that the London Cage "was used
partly as a torture centre," where 3,573 German officers and soldiers
were brutally interrogated. SS Captain Fritz Knoechlein, taken to
the Cage in October 1946, alleged he was starved, beaten and kept awake
for four days straight.
Helpless And Hapless Without TOTUS
Obama's ongoing teleprompter battle continues at MIT today (
00:31)
Obama's Frightening Insensitivity
Robert George
says Obama didn't wait long after Tuesday's devastating elections to
give critics another reason to question his leadership, but this time
the subject matter was more grim than a pair of governorships.
After news broke out of the shooting at the Fort Hood Army post in
Texas, the nation watched in horror as the toll of dead and injured
climbed. The White House was notified immediately and by late
afternoon, word went out that Obama would speak about the incident prior
to a previously scheduled appearance. At about 5 p.m., cable
stations went to Obama. The situation called for not only his
trademark eloquence, but also grace and perspective.
But instead
of a somber chief executive offering reassuring words and expressions of
sympathy and compassion, viewers saw a wildly disconnected and
inappropriately light Obama making introductory remarks. At the
event, a Tribal Nations Conference hosted by the Department of
Interior's Bureau of Indian affairs, he thanked various staffers and
offered a "shout-out" to "Dr. Joe Medicine Crow -- that Congressional
Medal of Honor winner." Three minutes in, Obama spoke about the
shooting, in measured and appropriate terms. Who is advising him?
Anyone at home aware of the major news story of the previous hours
had to have been stunned. An incident like this requires a
scrapping of the early light banter. Obama should apologize for
the tone of his remarks, explain what has happened, express sympathy for
those slain and appeal for calm and patience until all the facts are in.
That's the least that should occur.
Indeed, an argument could be
made that Obama should have canceled the Indian event, out of respect
for people having been murdered at an Army post a few hours before.
That would have prevented any sort of jarring emotional switch at the
event.
Did Obama's team not realize what sort of image they were
presenting to the country at this moment? The disconnect between
what Americans at home knew had been going on -- and the initial words
coming out of his mouth was jolting, if not disturbing.
It must
have been disappointing for many politically aware Democrats, still
reeling from the election two days before. The New Jersey
gubernatorial vote had already demonstrated that Obama and his political
team couldn't produce a winning outcome in a state very friendly to
Democrats (and where he won by 15 points one year ago). And now
this? Congressional Democrats must wonder if a White House that
has burdened them with a too-heavy policy agenda over the last year has
a strong enough political operation to help push that agenda through.
If Obama's communications apparatus can't inform -- and protect
-- their boss during tense moments when the country needs to see a
focused and compassionate leader, it has disastrous consequences for his
party and supporters.
All of Obama's men (and women) fell down
on the job Thursday. And Democrats across the country have real
reason to panic.
Obama's TV
appearance was actually worse than the above description.
He was
cold, and read his statement as though he were describing how the White
House budget is prepared -- it was a shocking display of detachment --
but as a person that loathes all things military, not surprising.
By the way, Joe Medicine Crow is not a recipient of the Medal of
Honor. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- and from
Obama.
Obama is so
clueless he doesn't know the difference between the nation's highest
award that recognizes "gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his [or
her] life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action
against an enemy of the United States," and an award made for "an
especially meritorious contribution to the security or national
interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other
significant public or private endeavors."
Smarty-pants Obama
should know the difference between the Medal of Honor and the Medal of
Freedom -- especially since he personally awarded the latter to Crow.
Don't expect this blunder to receive wide coverage. It's
not something he can blame George Bush for.
This Guy Is Clueless
This is why they don't let Obama speak without
TOTUS
(03:21)
What's a Corpse, Man?
The dangers of being so heavily dependent on a
teleprompter (00:54)
And not knowing what the hell you're talking about -- Obama twice
mispronounces Navy "corpsman"
(kôr′mən) -- and this is the guy who's telling
the generals and admirals how to run the war.
John Hinderaker
adds, what is significant about this is that "corpsman" is a
military term. Obama knows little or nothing about the
military; it is as though he said "col-o-nel" instead of "kernel."
There are corpsmen stationed in the White House, but, after more
than a year, Obama apparently doesn't know who they are, what they
do, or how to pronounce their job.
God help Dan Quayle if he
had done something as stupid as saying "corpse-man." He never
did. Will Obama be laughed out of the Oval Office? The
jury is out.
Afterthought: This video
makes it obvious, that the first time Obama sees these speeches are
when they show up on the teleprompter, otherwise someone on his staff
surely would have corrected his pronunciation before the
event.
The Constitutional Law Professor
During the presidential campaign, Obama consistently and falsely
claimed
that he was a constitutional law professor. The Sun-Times reported
that, "several direct-mail pieces issued for Obama's primary [Senate]
campaign said he was a law professor at the University of Chicago. He
was not. He was a senior lecturer at the school. In academia, there is
a vast difference between the two titles.
As a "constitutional
law instructor," Obama has been quoted as saying that the Constitution
of the United States is a flawed document.
Jim O'Neill
noticed
that in his State of the Union address, our constitutional scholar
stated that "We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the
promise enshrined in our Constitution: the notion that we are all
created equal…."
There’s a problem here, however. It turns
out that "the notion that we are all created equal" is not "enshrined in
our Constitution" -- it’s from the Declaration of Independence.
This
mistaken attribution is an understandable faux pas for your average
person, but Obama’s supposed to be a Harvard-trained constitutional
lawyer. It doesn’t say much for Harvard Law School, or Obama’s
grasp of the Constitution, when he confuses the U.S. Constitution with
the Declaration of Independence.
These guys are so picky. It
was obviously an error on the part of
TOTUS.
Mayor Bans Obama From Las Vegas
The list of people banned from Las Vegas is a litany of dishonor.
But among the swindlers, fixers and mobsters -- many of their mugshots
displayed on the Nevada Gaming Commission’s website under the heading
Excluded, Wanted & Denied -- is a new and rather unlikely name: that of
Barack H. Obama, of Washington.
"I want to assure you that when
he comes [here], I’ll do everything I can to give him the boot," growled
Oscar Goodman, the Mayor of Las Vegas, before Air Force One swooped down
over Sin City’s infamous "Strip" for a presidential visit that was
expected to last less than 24 hours.
Goodman was not there to
greet Obama when he stepped on to the tarmac of McCarran International,
having turned down an invitation from the White House. Nor was he
expected to attend any of Obama’s events -- an astonishing rebuff by a
lowly city mayor to a US leader.
With Obama’s visit intended in
large part to help the re-election chances of the deeply unpopular
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -- a man who opined with excruciating
candor that Obama’s victory in 2008 was a result of him being a
"light-skinned African-American, with no Negro dialect" -- the mayor’s
snub was threatening to turn an already awkward situation into a
full-blown political debacle.
But as of last night, Goodman was
undeterred. A rotund and unshaven former Mob lawyer, who is rarely
pictured without a Martini glass in his hand, flanked by showgirls, the
70-year-old mayor is livid about what he regards as Obama’s repeated
attacks on his beloved city, which has been hurt badly by the recession.
Wouldn't you have just loved to have been a fly on the wall when Obama and his
henchmen opened the Washington Post yesterday morning.
Read the
text box under the picture of black radical, Malcolm X. Somebody
used Malcolm's photo in place of Obama's. How did this ever get by
the editors and proofreaders?
Obama Won't Golf With Limbaugh
The New York Post's, Page Six,
says that when Barack Obama was asked if he would play a round of
golf with his talk-radio nemesis Rush Limbaugh, the response, relayed by
a top Democrat, was: "Limbaugh can play with himself."
Stay
classy, Barack.
"Countries Like Europe"
Barack Obama says our approach to immigration makes us stronger than
"countries like Europe." (00:29)
Obama Omits "Creator" While Quoting
Declaration
Jonathon Seidl
reports that two days before the country was set to
celebrate Constitution Day, Obama decided to invoke the words of another
founding document: the Declaration of Independence. Except he
changed the words.
Towards the end of a speech on September 15 to
the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Obama began quoting the
famous "rights" line from the founding document. But partway
through, he omitted where those rights come from: a Creator.
The
line is supposed to read:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
But Obama’s
recitation left out an important part:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are crated equal. [long and purposeful pause] Endowed
with certain inalienable [sic] rights: life and liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness."
As the American Thinker points out, it could well
be that Obama intentionally ignored his teleprompter:
After Obama
says "created equal...", there is a long pause during which he scowls
and blinks several times. For once, he may actually have opted to
not read something that was on the teleprompter. It looks like he
is disgusted and decided it would be better not to read what the
[Declaration] actually says.
So, did he just forget the words,
maybe couldn’t see the lines, or did he leave them out intentionally?
You decide:
Obama speaking to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus
(01:12)
At
least he didn't say, "...all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by Allah..."
Follow Up To Obama's "Creator" Gaffe
Jeffrey H. Anderson
says the most famous words in the Declaration of Independence -- and
almost surely the most famous words ever written by an American -- read,
"We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of
Happiness."
On Friday evening, when Obama addressed the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, he quoted that passage as
follows (on the clip at 00:52): "We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal [pause], endowed with
certain unalienable rights: life and liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness."
In Obama’s version, there is no "Creator."
Only two plausible explanations spring to mind. One is that Obama isn’t very familiar with the most famous passage in the document
that founded this nation; that even when plainly reading from a
teleprompter, he wasn’t able to quote it correctly. The other is that
Obama doesn’t subscribe to the Declaration’s rather central
claim that our rights come from our "Creator" (also referred to in the
Declaration as "Nature’s God" and "the Supreme Judge of the World").
Only Obama likely knows for certain which of these two
explanations is true, or whether perhaps there is another. His nearly
4-second pause before he omits reference to our Creator, however, is
peculiar. He stares at the teleprompter, purses his lips, blinks several
times -- as if confused, disturbed, and/or in the process of making a
decision -- and then proceeds to use his alternate wording.
Obama
doesn't think like an American. He
doesn't talk like an American. He
doesn't act like an American.
Professor Obama Gets It Wrong, AGAIN!
Jim Hoft
noticed that Barack Obama told the
Hispanic Caucus in his "Creator" speech that "Mexicans" were here in America long
before the United States was an idea.
Here’s the quote:
"Let me close by saying
this. Long before America was even an idea, this land of plenty was home
to many peoples. The British and French, the Dutch and Spanish, to
Mexicans, to countless Indian tribes. We all shared the same land."
Sorry Barack. Mexico first became a state, independent of Spain, in
1821. According to the CIA World Fact Book (which 0bama must not have
read) has the following entry for Mexico:
Independence: 16
September 1810 (declared); 27 September 1821 (recognized by Spain)
Obama is either ignorant or hoping the American news reporters and a
majority of the American public are ignorant.
While the Spanish
made colonies in North and South America prior to 1776 and while Spanish
military, Spanish colonial administrators, and Spanish Catholic
missionaries were operating in parts of North America by 1776,
(1) the real Mexicans, the natives of Mexico were not a dominant part of
those efforts (they were the peasants controlled by the Spanish
colonialists who were no different than the other Europeans in North and
South America) and
(2) the U.S. was a nation before "Mexico" was
an independent nation and not a colony of Spain.
The ignorance of
modern Americans -- created by the American schools -- allows "the
Hispanic" activists to present the myth that modern day "Mexicans", a
society driven predominately from the descendants of its European
Spanish colonial immigrants and, with some of those immigrants the
natives they married, presents them collectively, with the same status
as people like the Aztecs (nearly eliminated by the Spanish) or many of
the North American native tribes as "native" here, compared to the
society of the United States.
Its a myth; their "nation" and
their society is no less a product of European colonialism than the rest
of North America.
It’s a convenient myth, pushed by Hispanic
activists and various Left wing and "open borders" types, in ignorance
by many of them and as never-to-admit lies by those that know better.
The Clown-In-Chief
Chris Salcedo says, "Obama went on the The
Daily Show to try to bring back the youth vote magic, but he ended up
the butt of the joke. Heckuva job, Mr. President!"
Who
would have thought that the presidency of the United States could have
been degraded any more than it had been in the Clinton years? Oh
but it has. In the short span of two years, Obama has managed to
sully the office every bit as much as President Clinton did in eight
years. Maybe it’s not so surprising. He is after all an
overachiever. This law professor, who we found out after the
election wasn’t … this senator, with the thinnest of resumes … this
radical leftist that sought, in his own words, to "fundamentally change
America" and "cause energy rates to necessarily skyrocket," and
encouraged Hispanics to target his "enemies" has done more damage to our
nation than any other president in our history. I’m including
Carter here. So why am I surprised to see the so-called leader of
the free world hitting the comedy shows before an election that is
expected to wipe out Democrat majorities in Congress?
With six
days remaining before the election Obama hit The Daily Show with Jon
Stewart. Let me say for the record that The Daily Show is one of
the most entertaining shows on TV. Is it a forum where serious
people go to talk about serious issues? No. That fact was on
display during this "interview" with Obama. Stewart, with plenty of
goading from the left-wing audience, proceeded to tease Obama about the
perception that he hasn’t been liberal enough. Stewart reminded
Obama of all the sycophants that cheered when he made statements like,
"We can’t expect different results with the same people."
Then Obama hired a Clinton retread, Larry Summers, as director of the
White House National Economic Council. Stewart lamented, "That
seems like the exact same person." Obama retorted, "In fairness,
Larry Summers did a heck of a job trying to figure out how to …"
"You don’t want to use that phrase, dude," Stewart cautioned.
DUDE!? … DUDE!!?? Now who could have seen that coming?
Why would anyone expect to have a comedian refer to the leader of our
nation as "dude"? I don’t blame Stewart really. I have
little respect for Obama’s ideology and worldview. But the office
he holds requires the utmost respect from any citizen regardless of
party or ideology. I doubt Obama would have been called "dude" on
a hard-hitting news program that addressed other concerns that 80%
percent of the country who don’t identify themselves as liberal might
have wanted addressed. But that was the point, wasn’t it?
Obama will appear on a show where he won’t get challenged and where
everyone expects to laugh. And the nation stared in amazement as
Obama was the biggest joke of the night.
Related:White House deems Obama's
"Daily Show" appearance "a success"
Clueless
"As I said, we will be out of Afghanistan by
the end of this year" … "Combat operations in Afghanistan have
ended."
Obama demonstrates that he doesn't know
the difference between Afghanistan and Iraq.
"Afghanistan ...
Iraq ... Afghanistan ... Iraq." He even talks over the
reporter who tries to correct him.
You can't blame him
though. Neither country has a basketball team.
Wonderful World, Obama Style
Scott Johnson
says
Barack Obama's theme song may as well be the Sam Cooke classic
"Wonderful World," or at least the part of it in which the singer
confesses he "Don't know much about history." During the 2008
campaign Obama regularly issued sophisticated historical pronouncements
that demonstrated he simply didn't know what he was talking about, even
though he sure loved talking about it. And he hasn't let up much
since.
Criticizing the Bush administration's treatment of the
Guantanamo detainees, for example, Obama asserted that the "principle of
habeas corpus, that a state can't just hold you for any reason without
charging you and without giving you any kind of due process -- that's
the essence of who we are."
Obama explained: "I mean, you
remember during the Nuremberg trials, part of what made us different was
even after these Nazis had performed atrocities that no one had ever
seen before, we still gave them a day in court and that taught the
entire world about who we are, but also the basic principles of rule of
law." Referring to the Boumediene decision, Obama said: "Now the
Supreme Court upheld that principle."
At Nuremberg, however, an
international military commission composed of representatives of the
victorious Allies put the top surviving Nazi leaders on trial starting
in late 1945 -- sort of like the military commissions that Obama was
criticizing, but for the fact that the Nuremberg defendants had no
access to federal courts, no right of habeas corpus, no right of appeal,
and far fewer procedural protections than the Guantanamo detainees.
Other than that, I guess, right on!
That wasn't Obama's only
high-minded howler. Seeking to demonstrate the wisdom of
unconditional meetings with our adversaries, Obama cited John F.
Kennedy's 1961 summit with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna
among the series of negotiations that led to America's triumph over the
Soviet Union in the Cold War, and FDR's meetings with, well, nobody.
The Kennedy-Khrushcev summit in Vienna, moreover, disproved Obama's
assertion regarding the unvarying value of meetings between enemy heads
of state about as decisively as any historical episode can refute a
thesis. Obama may as well have cited the Munich Conference of 1938
to prove the value of negotiations in conflict resolution.
Once
in office Obama was at it again. At his 100-day press conference,
Obama invoked Churchill rejecting the use of torture for interrogation
in the days of the Blitz during World War II. Obama instructed the
assembled multitude: "I was struck by an article that I was reading the
other day talking about the fact that the British during World War II,
when London was being bombed to smithereens, had 200 or so detainees.
And Churchill said, 'We don't torture,' when the entire British -- all
of the British people -- were being subjected to unimaginable risk and
threat....the reason was that Churchill understood -- you start taking
shortcuts, over time, that corrodes what's best in a people. It
corrodes the character of a country."
Now if you've ever read
much Churchill or any competent history of World War II, you would have
a pretty good idea that one thing Churchill never said in the course of
a long life is: "We don't torture." Churchill was not a liberal
sentimentalist on the subject of means and ends in war. Is there
anything he would not have done to advance Britain's survival and
victory in World War II? Not bloody likely. "If Hitler
invaded Hell," Churchill famously remarked with respect to the German
invasion of the Soviet Union, "I would at least make a favorable
reference to the Devil in the House of Commons."
Churchill, in
fact, favored summarily executing the Nuremberg defendants without
benefit of trial, and he had no qualms about the killing of captured
German spies to facilitate the cooperation of others in connection with
the Double Cross System. "Some had to perish," J.C. Masterman
explained, "both to satisfy the country that the security of the country
was being maintained and to convince the Germans that the others were
working properly and not under control."
Obama was at it again
last week. A senior aide told the New York Times: "He keeps
reminding us that the best revolutions are completely organic."
Historian Niall Ferguson takes a whack at this one: "I like that notion
of organic revolutions -- guaranteed no foreign additives, exclusive to
Whole Foods. I like it because, like so much about this
administration, it is both trendy and ignorant." As Ferguson amply
demonstrates.
During the campaign, I kept an open mind on the
question whether Obama was exploiting the ignorance of target voters or
simply didn't know what he was talking about. I agree with
Ferguson that the answer is the latter, but let it be noted it is a
condition that applies to Obama's "senior aides" as well.
"WTF" Of The Day
Bob Parks
says I
know this is supposed to be the smartest administration ever, but I’m
sorry; if I were running a campaign with a fairly unpopular incumbent,
the last thing I’d do is have a reelection slogan whose initials were
"WTF."
Obama Has No Idea What Year It Is
New York Magazine
is reporting that this is how Obama signed the guestbook at
Westminster Abbey earlier yesterday, where he got a tour from the Very
Reverend Dr. John Hall and laid a wreath on the Grave of the Unknown
Warrior.
It is a great privilege to commemorate our
common heritage, and common sacrifice.
Barack Obama
24
May 2008
It was really nice until he got the date wrong by
three years. Granted, 2008 was a great
year for him, and we might try to live it for
as long as possible, too, if we were him.
Update: For those who find the
European-style date suspicious, the Telegraph
reports that a "Westminster Abbey spokeswoman
confirmed it was the president who had written
the wrong date."
I'd like
to know what a handwriting expert has to say
about his signature that dwarfs the message?
Then He Dissed The British National Anthem
Obama suffered an awkward moment during a
banquet at Buckingham Palace last night when he broke royal protocol by
speaking over the national anthem.
Ben Johnson
says, "If Dan Quayle, Sarah Palin, or George W. Bush had so flubbed
royal protocol that the Queen of England politely ignored them, every
major network would have played the clip on continuous loop and the late
night comedians would belittle the rustic rubes for days."
Related:British Newspaper Blasted
Bush's Etiquette Flub, but Glosses Over Obama's
Definitely not the coolest guy in
the room.
The Intercontinental Railroad?
"We’re the country that built the Intercontinental Railroad,"
Barack Obama.
The LA Times
says that's what the reader-in-chief
flat-out said Thursday during what was supposed to be a photo op to sell
his jobs plan next to an allegedly deteriorating highway bridge.
A railroad between continents? A railroad from, say, New York City
all the way across the Atlantic to France? Now, THAT would be a
bridge!
It's yet another humorous gaffe by the Harvard graduate, overlooked
by most media for whatever reason. Like Obama saying Abraham-Come-Lately
Lincoln was the founder of the Republican Party. Or Navy corpseman. Or
the Austrian language. Fifty-seven states. The president of Canada. Etc.
If you talk as much as this guy likes to talk instead of governing,
if you believe you are a Real Good Talker as much as this guy does,
you're gonna blow a few lines. But this many?
No doubt, we'll see a collection of Obama's Best Bombs on Saturday
Night Live this weekend, one right after the other. No doubt.
Lincoln
did play a role in the building of the "transcontinental railroad."
