Obama’s Foot-in-Mouth Syndrome
Barack Obama's verbal gaffes are becoming more frequent as the campaign goes along. But do the voters really care?
Is it my imagination, or is it true that the closer Barack Obama gets to sewing up the Democratic nomination for president, the more outrageous his gaffes and misstatements of fact become?
For an answer, I turned to the fairest, most practical, most logical person I know: my girlfriend Zsusanna. Now my Zsu Zsu is not a political junkie by any means. But she keeps up with things — if only to have something to talk to me about besides the weather and our never ending battle over whose turn it is to clean the litter box.
In fact, some campaign would do well to hire her on as the perfect bellwether of what Americans are thinking about when it comes to politics. She’d do better than any poll they could run as far as telling them what voters were thinking and feeling about a candidate and the issues. She has an unerring sense of what people find important and what they could care less about.
So I asked her about all these gaffes Obama had been making recently.
SHE: Gaffes?
ME: Yeah, you know. Like when Obama said his uncle helped liberate Auschwitz even though it was Russian troops who did it.
SHE: Why would he say something like that?
ME: Apparently, his campaign says he misspoke.
SHE: (Snort).
ME: No, it’s true. His uncle helped liberate some other camp, not Auschwitz.
SHE: And this is what you do all day, what you write about? What’s this got to do with the price of gas? Gimme another.
ME: How about yesterday when he told a Memorial Day crowd he saw “fallen heroes” in the audience — dead people.
SHE: And?
ME: Don’t you find that disturbing?
SHE: Not as disturbing as a near doubling in egg prices recently.
Leave it to my Zsu Zsu to get to the nub of what’s important to the American people in this election.
The fact is, Obama can make one gaffe after another, but unless he is caught in an outright lie — as Hillary was with her death-defying Tuzla sniper run — most of the voters who haven’t really made up their minds yet are very forgiving.
Of course, it might be different if the press covered Obama’s misstatements of facts and other campaign blunders the same way the cover, let’s say, Republican faux pas. PJM’s special DC correspondent Jennifer Rubin in Commentary:
Isn’t Obama supposed to be highly educated, sophisticated, a great intellect? Shouldn’t the media’s bar be higher for this brilliant leader of the new age of politics? Had it been Hillary Clinton or Al Gore who made all these errors, we would have heard by now that the candidate was a fabulist. Had it been John McCain it would have been a sign of senility. Had it been George W. Bush . . . oh, you can imagine. So maybe Obama’s gaffes are a sign of inexperience and shallow knowledge? Nah, couldn’t be.
More questions along that line from NRO’s Campaign Spot, where Jim Geraghty wonders about poor Dan Quayle’s “potato” problem and President Bush’s classic “Too many OB-GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across this country.” Why did the press have a feeding frenzy when those gaffes occurred but not for any of Obama’s eye-poppers?
If the MSM would either A) be more forgiving of Republican officials who they don’t like or B) be a little tougher on Democratic officials they do like, the world would be a better place. In this case, I don’t think Barack Obama is deliberately lying, or trying to pull a fast one. It sounds like a family “legend” in which the specific horrors of war witnessed by his uncle are mistaken as the years go by. It happens, and Obama only deserves the lightest of metaphorical slaps on the wrist for it. But it would help if his fans in the press actually paid attention to what he says.
It’s not like the press hasn’t had opportunities. As far back as last year — when Obama made mention of how his parents met as a result of the Kennedy Administration sponsoring Kenyan students to come to America to study, only to have it come out a little later that the program was not a government-run operation and that it began before Kennedy was even elected — has it become obvious that Obama gaffes were going to be treated just a little bit differently than those made by Republican candidates.
Michelle Malkin compiled a list of some of the candidate’s more outrageous misstatements including a couple of really ignorant spewings:
* Earlier this month in Oregon, he redrew the map of the United States: “Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.”
* 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 it’s harder for us to use them in Afghanistan.” The real reason it’s “harder for us to use them” in Afghanistan: Iraqis speak Arabic or Kurdish. The Afghanis speak Pashto, Farsi, or other non-Arabic languages.
* [Last] weekend in Oregon, Obama pleaded ignorance of the decades-old, multibillion-dollar massive Hanford nuclear-waste cleanup: “Here’s something that you will rarely hear from a politician, and that is that I’m not familiar with the Hanford, uuuuhh, site, so I don’t know exactly what’s going on there. (Applause.) Now, having said that, I promise you I’ll 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 he’s voted on at least one defense-authorization bill that addressed the “costs, schedules, and technical issues” dealing with the nation’s most contaminated nuclear-waste site.
So I believe my Zsu Zsu when she tells me that the average voter doesn’t care if Obama thinks there are 57 states in the union or that he voted in total ignorance on an issue of vital importance to a whole lot of people. Taken separately, they don’t amount to much — perhaps a tired candidate whose mouth gets ahead of his brain or a faulty memory about events in the distant past made even more difficult to recall under the pressures of a presidential campaign.
The big question is: if the press cared a little more, would that change the minds of some voters?
Rick Moran is PJM Chicago editor; his own blog is Right Wing Nut House.
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58 Comments
1. vb:It might at least raise some questions about his competence.
Regarding the family legend: Wouldn’t the personal connection to the liberation of the concentration camps have been a hook drawing one to the theme as one read and studied WWII? I would have studied the films of those events to see if my great uncle was there. It would have caused me to look harder and study more. But Obama seems to have little knowledge of or interest in Europe or WWII. Perhaps this wasn’t cool in his leftist circle.
May 28, 2008 - 3:13 am 2. David Thomson:“So I believe my Zsu Zsu when she tells me that the average voter doesn’t care if Obama thinks there are 57 states…”
I am more than willing to cut slack for a tired candidate who occasionally misspeaks. But that’s not what is going on regarding Barack “Barry” Obama! No, he is consistently being caught not having his facts straight—if not outright lying. Michael Barone looks at the polling data and concludes that increasingly Americans don’t trust Obama. This admittedly is not going to make a bit difference with the typical post modernist Democratic Party voter. They simply do not care. Obama can take for granted 40% of the electorate on Election Day. It is, however, the middle-of-the-road, swing voters and Republicans that he is losing. Rick Moran may even be a quintessential example. A few months ago, I got the distinct impression that he was tempted to cast his ballot for Obama. Somehow I suspect that this is no longer the case.
May 28, 2008 - 3:19 am 3. SAM:These kinds of things need to be appropriately assigned to one of three categories: misspeaking (dopey, but innocent); embellishing, lying, and caught being honest (Obama’s San Francisco remarks, Obama’s handling of Wright and what he knew and when); and policy screw-ups (Obama not knowing anything about tax policy–see the ABC debate; Obama’s intention of meeting with rogues without pre-conditions).
The first category should be catologued but turned over to Jay Leno for late night humor. I do think that in the aggregate they’re important because they seem so far to prove that Obama, more so than McCain, suffers from ageism.
The second category are things that Obama’s camp likes to pass off as innocent statements that are “distractions,” but they’re extraordinarily relevant in evaluating the character of the candidates.
The third category is, of course, important. These differences, along with the matters in the second category, should for the basis for voting for either candidate.
May 28, 2008 - 4:19 am 4. Sissy Willis:How sad that “some voters” still take the word of the press for “the way it is.”
May 28, 2008 - 4:41 am 5. Kathy:Clinton has taken Kentucky and Obama is right there in Oregon.
The Democratic race for nomination is still very much alive – and most likely to be decided by superdelegates – as CNN points out clearly
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/20/primary.wrap/index.html
If you’re tired of waiting around for those super delegates to make a decision already, go to LobbyDelegates.com and push them to support Clinton or Obama
If you haven’t done so yet, please write a message to each of your state’s superdelegates at http://www.lobbydelegates.com
Obama Supporters:
Sending a note to current Obama supporters lets them know it’s appreciated, sending a note to current Clinton supporters can hopefully sway them to change their vote to Obama, and sending a note to the uncommitted folks will hopefully sway them to vote for Obama. It’s that easy…
Clinton Supporters too …. !
It takes a moment, but what’s a few minutes now worth to get Clinton in office?! Those are really worth !
Sending a note to current Clinton supporters lets them know it’s appreciated, sending a note to current Obama supporters can hopefully sway them to change their vote to Clinton, and sending a note to the uncommitted folks will hopefully sway them to vote for Clinton. It’s that easy…
May 28, 2008 - 4:42 am 6. Valerie:Democrats who want to win in the general election need to reconsider the delegate allocation for at least Texas.
May 28, 2008 - 5:00 am 7. Webutante:http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/5/27/92144/7994
I want to raise the possibility that voters don’t care about many of Obama’s gaffes, Rick, because they are racists: giving people unequal free passes is just another name for “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” And another name for that is really racism.
May 28, 2008 - 5:02 am 8. liamascorcaigh:Listen or read what Obama actually said in relation to the so-called 57 states gaffe. Obama implied there were sixty (60) states not fifty seven: the fifty seven he had visited with one more to go; and Alaska and Hawaii which his staff didn’t allow him to visit. 57+1+2 = 60. In other words he misspoke saying fifty seven instead of forty seven. No big deal in itself. It’s ironic that the many folk who blame him for miscounting are themselves guilty of not listening properly to the gaffe itself and therefore also end up miscounting.
May 28, 2008 - 5:04 am 9. Ed Wallis:The best lies are told in the bedding of some truth. Skepticism merited.
At this point in the midst of so many “bloopers,” I would be highly suspect if some of the more innocent of these were not intentionally spoken, in the hopes that Obama’s more outrageous mis-statements (e.g. the Sunday-Obama: “Iran is tiny…no threat…” VERSUS the Monday-Obama: “Iran is a grave threat….”) are devalued as mere “gaffes”.
The Obamboozler is making it ever clearer to Americans what a danger he would be to our country as President.
May 28, 2008 - 5:06 am 10. mishu:With the same rhythm as “Your mama so stupid…”, we can now start “Obama so stupid…” jokes.
“Obama so stupid, he don’t know how many states there are.”
May 28, 2008 - 5:17 am 11. Ciscokid:Town hall debates between presidential candidates should be very enlightening. Remember the drinking game played along with (dating myself) the Bob Newhart show? Every time someone said – hi Bob – you had to do a shot. Substitute hi Bob with – “ let me explain what I MEANT”. Any variation must be judged as coming from a Harvard grad lawyer. Best played at home or designate a driver early.
May 28, 2008 - 5:19 am 12. Bill45:Had a Republican candidate (e.g., Dan Quayle) gotten as many basic facts wrong relating a family anecdote, the media would have been on the great uncle’s doorstep the next day demanding to hear the old man’s reaction.
The media would have been demanding to know from the great uncle how he felt about being used by his grand-nephew to clumsily make a point about veterans benefits and post traumatic stress disorder.
But, above all, the media would get to the old man in the hope of finding out that he supports the other candidate. But the obamafied MSM is terrified that it might find out that Obama’s great uncle has not seen anyone from that crazy branch of the family in decades and he has never known Obama (one more example of Obama’s extraordinarily dysfunctional family life), never had PTSD (another notch for Obama’s gaffe belt); greatly resents Obama bootstrapping his campaign onto the great-uncle’s military service; does not support Obama and intends to vote for McCain. (yikes! a senior not supporting Obama)
May 28, 2008 - 5:50 am 13. Bill45:ciscokid, a candidate town hall drinking game is a great idea. One suggestion, though. Under no circumstance must taking a shot be required when Obama says the word “change” or the name “George W. Bush”. Alcohol poisoning would result.
May 28, 2008 - 5:53 am 14. Ardeshir Dolat:Apprentice Obama! Thats what you have campaigning for the office of presidency!!
Can America afford to have an apprentice as president? Obama is too young; has no experience; and is also as naïve as apprentices usually are. Obama is learning his lessons as he goes along. He says something today and changes it next day. Can America afford to pay for the mistakes of a president who has a lot, hell of lot to learn?
In the UK there is a series called ‘The Apprentice’ in which Sir Alan Sugar, is the boss and young Brits compete against each other to win and become an employee of Sir Alan. Every week Sir Alan fires one candidate. In the current series there was a Michael to whom Sir Alan had taken a liking. The young Michael, a graduate from a good university, despite his failing his tasks somehow managed to stay on the show until last night. Week after week, he managed to convince Sir Alan that he had a lot of talent and despite his failings he should be given another chance to prove himself as the man Sir Alan should employ. Finally, Sir Alan came to his senses and used his brain and fired him.
Here is the link to ‘The Apprentice’:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/apprentice/newsarticle/cid/164.html
Here is the link to Amir Taheri’s recent article about the problem with talking to Iran:
May 28, 2008 - 6:02 am 15. Amphipolis:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121193151568724469.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Obama’s problem is not that he is making more gaffes. It is that he is now more likely to deviate from prepared statements.
May 28, 2008 - 6:06 am 16. HardHeadedWoman:He is a product of the present education system and AA. He’s almost completely ignorant of history, geography, science, math, etc. but so are the MSM “reporters” who are covering him. None of that stuff is important to them anyway. In a world where it is just fine to be as morally and ethically challenged as Democrats now are ignorance and dishonesty are concepts that these people don’t even understand or care about.
May 28, 2008 - 6:18 am 17. Cal:“Not as disturbing as a near doubling in egg prices recently…”
Hmmm….better than whining in cliche fashion about gas prices, but the price of eggs is far less important to me than how dangerous it will be to all of us if this Marxist gets the highest office in the land. Hopefully his cult following of collegians and latte liberals forgets to vote.
May 28, 2008 - 6:19 am 18. Alan:I think saying 57 states instead of 47 is inconsequential compared to not knowing who Sunni’s or Shia’s are when you are supposed to be the “Foreign Policy” guy that McCain pretends to be. Also, if you refer to Michelle Malkin as your ‘expert” then your credibility is lost!
PS: You can find her at the Dunkin Donuts this morning now that the terrorist Rachel Ray’s PLO supporting ads have been withdrawn. Mission Accomplished!
May 28, 2008 - 7:14 am 19. Ardeshir Dolat:Alan, Both Sunnis and Shias hate America so what if you put them both in the same basket?
May 28, 2008 - 8:05 am 20. LogicalUS:Alan,
How about your “educated” Messiah going to meet with Afghans and taking Arabian translators with him?
Obama-baby claims Foreign Policy is his area of expertise because of his B+ in International Relations yet shows no particular knowledge of past or present history or foreign policy? His idea of a successful policy was Kennedy meeting with the Soviets which lead to the Berlin Wall, the Cuban missile crisis, and ultimately to our involvement in the Vietnam war? He impressed Jimmy Carter’s disasterous foreign policy advisor by knowing that he would be tested in his first year just like Kennedy was with the Bay of Pigs? I suspect he would react in the same weak-kneed way by abandoning an ally and enpowering an enemy just like Kennedy. He seems not to have any idea who our allies were during WW2, claiming that FDR met with our “enemy” Stalin?
You may be willing to turn over our country to a novice college “specialists” but the rest of us aren’t.
May 28, 2008 - 8:10 am 21. Dave:Ardeshir-
In America we have (or had) the same “Apprentice” show with Donald Trump. But then, you knew that right?
Your point is well taken, though. Just like the Hanford site example that Rick brings up in the column…we will have an educated, inexperienced, “know-nothing” in office if Obama is elected, and can expect to let him learn “on the job” for a couple of years. Yikes!
Hillary may have said some stupid and political expedient things, but she has been absolutely right about Obama’s inexperience, and all these “gaffes” and “misstatements” just proves the point. The country can ill afford to have an “Apprentice” in the White House for a few years while he drys off the moisture behind his ears!
May 28, 2008 - 8:53 am 22. Cindy Sue Causey:Freudian slip…..? :wink, grin:
May 28, 2008 - 9:35 am 23. A must share, from El Cid…via Pajamas Media « Tizona’s Weblog:[...] Posted by tizona on May 28, 2008 Obamas Foot in mouth syndrome [...]
May 28, 2008 - 9:40 am 24. Joe Buzz:You folks have it all wrong…It is not how knowledgeable MR. O is or is not that matters. It is how me makes you feel…that is important. If you swoon, have a tingle up your leg or are now suddenly proud of your country, that is what being POTUS is all about. He will not be required to make tough policy decisions based on history or facts, he will be responsible for making people feel good.
May 28, 2008 - 9:41 am 25. schnargley:Blah, blah, blah. So what if he makes a few mistakes? You retro-rightwing-repukes think like, so 80’s. Geesh! It’s just words. “There are no facts, just interpretations.” Every graduate of Harvard knows that. Here Barry Obama is, leaving behind his comfortable life serving the disenfranchised in Chicago to save us from ourselves, and serve the disenfranchised of the world, and all you can do is criticize him!
Ungrateful wretches.
May 28, 2008 - 9:48 am 26. tanstaafl:The glibness and frequency with which non-factual claims are made by each of the Democrat candidates should be…disturbing.
Both from the vantage point of the psyches of the candidates themselves and that such kinds of prevaricating and dissembling don’t seem to matter much to the enraptured and dedicated base.
May 28, 2008 - 10:04 am 27. politicalreacharound:So what you all are saying is that Obama makes mistakes but McCain doesn’t? Whats the difference between Sunni and Shite? or Hamas and Hezbollah? If you know that you may be one step ahead of McCain. At least “Barry” (as you affectionately call him, no offense right?) hasn’t called Michelle a cu*t.
May 28, 2008 - 11:27 am 28. Ed Wallis:Nor did McCain, politicalheadupmybutt.
So, all “mistakes” are the same, and it’s all the same if one misspeaks while the other has no idea of middle east politics?!
Yah. Uh huh. Moral relativism must be real pretty up in the thin air you’re carousing in.
May 28, 2008 - 11:53 am 29. politicalreacharound:Newsflash! Ed Wallis and the republicans claim the moral high ground while playing down in the sewer. Talk about heads up butts, you Ed Wallis, have a frickin conniption the second someone interrupts your war loving, bathroom toe tapping, oil drinking, white male, homoerotic, money grubbing love fest which is the PJ Media comments page. And PJ where are the Scott McClellan stories today? I need to understand all the stages of denial.
May 28, 2008 - 12:12 pm 30. Don:As long as he is black and says we need change thats all the koolaid that todays government school graduates need to here to keep on bowing down to his majesty.
May 28, 2008 - 12:16 pm 31. Don:Could you imagine Chris Mathews ,who has a premature ejackulation down his leg over Obama, had heard George Bush state that there was 57 states, he and the nazi Herr Olberman ,would have said he should be executed for stupidity.What a double standard by the leftist media!
May 28, 2008 - 12:22 pm 32. Ardeshir Dolat:To all the Mullah Obama supporters,
I am an Iranian and have no say in American politiocs. But you wishy washy liberal democrats make me sick. You are the source of all our problems. Your new leader who doesn’t know whether he is coming or going is gonna cause more death and misery to Iranians by emboldening the most brutal regimes Iran has ever had.
May 28, 2008 - 12:41 pm 33. J.J. Sefton:He’s Gerald Ford without the black and blue marks…. and intelligence, character, leadership, experience……
May 28, 2008 - 1:08 pm 34. Ed Wallis:Touchy, touchy there, now, child: “Ed Wallis and the republicans claim the moral high ground while playing down in the sewer. Talk about heads up butts, you Ed Wallis, have a frickin conniption the second someone interrupts your war loving, bathroom toe tapping, oil drinking, white male, homoerotic, money grubbing love fest which is the PJ Media comments page.” – pra
I hadn’t noticed that I had claimed moral high ground…only that you seem to find all things equal in this specific instance.
As to your rant: MY MY…someone here needs his diapers changed. Let me help:
War loving?
Nope. Don’t love it, but I’m realistic enough to accept that, in this world, it’s the only way to reach peace (I do not consider death/suicide/surrender “peace”).
Bathroom toe tapping?
The first of two homosexual references…you got some “issues,” sonny?!
Oil drinking?
You got me there. ESPECIALLY when it’s an extra virgin olive oil.
White male?
Sure, but you forgot the “rich” and “privileged” part from “your mentor” Reverend Wright!
Homoerotic?
I gotta ask my wife about this first, but I’m pretty sure she’d (also) say “no”!
Money grubbing?
Proud to say I’m retired and, as such, done with my grubbing of money; now we just have a blast frugally spending it and cutting coupons on the beach!
If you really have such difficulty at PJM, why don’t you stay at one of those hate-o-rama sites like Kos, where you can enjoy the echo of your flatulent puffery?!
May 28, 2008 - 1:25 pm 35. PR:Rick….regarding the price of eggs…..does Zsu Zsu realize that her Democrats including Barry himself have been in power for most of that increase….16 months and running….why haven’t they done anything about it? Why hasn’t Barry done anything about the price of eggs as a Senator?
May 28, 2008 - 1:40 pm 36. John Spiller:I tribute it to lack of sleep. Even the comment in San Francisco I understood. When things are going smoothly for people, some don’t practice their religion like they use to. However, when those same people start having difficulties etc. Foreclosures, loss of job, financial stress, they gravitate towards their religion for added strength. They also go back to hobbies they have put off for the same reason. I got it, but the media still warps it to get viewing points
He will be glad when it is official and he only has to compete against McCain instead of the Clintons.
Two against one has been an exhausting experience. One against one may give him the second wind he needs.
Simple choice, Get out of Iraq or stay in
Obama or Mc Cain
Try some new approaches to getting things done or more of the same old thing
Obama or (clinton/McCain)
But remember: It has been this way for over 40 years
Definitions:
Politician: “I will say what ever I need to say to get your vote, however, once elected, all bets are off”
May 28, 2008 - 1:47 pm 37. Sue:Americans only care if they have thinking and reasoning brain…..over half don’t!
May 28, 2008 - 2:43 pm 38. tanstaafl:“getting out” of Iraq before the Iraqis themselves are unequivocally and completely able to resist the designs of both Iran and Al Qaeda on their country would be monumentally stupid policy.
When it comes to “policy”, Barry offers little more substantive than rhetorical bromides.
I guess that suffices for the “chope” (change & hope) crowd.
While Barry’s Congress has already helped raise the price of eggs and food in general, given the ethanol policies voted in.
May 28, 2008 - 2:45 pm 39. Dave K:Finally, there’s hope for a change. Does Obama leave you breathless? Let him return the favor with OBAMAir – actual expired air from the chest cavity of the junior senator from Illinois. http://www.obamair.com
May 28, 2008 - 4:09 pm 40. reliapundit:power line caught obama in flagrant LIE:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2008/05/020623.php
[OBAMA:] “My friends were applying to jobs on Wall Street. Meanwhile, this organization offered me $12,000 a year plus $2,000 for an old, beat-up car.
And I said yes.”
[POWER LINE:] But Obama did not go from college to the “grassroots,” as his statement at Wesleyan would lead one to believe. Upon graduating from Columbia in 1983, he worked first at Business International Corporation and then at New York Public Interest Research Group, both in New York City.
*OBAMA LIED. IN HIS ADDRESS TO THE GRADUATING CLASS AT WESLEYAN.
*HE’S AS BIG A LIAR AS… AS… HILLARY!
May 28, 2008 - 6:36 pm 41. BMoon:Ed Wallis…….ouch. I think you could have gone easier on the dude.
After all he is probaly just some poor befuddled high school kid.
May 28, 2008 - 6:51 pm 42. Benji Conyers:Blarney Barry will continue to say anything to impress at the moment.
In May 2008, most of us still see Barry’s Blarney as an annoying trait, or at worst an early indication that beneath the shining exterior lurks a cheating Chicago pol.
In years to come, Blarney’s loose talk and undisciplined, narcissistic thinking may cause wars and disasters, robbing billions of people of life, liberty and any hope of happiness.
May 28, 2008 - 7:05 pm 43. Misanthropicus:Glibama’s uncle served in the Navy, not in the infantry!
Check Riehlworldview.com (also posted under bloggers in RealClearpolitics) – there was no Charles W. Payne from Kansas on the 89 th. in Europe at the time Buchenwald was freed. There was a Charles Payne in the Navy, and probably that is the person Glibama’s referring at.
May 28, 2008 - 8:12 pm 44. Javelin:So far we don’t know whether it was Pacific or Atlantic – probably Atlantic, which is closer to Central Europe, and this makes Glibama’s lapse understandable.
Anyway, Hillary dodging bullets in Sarajevo has gotten some company here with Glibama’s vividly remembering his uncle freeing first Auschwitz, then Buchenwald from the ship he was serving in WW II.
Check Riehlworldview.com!
“In years to come, Blarney’s loose talk and undisciplined, narcissistic thinking may cause wars and disasters, robbing billions of people of life, liberty and any hope of happiness.”????
May 28, 2008 - 10:30 pm 45. Believer:That’s right, keep things in perspective!
Read Dean Barnett’s “How Smart is Obama” at weeklystandard.com
May explain alot.
“Rule of the road: we don’t watch any news at all. Only sports…”
May 28, 2008 - 11:19 pm 46. Andrew Ian Dodge:Its funny to watch Obama try to suck up to Jewish voters and then make a rather grand gaff in the process. Probably didn’t help the cause much methinks.
May 29, 2008 - 3:43 am 47. Lawrence G.:Barrack Obama will ultimately lose the Presidency because he has too much confidence in himself. He has not failed enough times in his life to understand his candidacy has to be about more than criticizing the current president and tying McCain to the problems of Bush Administration.
May 29, 2008 - 12:04 pm 48. retro:Obama is the embodiment of racism. If it weren’t for Affirmative Action, he’d be sweeping floors for Rezko (or some other Illinois crook.)
May 29, 2008 - 2:40 pm 49. BronxNative:Mr.Moran,
In your piece reporting on Barack’s mistatements and possible lies, you fail to mention Barack’s initial response to media reports on the outragious statements of his Reverend of 20 years, Reverend Wright.
Barack’s initial response was that he was not in the pews when his Reverend made these statements, and he was not previously aware of these statements.
Reverend Wright, during a later Q & A session with the National Press Club, responded when asked about Barack’s response that Barack is a politician in the middle of a campaign, and Barack’s response needed to be understood in that context.
In doing so, Reverend Wright made clear his view that at the very least Barack was aware that the Reverend had made those type of outragious statements in the past.
It was no surprise that Barack felt pushed into a corner at that point, and disowned Reverend Wright’s most extrememe statementsthe same exact day.
Especially in light of your position as “PJM Chicago editor” your failure to at least refer to this incident (you remebered to mention Hillary’s most egregious lie)goes beyond just shoddy reporting or political commentary.
It instead raises a serious question on whether you know what you are writing about.
May 29, 2008 - 3:54 pm 50. Rick Moran:I’m sorry you can’t tell the difference between a gaffe and a lie.
I have written extensively about Obama’s lies regarding Wright, Rezko, Ayers, and other matters.
Don’t presume to say I don’t know what I am writing about when you don’t know what I have written previously.
May 29, 2008 - 4:04 pm 51. Ed Wallis:Mr. Mmoran,
I think “BronxNative’s” remark and your response embody exactly what I was referring to earlier – that suddenly (wink wink) there may be many “gaffes” with the intention to diffuse the impact of Obama’s lies and utterly incompetent errors. That is to say, he is creating the opportunity for his supporters to say that his lies and errrors are merely “gaffes.”
May 29, 2008 - 4:45 pm 52. frieda:Check out this site dedicated to Obama’s gaffes, that’s how I found your article!
HTTP://WWW.OBAMASGAFFES.BLOGSPOT.COM
Jun 1, 2008 - 1:30 am 53. Proud Democrat:“Is it my imagination, or is it true that the closer Barack Obama gets to sewing up the Democratic nomination for president, the more outrageous his gaffes and misstatements of fact become?”
It’s your imagination, Rick. You’re probably listening to too much Republican talk radio and reading too many right-wing news sites.
His “gaffe problem” is a fairly new creation of the Republican media pundits. Looks like you just jumped on the bandwagon.
Jun 1, 2008 - 8:14 am 54. Redmanfms:“His “gaffe problem” is a fairly new creation of the Republican media pundits.”
Wow, appeal to ridicule, appeal to spite, and appeal to motive all in one statement.
Jun 1, 2008 - 9:24 pm 55. Will48:The main reason why he’s so likeable a persona on TV is he’s always shot from below, with no-one standing nea him. It gives him appearance of a tall – grand – man.
Solution: put out a lot of images of him shot from slightly above angle, next to tall guys (and, better yet, tall gals) – and he’s DONE.
It’s that simple.
Someone with access, please pass this along up.
Jun 2, 2008 - 6:49 pm 56. Post-Ironic:For Zsu Zsu – if it really is about the bottom line:
FOX News has learned that over the last 15 years, Trinity United Church has received at least $15 million in grants from the federal government — in other words, taxpayer money.
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/06/02/obamas-ex-church-has-won-15m-in-federal-grant-money/
Obama says he wasn’t involved.
Jun 4, 2008 - 1:30 am 57. Dan:I have taken the liberty of compiling a running list of Obama gaffes, misstatements, faux pas and outright lies:
http://www.dailydanet.com/obama-list/
Jun 5, 2008 - 12:35 pm 58. Coach:When will the Ozambies wake out of their delirium? I suspect they will not given ANYTHING has got to be better than ‘Bush’.
Economy? “Osama!”
Terrorism? “Osama!”
Energy? “Osama!”
Gas prices? “Osama!”
Get the idea?
Jun 12, 2008 - 4:05 pm