Politicians' Verbal Gaffs (Obama's Auschwitz Gaff)

[Pangloss]

What is it with our focus on mis-steps and erroneous campaign statements these days? Whether it's Bush being declared an "idiot" or Hillary mental slip in bringing up Kennedy's assassination instead of his campaigning into June, it just seems to have gotten out of hand. Obama's Auschwitz gaff is the current ridiculous example. For Pete's sake, the guy says Auschwitz instead of Buchenwald and you'd think NASA had just lost another shuttle or something.

 

According to this article, the right-wing blogosphere latched on and went nuts over the thing:

 

But for conservative bloggers, Obama has finally gone beyond the pale. "Sickening," huffs Red State. "Barack Obama must be the most gaffe-prone politician in memory," reports PowerLine. "The Young Gaffer Sees Dead People," chortles Hot Air.

 

I'd scream "Jesus, Mary and Joseph!" but perhaps a better choice here would be "Abraham, Ruth and David!" But either way, what a ridiculous bunch of tripe! Is this really the best we can do for political news on the campaign trail?

[iNow]

But either way, what a ridiculous bunch of tripe! Is this really the best we can do for political news on the campaign trail?

 

Sad, isn't it?

 

We CAN do better, we just DON'T.

[Rev Blair]

It's kind of funny...I was flipping through Thompson's "Shark Hunt" the other day and found him complaining about much the same kind of things...the media focusing on trivialities when they should have been over politicians on substance.

 

I found that kind of funny, since he was talking about the rumour (that he started) that Ed Muskie was on ibogaine. That book was written between 1972 and sometime after Carter came to office, for those of you not familiar with the Mad Dokter of Woody Creek.

 

Anyway, I'm not sure that all of these things are so trivial. Some are, to be sure...Obama's "Sweetie" comment comes to mind, as does some off-handed thing McCain got jumped on that escapes me at the moment...but others seem to be much more telling.

 

I mentioned my concern about Clinton's mental health in another thread. That's not based on minor slip-ups, but things that she is generally much too professional to let get through getting through on a regular basis. This isn't like Bush and Cheney calling some reporter an asshole when they thought the mic was off.

 

In McCain's case, the several times he's confused Shia and Sunni factions concerns me. If it was just once, no big deal, but he's done it so often (4 or 5 times by my count, and I have my own politicians to worry about too) that I wonder if he knows the difference...or cares.

 

I haven't seen Obama make a major error, or series of them, so far. The Aushwitcz/Buchenwald thing is nothing. The Sweetie thing is too...although I expected it to get much bigger than it did.

 

Anyway, I think some of this stuff is important. Politicians aren't known for advertising their weaknesses, and their gaffes can give some insight into that. Most of it isn't important though, or is about as important as the Star Trek re-run on my TV right now. The job of the press (and I include bloggers in that, since they've decided they are part of the press) is supposed to be to separate that for us.

 

Which brings us back to why I was leafing through "Shark Hunt", I guess. We need Thompson back, or somebody else who can tell the truth even if it's just by accident. He had a way of sorting through the crap. Maybe we just need more dope fiends in the political press?

[john5746]

I haven't seen Obama make a major error, or series of them, so far. The Aushwitcz/Buchenwald thing is nothing. The Sweetie thing is too...although I expected it to get much bigger than it did.

 

Give me a break. The "bitter" comment, which is a big reason why those "racist" blue collar whites are not voting for him. Not throwing Wright under the bus until he personally attacked Obama. Hillary beat Obama in most if not all the one-on-one debates. Ask him about reducing the capital gains tax and I bet he still cannot field it properly - will say "but its not fair"

You would be adding this to Hillary's delusion if she had said it. But Obama says it and then there is a thread about distractions.

[ecoli]

Rush Limbaugh was harping on another Obama gaffe today.

On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today -- our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.

 

Now I'm not one to harp on tongue slips, but how could Obama make that big of a mistake? Either he sees dead people, or doesn't realize what memorial day is. It's weird.

And, as it happens, Bush, the "idiot", happened to have given an amazingly beautiful speech at Arlington national cemetery, monday.

[Rev Blair]

Give me a break. The "bitter" comment, which is a big reason why those "racist" blue collar whites are not voting for him. Not throwing Wright under the bus until he personally attacked Obama. Hillary beat Obama in most if not all the one-on-one debates. Ask him about reducing the capital gains tax and I bet he still cannot field it properly - will say "but its not fair"

You would be adding this to Hillary's delusion if she had said it. But Obama says it and then there is a thread about distractions.

 

Nah, Clinton has made her share of that kind of error too. So has McCain. Check out their preacher-friends, or go searching through their transcripts. McCain has been nailed for a couple of the big preachers, but not as badly as Obama was. I don't even blame Clinton for Ferraro's crude attempt at playing the race card, although I was disappointed in Ferraro.

 

Those are other people saying things. I sure as hell don't want to be held responsible for the things my friends say, and neither should they.

 

Clinton claimed to have been under sniper fire in a situation where she not only knew she wasn't, but knew there were going to be tapes available though. That's not mis-speaking or stretching the truth. It's just goofy, which is not a trait I generally attribute to Hillary Clinton.

 

Obama's "bitter" comment looks awfully true from where I sit. Being from where I'm from, I've see a fair number of people vote against against their own better interests because they've been disenfranchised enough that they cast their ballots based on god, guns and gays. Where I'm from, by the way, is a hell of a lot closer to where Hillary pretends to be from than anything she's seen in person.

[ecoli]

Nah, Clinton has made her share of that kind of error too. So has McCain. Check out their preacher-friends, or go searching through their transcripts. McCain has been nailed for a couple of the big preachers, but not as badly as Obama was. I don't even blame Clinton for Ferraro's crude attempt at playing the race card, although I was disappointed in Ferraro.

Ferraro's comment was taken way out of context. She also said, the only reason why she was chosen as the VP candidate was because she was a woman. Is that being sexist against herself? No, it's being honest about the a political reality.

[iNow]

While there's validity in such comments, it ignores the other factors which were clearly ALSO at play. She was smart, she had experience, she'd made a lot of connections, she'd etc., etc... When she says something like it wast "just because I am a woman" it completely misrepresents the reality of the situation.

 

Did her gender play a role? Sure. I don't doubt that. However, if it were nothing BUT her gender, then why wasn't Brittany Spears chosen?

 

We seem too anxious as a culture to lump things into tiny little black and white boxes. There's a lot of gray in this universe, and IMO we'd be better to represent things (ESPECIALLY politics) using more of a "spectrum" than a "boolean."

[Pangloss]

Hey, you leave Brittany alone!!!!!

 

I voted for Ferraro, btw. I wonder if that makes me unique at SFN!

[CaptainPanic]

Politics has become marketing, with the big difference that it's often negative marketing.

 

Breaking down the opponent is more cost effective than showing how good you are yourself. It's also much easier for those low on braincells, because the latter means you actually need to make sense.

 

It's a scary development that has not yet ended. And it is happening all over the world.

[ecoli]

Politics has become marketing, with the big difference that it's often negative marketing.

That's hardly a new development, however. I believe it's always been this way. It's just that now politicians can and must market themselves to a larger group of people.