Posted on 08/01/2012 7:17:31 AM PDT by mandaladon
The Obama presidency is fond of issuing apologies for America on the world stage, but very rarely makes them at home to Americans. White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer has just issued one to Washington Post columnist and Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer, who last week wrote an op-ed berating the Obama administration for removing a bust of Sir Winston Churchill from the Oval Office when it came to power. Pfeiffer had issued a stinging attack on Krauthammer, alleging that his Churchill bust reference was “100 percent false.” Krauthammer was of course 100 percent correct, and the British Embassy in Washington even issued a statement contradicting Pfeifer’s remarks.
Here is the full text of Pfeiffer’s mea culpa, published on the White House blog in the form of an open letter to Mr. Krauthammer:
Charles,
I take your criticism seriously and you are correct that you are owed an apology. There was clearly an internal confusion about the two busts and there was no intention to deceive. I clearly overshot the runway in my post. The point I was trying to make – under the belief that the Bust in the residence was the one previously in the Oval Office– was that this oft repeated talking point about the bust being a symbol of President Obama’s failure to appreciate the special relationship is false. The bust that was returned was returned as a matter of course with all the other artwork that had been loaned to President Bush for display in his Oval Office and not something that President Obama or his Administration chose to do. I still think this is an important point and one I wish I had communicated better.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.telegraph.co.uk ...
Hehehehe!
The sent Biden over to apologize and he exclaimed “Stand up, Chuck!”
I can’t find the word apology or sorry or “my bad”. Can you?
He “overshot the runway.” Some apology. And he makes it sound like it’s just an “oops, whatever” moment, and correct me if I’m wrong, but usually “overshooting a runway” is a really bad thing.
The passive voice make apologies so meaningful. It's like "Mistakes were made"
The bust that was returned was returned as a matter of course with all the other artwork that had been loaned to President Bush for display in his Oval Office and not something that President Obama or his Administration chose to do. I still think this is an important point and one I wish I had communicated better
THAT IS A LIE !!
Ok, I’ve read this thing through three times now and STILL can’t see the apology.
This non-apology ranks right up there with the Liberal’s favorited, “I’m sorry that you took offense....” thus making it the injured party’s fault. Every year is 1984 with these double-speaking snakes.
They can spend the next eight years trying to explain the rest of the stuff they haven't communicated well enough, starting November 4.
Pfeiffer writes that Krauthammer is “owed an apology” but notably avoids giving one. Nowhere does not he write “I’m sorry” or “I apologize”: pretty much the universally accepted norms of apologizing.
The smarmy angst of a writer who resents being forced to put forth some form of public mea culpa bubbles between the lines. “I clearly overshot the runway,” is about as close as Pfeiffer gets to a direct apology. The note has the patina of a direct apology, but its real purpose is to further Pfeiffer’s claim that the White House didn’t choose to return the bust (an apparently false claim). It’s the classic “wrong but accurate” defense.
“Two busts”....If we could just get rid of the boobs in the oval office...
According to the British, who have no reason to dissemble upon this point, they were perfectly willing to extend the loan for another four years so that it could be in 0bama’s 0val 0ffice.
I trust our very good friends and allies in the UK know fully well that this president hates us as much as he hates the UK. HELL he even admits in his book his disdain for white people.
We The People, on the other hand still hold our friendship to your country very dear.
“The bust that was returned was returned as a matter of course with all the other artwork that had been loaned to President Bush for display in his Oval Office...”
Nonsense. The bust wasn’t borrowed from the Smithsonian or some other American art museum, like those works. It was a gift from our foreign friends.
Translation: Oops, we got caught.
It was not a gift from Great Britain. It was on indefinite loan to us post-9/11 as a display of solidarity between nations.
There was no requirement to send it back when W left office, but it didn't belong to the people of the United States. Obama or his minions sent it back.
As I noted in my previous blog on the subject, however, both The Sunday Telegraph and The Times of London ran major articles back in early 2009 revealing that British officials had made it clear to the White House that President Obama could keep the Churchill bust in the Oval Office. In other words, it was the White House’s firm decision to return the bust, and no request was made by the British to have it back. This looks awfully like a deliberate snub of America’s closest friend and ally, and it would be good for the White House to acknowledge the truth, rather than continue to spin a blatantly false and misleading line.
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