Posted on 05/30/2008 10:35:39 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
A new narrative seems to be developing about Barack Obama; that he is smart but also a "gaffe machine." The WSJ's John Fund writes:
"As smart and credentialed as he is, Sen. Obama is often an indifferent speaker without a teleprompter. He has large gaps in his knowledge base, and is just as likely to dig in and embrace a policy misstatement as abandon it. ABC reporter Jake Tapper calls him "a one-man gaffe machine."
Let's be honest, when you talk as much as presidential candidates must, some gaffes are unavoidable. Others occur when a candidate is tired. But Obama's gaffes seem to be the result of a candidate who is in over his head -- who has gotten by on style points -- not the substance.
To me, this is the real story -- that Obama's gaffes actually reveal something more dangerous than a candidate who merely "misspeaks." That his gaffes are the product of someone who is not quite ready for prime time...
Of course, going from the Illinois state senate to being a presidential frontrunner is a lot of ground to cover in just a few years ...
Another interesting thing to consider is whether or not this lack of historical understanding is uniquely due to Obama's inexperience -- or if his lack of knowledge is actually a cultural phenomenon.
While Obama is a child of the 80s, he seems to have a lot in common with today's generation. In his new book, The Dumbest Generation, author Mark Bauerlein says this phenomenon is true of most "Millenials." In short, Bauerlein argues today's young people are great at using the internet to retrieve information, but that they lack knowledge of history. Might Obama's emphasis of style over substance be a result of the era in which he was raised? Is it unique to him? Or is it merely a product of a young man who is still finding himself? These are all interesting to ponder.
Consider the Reagan vs. Obama contrast. When Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, he had lived through The Great Depression, WWII, Vietnam, The Civil Rights Movement, etc. He had also achieved success in other areas of life. For this reason, he did not need the presidency to give his life purpose. Of course, being compared to Reagan is never a good thing for the person being compared.
Still, it's fair to say that Obama has been playing "over his head" for quite some time. He's like a young football team who starts off winning a lot of games. Deep down, you always suspect it won't last.
It's also interesting to note that Obama has really won few contests in the last several months. To over-extend the football metaphor, he's like a football team who "backs into the playoffs". One wonders if McCain will be facing the Obama of February -- or the Obama who got his clock cleaned in West Virginia.
There is no doubt he has run a surprisingly smart primary campaign. But because he and Hillary agreed on most major policy issues -- he was not forced to defend his political philosophy. That is about to change. McCain will challenge him, and most likely, this will create "forced errors."
At least, Obama appears to be demonstrating that he is, in fact, human.
Obaba should never be ready for prime time. Sad to say that an outright marxist can get so close to being elected POTUS.
Snicker...
:)
He should be nowhere near Washington DC, never mind the Oval Office.
Forget about comparing him to Reagan. Try comparing him to JFK (and I don’t mean JFnK), who he obviously likes to think of himself as.
Compare JFK’s resume in 1960 to OsamaBoy in 2008.
But that reveals the understory. You didn't know it right away, but you could learn it. So if you were telling some story, and wanted to include a death camp, you may have well used Auschwitz because of your ignorance.
But SUPPOSEDLY, Barack Obama wasn't making up a story. He was SUPPOSED to be repeating a narrative that he had heard from his parents. It was a true-life story of something his great-uncle had done.
Wouldn't the family tell the story correctly? Why would he have been TOLD the wrong death camp? Surely the Uncle knew what death camp it was, and surely the Grandfather knew what camps his fellow soldiers had liberated.
When Barack got those details wrong, it makes it look like he was NOT repeating a factual story, but was spinning a yarn, telling a tale, and that's why his ignorance showed up in the stories.
Just as his Memorial Day gaffe about the "fallen heroes" being in his audience was not about accidentally mixing up fallen heroes with veterans, but was about the implication that he thought Memorial Day was a day to honor veterans.
hubris
Was that the obligatory swipe at RR?
Did you at least know Auschwitz was in Poland?
Obama gets a pass on gaffe after gaffe.
SOMEBODY owes Dan Quayle a HUGE apology.
Thank you, potlatch.
People in the Internet Generation have no context. I remember reading an observation once that the Internet is like taking the card catalogue and throwing it up in the air; the cards are spread anywhichway and all the information is there, but the odds of finding what you want (especially if you don’t KNOW what you want) are small. And stuff you pick up off the Internet is not in chronological order so you never get any idea how the history goes together.
As for family history being admissible in court (or in a speech) we have been working on our family history for five years or so, and I would not claim historical accuracy for any of the “stories” that were handed down in the family unless there were photos and documents to go with them. The best story of all is one we have never been able to verify and the uncle that told it is now Gone Home; it was about a ship called the Calumet Queen that sank in the Great Lakes with all hands on board — my uncle was engaged as a cook but was spared because he was in the drunk tank on shore when the ship sailed. We have never found any record that there was such a ship. Perhaps it is the Naval vessel Obama’s uncle sailed to Auschwitz to help the Reds liberate it.
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