Obama admits relative never helped liberate Auschwitz
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 - 9:41am
It was actually a subcamp of Buchenwald, itself a much smaller camp than Auschwitz.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
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It was actually a subcamp of Buchenwald, itself a much smaller camp than Auschwitz.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
So he did liberate a concentration camp, but Obama got the name wrong. This doesn't strike me as much of a story, despite what the National Review types say.
This is clearly not a "dodging sniper fire" gaff. If anything, it is just evidence that he has a typically American understanding of geography.
There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism,... those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
Yeah, this is not a big deal. It's a manufactured issue. Try this - "Obama mistakes Auschwitz for Buchenwald". That's more accurate, and.... Yawn.
Extremism in the defense of liberty *is* a vice. It has been since the first Crown Loyalist was tarred, feathered and set afire, and it's no better now. It corrupts first the individual, then ultimately the institution it defends.
If anything, it refutes the whole "elitist" tag since he seems to have a very average American understanding of geography. The folks who pointed out the error come off looking like nerds.
There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism,... those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
As much as I like Obama, I think you guys are going just a LITTLE easy on him. Auschwitz is the quintessential concentration camp, a symbol of 3rd Reich. The deaths at Buchenwald were no less horrific and tragic but I have trouble believing that Obama wasn't aware just how much more impressive Auschwitz is than Buchenwald. Maybe he said it because he was honestly mistaken. Maybe he thought more people would be familiar with Auschwitz than Buchenwald. Maybe he just wanted to make his background more impressive. I don't know.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
Spore
It's going to be a boring election if this is the best the GOP can do against Obama.
Somewhere on a deep ocean vent no man has ever seen, God smites a small colony of tube worms because you masturbate.-JoeBedurndurn, on sin
Agreed. I'm thinking squirt gun vs. M1 tank.
There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism,... those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
For most people, once you get to the idea of a death camp the differences are pretty minor. I imagine somewhere on the internet there are threads titled "Buchenwald versus Auschwitz: Which one worse?" and "Treblinka is for suxxors," but fortunately I haven't come across one yet.
Buchenwald was responsible for around 55,000 deaths, including unrecorded executions and the like. Estimates for Auschwitz start at 800,000 and top at 5,000,000.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
Spore
I don't see a problem with viewing each victim of Nazi concentration camp as equal without resorting to comparing stats based on geography or camp size. I assume that victims felt the same whether they were being murdered in Germany or Poland. They were all in the same system.
Maybe his uncle told him Auschwitz? Do we have to fact check all of our crazy old uncle stories now?
Frankly, I don't much care what his great-uncle did or didn't do.
Grenn wrote:
Sort of like naval bases, seen one death camp, you've seen them all.
[/inappropriate humor]
There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism,... those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
I expect historians and students of the holocaust to note the roles the different camps played within the system, but in a context of a politician publicly noting the horrors of the camps it seems odd to get in the uproar about whether he got the name of the camp his uncle helped liberate wrong.
I'm with you. This is a non-issue. Sort of like berating a candidate for confusing coke for pepsi.
There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism,... those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
Or Shia with Sunni. Am I right?
Somewhere on a deep ocean vent no man has ever seen, God smites a small colony of tube worms because you masturbate.-JoeBedurndurn, on sin
Wrong. One has no effects on the current situation right now (remembering the wrong camp) while the current one has everything to do with the current war(s) that are going on and is basically destroying the country (theirs and ours).
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I forget that sarcasm does not translate well over the internet.
Somewhere on a deep ocean vent no man has ever seen, God smites a small colony of tube worms because you masturbate.-JoeBedurndurn, on sin
Maybe Obama's ol' uncle... WORKED FOR THE SOVIETS?!
Xbox Live tag Gorilla800lbs
Sorry. For a second there it read like you were actually defending McCain and all his insane crap that flies against common sense.
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Or they could have pointed out that if his great uncle was on the black side of his family, he'd would have been denied service at restaurants that served German POWs if he was here in the States, and, in theater, he'd be segregated from whites and pretty much limited to serving his country by cooking or driving a truck.
Today's headline:
MCCAIN HAMMERS OBAMA'S FAMILY COMMUNIST CONNECTIONS
Uncle Allegedly Fought for Stalin in WWII
Xbox Live: CrankyBaby
baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
Fixed. You know it's coming.
Wow, this is almost as much of a non-issue as the whole freaking flag lapel pin thing.
"I'm absolutely retarded. Not 100% sure why." - atom
"Dhelor + intarwebs = Great ideas." - wordsmythe
"Do I what I do: hate everyone." - Quintin_Stone
If they can make a controversy about whether John Kerry spent Christmas in Saigon or a couple miles outside Saigon, they can turn this into a huge issue.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
Spore
Yup. Unless the operatives are sitting on the real ammo, the first few rounds of this fight portend an ugly knockout in the 4th with Obama walking away with the belt.
There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism,... those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.
If they are sitting on any real ammo, it's probably .22 caliber (fragments so it's harder to trace).
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
Spore
yeah it'd be like mixing up Sunnis and Shia... and we all know Obama would never make fun of an opponent for something like that.
"Also, I have four legs and am covered in wool. Baa!" *Legion* reveals his inner furry.
Given how important that distinction is, I think we can forgive him for not gracefully letting McCain slide on that one. That small detail could determine the fate of hundreds of thousands of lives (unless Iranians don't count as lives, in which case probably about 10,000).
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
Spore
Not really. Not knowing the difference between a Sunnis and Shiites precludes a fundamental understanding the strategic situation of the Arab world. Not knowing the difference between german concentration camps and Polish extermination camps doesn't prevent a basic understanding of what happened during the Holocaust.
If we were talking about McCain mixing up the names of a couple of historic shiite and sunni shrines someplace it would be a better match.
Yup. Confusing two concentration camps is a bit like confusing our clusterfcuk in Ramallah with our clusterfcuk in Ramadi. Confusing the Sunnis and the Shiites is a bit more like confusing the Nazis for the Communists.
There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism,... those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.