A Pathological Need to Be a Part of History
By Jeff Emanuel Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Exaggerations — Comments (74) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Exaggerations and fabrications are, and always have been, part of political and campaign rhetoric. From John Edwards' ridiculous and pathetically exploitative declaration in 2004 that, under a President John Kerry, "people like [paralyzed Superman actor] Christopher Reeve" would "get up out of that wheelchair and walk again," to Hillary Clinton's high-profile Bosnia "sniper fire" lie earlier this year, politicians on the campaign trail often succumb to the deadly combination of a yearning to promise a utopian future and a shameless, almost pathological need to be a part of the Great Events of History declarations of historical greatness.
Barack Obama, the neophyte Senator from Illinois and presumptive Democrat presidential nominee (though don't tell Hillary Clinton that!), has provided example after example of this combination, to which he has added an exploitation of gravely serious issues in hopes of capitalizing politically on history and on the emotions that such issues spark.
The litany of issues and events Obama has attempted to take ownership of via family involvement reads like a proposed script for Forrest Gump 2, this time starring the Obama family tree, played by well-known black actors (since the Obama campaign and its supporters have demonstrated that they care very deeply about the skin color of any actor who would portray an Obama onscreen).
Remember Selma, Alabama? Obama staked his claim to the historic "Bloody Sunday" event there by crediting that activity with his parents' marriage, and with his birth. On March 2nd, speaking at the 43rd anniversary of Selma, Obama :
"They looked at each other and they decided, 'We know that in the world, as it has been, it might not be possible for us to get together and have a child, but something is stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Ala., because some folks are willing to march across the bridge.' And so they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born. So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Ala.!"
Of course, as Jake Tapper wrote for ABCNews the following Wednesday, "Obama was born in 1961; the Selma march was four years later."
Last year, Obama announced, in an attempt to co-opt the Kennedy legacy in the Democrat party, that he traced his "very existence" to the generosity of the Kennedy family, which he said paid for his Kenyan father to travel to America on a student scholarship and thus meet his Kansan mother.
As the Washington Post's Michael Dobbs wrote of that claim at the end of March, "It is a touching story -- but the key details are either untrue or grossly oversimplified." Dobbs continued:
Contrary to Obama's claims in speeches in January at American University and in Selma last year, the Kennedy family did not provide the funding for a September 1959 airlift of 81 Kenyan students to the United States that included Obama's father. According to historical records and interviews with participants, the Kennedys were first approached for support for the program nearly a year later, in July 1960. The family responded with a $100,000 donation, most of which went to pay for a second airlift in September 1960.
The most recent -- and most heinous -- addition to this list of the attempted co-opting of history for personal political advantage came on Memorial Day, May 26, when Obama apparently decided that Selma, the Kennedys, and other exaggerated historical connections simply weren't enough to build his faux reputation with a big enough swath of voters -- so, in a blatantly dishonest attempt to simultaneously pander to the military and Jewish votes, he decided to take ownership of the ending of the Holocaust and the liberation of Auschwitz, as well.
Read on.
"Despite not having served in the military himself, wrote CBS News' Maria Gavrilovic:
Barack Obama used his Memorial Day remarks to speak about his family’s service. “My grandfather marched in Patton’s army, but I cannot know what it is to walk into battle like so many of you,” he told a small group of veterans [in Las Cruces, NM]. “My grandmother worked on a bomber assembly line, but I cannot know what it is for a family to sacrifice like so many of yours have.”
Charming.
Further, according to Gavrilovic:
Obama also spoke about his uncle, who was part of the American brigade that helped to liberate Auschwitz [Auth note: Video here]. He said the family legend is that, upon returning from war, his uncle spent six months in an attic.
Now, Barack Obama has never been known for having the best grasp of history, geography, or international affairs -- something that he demonstrates in nearly every speech and at nearly every event. However, a statement of that sort, while possibly attributable to sheer, monumental ignorance, rings far more of blatantly dishonest revisionism, complete with a healthy disrespect for the intelligence of his veteran and Jewish target audiences.
The truth here is quite simple, and Mr. Obama comes down directly on the wrong side of it. As any child who paid attention in school knows, Auschwitz was liberated on on Jan. 27, 1945 by the Red Army of the Soviet Union, which was moving through Poland on its march to Berlin.
The U.S. was fighting the Battle of the Bulge at the time -- on the other side of the Rhine River. In his attempt to stake a familial claim to the end of the Holocaust and the liberation of Auschwitz, Mr. Obama appears to have inadvertently enlisted his poor uncle in Joe Stalin's Red Army.
What a multicultural, international history the Obama clan has! A screenplay for Forrest Gump 2, indeed.
Mr. Obama has absolutely no excuse for getting those facts wrong; after all, he was serving in the United States Senate in January 2005, when the United Nations General Assembly marked the 60th Anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation -- again, by the Russians -- and when Vice President Dick Cheney joined the presidents of Poland, Russia, France, Germany, and Israel for an event at Auschwitz itself. Did Senator Obama simply forget about this historic commemoration of the notorious concentration camp's liberation by the Red Army 60 years before? Or did he conveniently ignore it in hopes of slipping one past his audience, and gaining support and votes for his bloodline claim to the end of the Holocaust?
This capitalizing on the horror of the Holocaust and the Auschwitz liberation is, of course, inexcusable for countless reasons. The lying about familial involvement, though, is so profane that it borders on evil itself -- especially in light of the fiery protestations that emanated from the Obama campaign after President Bush dared use the 60th anniversary of Israel's foundation to warn against the dangers of appeasement.
Obama supporters railed ad nauseam about the "political treason" committed by the President in that speech by referring to Nazi Germany "in the very nation that was carved out from the horrific calamity of the Holocaust." Fairness would dictate that a boldfaced attempt to falsely stake a familial claim to the ending of the Holocaust itself would provoke a similarly vitriolic response. However, I would not suggest that anybody hold their breath waiting for such a response to come.
Mr. Obama has been struggling to capture the military and Jewish votes, due to his vigorous anti-military stances and the support he has garnered from the leaders of Iran (whose President denies the Holocaust altogether) and the terrorist group Hamas. Blatantly calling soldiers and Jews stupid by attempting to put such a blatant lie over on them should not help gain their support -- nor should the continued exaggerations and stumbles that Obama continues to perpetrate and to endure at seemingly every event allow him to continue projecting the aura of unfailing Messiah that so many followers have seen, and so desperately wish to believe in.
Our own Dan McLaughlin wrote back in 2004 about the attempt by many politicians to "substitute biography for policy," saying:
his is a second and related example of the Democrats taking a tried-and-true campaign tactic and trying to pass it off as a strategy, and another one in which Kerry represents a nadir. Again, all candidates use their biography when possible to shore up both the strong and weak points in their images. But what we've seen increasingly from Democrats is efforts to use biography as a shield to cover the candidate's policy positions. Get asked about gun control? Don't talk about the issue - go hunting! Get asked about war? Talk about your service record!...As a practical matter, there are two problems with this approach. First, voters aren't stupid; a dove with medals is still a dove, and a hunter who favors gun control is still in favor of gun control. Second, nobody has enough biography to cover every issue, and the need to have something personal to say on issue after issue is one of the roots of the exaggerations and resume-padding that got Gore and Kerry into so much trouble. Look at Bush and Cheney for a comparison: Bush's bio story is well-known, but he rarely tries to connect it to a particular policy debate, and Cheney only reluctantly talks about himself at all despite having a genuinely impressive up-by-the-bootstraps story.
Mr. Obama's need to expand his biography, often at the expense of the truth, in order to make up for his lack of experience and policy savvy will come back to bite him -- especially if historical gaffes of this level continue.
As MSNBC's Mark Murray wrote after the Selma exaggeration, "What is it about politicians trying too hard to be part of history? Sometimes, there isn't a destiny; that's ok too."
Apparently it's not "ok" enough for the Obama campaign, which continues to conduct itself as though it is, in fact, auditioning not only for the Presidency, but for a familial role in Forrest Gump 2.
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A Pathological Need to Be a Part of History 74 Comments (0 topical, 74 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
ethic.
Obama- you walked into the
Party like you were walking
Walking onto a yacht
Thanks for the great analysis of the way that Obama does not understand history and will to anything to manipulate it for his personal political gain.
“When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.” – Ronald Reagan
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Damn the Obama! Full speed ahead!
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And here's the sad thing - if Obama really wanted to make up a story like this, he could have made up one much more plausible. There were plenty of other concentration camps that Americans did liberate. Patton's Third Army (which Obama said his grandfather served in) liberated Buchenwald. He could have easily used that as an example, and no one -- well, far fewer -- people would have questioned his story.
But apparently that wasn't good enough. He had to go for Auschwitz, a name that everyone would recognize.
Jeff, you definitely chose the right word for it - pathological. Obama just can't be content with his actual place in history, he has to make himself the culmination of seemingly every major world event in the last seventy or so years. This is a man who apparently believes profoundly in his own delusions of granduer.
I wrote here that Sen. Obama was "following in a long liberal tradition" when he said that his uncle helped liberate Auschwitz. This guy is the ultimate empty suit.
"Land of the Free and Home of da Whopper" Peter Griffin...Family Guy
conform and celebrate diversity....or else!!!
- He comes from supernatural lineage: his parents could foresee 4 years into the future to the events at Selma.
- His uncle was capable of, quite possibly, teleportation, in order to be with the Red Army when they liberated Auschwitz.
- He is capable of time travel and altering history: after going back in time to persuade the Kennedys to pay for his father to come to America, he then changed the historical record to make it seem like the Kennedys didn't help all that much after all!
- And, he sees dead people.
If this main ain't the Messiah, who is? I'm voting for him right now!
...because he will meet with these dictators while boycotting them. That would require being in two places at the same time.
It's just a little oopsey!
BWA HA HA !!!
There is a full posting of the speech at Las Cruces on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR8YaR3JEkE
[Do try to keep up...
...with the rest of us. - Moe Lane]
He doesn't mention Auschwitz once. Or an American liberation.
Either the author of the piece at CBS was referencing a different Memorial Day speech in Las Cruces, or CBS, paragon of journalism that it is, owes Obama an apology.
Gosh, CBS News screwing up a story. Never heard of such a thing...
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"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater
...even when there's video evidence to indicate that he knows pretty much zip about recent European history:
I've already corrected the above post, but I didn't feel like letting you pretend that you didn't see this.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
I think he shows alot of signs of being extremely insecure. Not surprising given his personal history and upbringing. But from the drug use to the inflated view of self to the willingness to invent stories to connect himself to people and events he had nothing to do with, he reeks of being totally insecure. Just another reason he should be disqualified from leader of the free world.
Stop reading so much into his words, it's clear what he meant. Being US born he couldn't refer to Joe Stalin by his Russian moniker of "Papa Joe", instead referring to him "Uncle Joe". So his "uncle" did indeed liberate Auschwitz.
Enough with the distractions, America's running a severe hope deficit and Obama is the chosen one.
the fools..er, the crowd swoons and applauds. I don't have to be encumbered with facts, do I?
...to throw Grandma under the bus--that family story about Uncle Joe up in the attic.
soli Deo gloria
He meant Dachau, and the "uncle" to whom he referred was Jeremiah Wright's brother.
They'll spin this somehow.
This guy is stealing the Pathological Liar crown from Bill Clinton. I just automatically disbelieve everything that ejects from his mouth (which obviously is not filtered through his brain).
You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.
really, really, REALLY hate doing this, but I have to!
Ther may be a kernel of truth to that story, sort of! Barack has an maternal uncle Ralph Waldo Emerson Dunham who was a little old to serve in WWII but he did have a son Ralph Waldo Emerson Dunham Jr. that would have been old enough to be in WWII. If said 'Jr.' was part of the 45th Infantry Division, 157th Infantry Regiment or any other unit in the area of Munich he might have participated in the liberation of DACHAU or some of the slave labor camps in the area.
Family histories usually get mangled in the retelling and if his uncle had seen the horrors I'm positive it would have had an adverse affect on him. As with most WWII Vets, especially after returning home, he would not have recounted much of the details. Most people don't research the 'family legends' so the story might have changed from 'a concentration camp' to 'Auschwitz' which most people are familiar with
I've been to Dachau and the sanitized displays there are still haunting! I can't even begin to imagine seeing the horrors with your own eyes. If his "uncle" did see that first hand he must have suffered greatly.
via Fox news-
"...The Obama campaign later claimed that the Illinois senator was referring to his great uncle, and that he had in fact confused Auschwitz with the Ohrdruf Concentration Camp. According to the campaign, his great uncle served in the 89th Infantry Division, and the unit was among those to liberate Ohrdruf on April 4, 1945."
Call me cynical, but I'm thinking Obama used Auschwitz for one of two reasons-
1. He is stupid and doesn't know his history.
2. He thinks we are stupid and used Auschwitz because he figured Joe-sick pack wouldn't know of Ohrdruf.
As for me-I'm guessing #2. YMMV.
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/05/27/recollection-of-obama-familys-se...
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Just a typical, small town, British-American girl...
"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville
If he'll lie about that, what else is he lying about?
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Another non-issue. Back to the drawing board.
I can go back and look it up, but the rest of us can't so easily.
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"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater
I have stated in previous posts that I am a Democrat. I do think folks here can figure that out but I'll think about adding a signature :)
Fox is reporting Ohrdruf.
Gaw-can't they even keep the correction of Barack's apparent idiodcy wrt "family legend" straight, yet alone get the historical facts straight?!?!
I only got one thing to say about this-
Hillary-YOU GO GIRL!!! You've got him so frazzled he's making a gaffe a day now.
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Just a typical, small town, British-American girl...
I'm still guessing Auschwitz was intentional because of notoriety and shock value. And unfortunately for Barack, it bit him in the butt.
Either that or the poor guy is just LOSING.HIS.BEARINGS.
At 46. Pity.
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Just a typical, small town, British-American girl...
But I sure as h*ll knew the Russians liberated Auschwitz.
As for my family legends of WWII history...it is more in Northern Africa, and on a few ships.
And I'm not running for President either. The only people I need to pander to are second graders tomorrow. And believe me, I know my Dr. Seuss.
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Just a typical, small town, British-American girl...
Cut it out. Behave.
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"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater
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"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
I try to help, but you're good at it. :-)
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"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater
I know that it's probably instinctual of you to sneer at Republicans. However, sneering at c17wife's lack of tertiary knowledge of WWII is a mistake, given that you've been spending far too much time today trying to explain away your own candidate's lack of primary knowledge on the same topic.
You will now apologize to c17wife for being a jackass to her - and, no, "sorry if you were offended" won't cut it. Next post, or last post. Your call.
Moe lane
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!
I will admit freely that I haven't paid much attention to WWII history in quite some time. But I still know the basics. For now, I'm trying to sort out that whole House of Windsor saga since my 8 year old has about 9,000 questions after our visit to London this past weekend. And my brain has slept a few times since I studied all that.
I hope ya'll will forgive me for pandering to him right now. :>)
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Just a typical, small town, British-American girl...
He's starting to sound like a 45 on 16 rpm when he goes off script. And didn't any adult ever tell him,"Git yer hands out of yer pockets and stand up straight!"
"ma deuce says no class"
The lack of attention to detail if not the outright half-truth of a large number of Obama's comments provide a context of deceit at the very heart of his campaign. He is a liar in his essence and that is an issue. Whether it be little sniper story embellishments or bold faced lies, they are still false and show the lack of character of not only Obama but democrats as a party.
"Land of the Free and Home of da Whopper" Peter Griffin...Family Guy
conform and celebrate diversity....or else!!!
Because it is not a complete fabrication like Clinton's snipergate scenerio(in your post you are attributing that to Obama).
Its family history that got passed down and lets be honest family history is never that accurate. Perhaps he was always told it was a "concentration camp" and never knew which one and assumed Auschwitz maybe he was always told it was Auschwitz.
Either way we could focus on the point he got the camp name wrong or discuss the issue of PTS effecting the returning troops which was the point of the story.
Yes. The point of his telling the story about his uncle was to discuss PTSD.
"The trouble started when Obama was speaking in Las Cruces, N.M., on Monday. He said he did not serve, but comes from a family that did sacrifice for the nation. He was speaking about the many members of the military who suffer post traumatic stress disorder and should be given better care."
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/05/27/recollection-of-obama-familys-se...
ignored because the "greater good" is the actual "point"...please spare me your leftist drivel...we don't play clintonian word games here...PTSD is over diagnosed in this country daily...if you are a victim of crime you could be PTSD...if you came from a bad household you could be PTSD...if you live in tornado country you could be PTSD...if you lived through Katrina you could be PTSD and I could go on and on...and that sir is not taking anything away from what the military men and women have seen and done mentally challenging things in the war...but do not come here and make excuses for the lying liar Obama.
Freedom of Religion NOT Freedom from Religion
gets anywhere near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
I already have the effects of a slight case left over from Bubba's reign.
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Just a typical, small town, British-American girl...
...for veterans is fighting the stigma it is an issue based on fake incidents or that it is an exaggerated problem. Using fake and/or exaggerated stories to help those of us with PTSD hurts the cause, it doesn't help.
I've had to debate numerous knuckleheads that point to anecdotal stories on PTSD scam artists as if people who claim PTSD are little more than the military version of welfare queens... seeing Obama pull this crap really irks me. And he has generally been good on this issue (unless you're one of his constituents needing help with a claim, and then you go to Durbin, just ask the guy in the Vets for Freedom ad).
The ends justify the means arguments fail miserably here. He needs to apologize to the Jewish Community for trying to lie about the Holocaust for political gain, to the military for trying to trump up his family's military history, and to vets suffering from PTSD for throwing another BS anecdotal out there that casts doubt on their real condition and battles to get help through the adversarial VA claims process.
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- "Make love not war? Real men can do both!"
I wrote this comment in another thread hours ago:
It doesn't matter anyway, because he has an out: It's all part of the family "Legend", and he only used the "legend"--as told to him--to symbolically represent the mental health issues of returning soldiers, and you may question him on the issues, but he's got a real problem with you when you cast aspersions on his family members. Check tomorrow and see how close I spun it."
"ma deuce says no surprise here"
but I was always an American Cold War Hawk. My epiphany came when I went to East Germany while the Berlin Wall was still crumbling. Come in from the cold, keeper.
"ma deuce says no truce"
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
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"If we want to take this party back, and I think we can someday, let’s get to work." – Barry Goldwater
he needs to be a lot more careful about the words he uses.
Not impressed so far.
Especially when discussing foreign policy.
Way to gaffe prone
He certainly does seem to be "reckless" with the truth, and to lack "judgement" when it comes to matters both great and small. Why wouldn't he check his facts before rushing out to tell the story? Could it be that he was in the emotion of the moment, and that he just had to pander? Or doesn't he like to plan ahead? These are not a good quality for a President to have.
Obama certainly has some big weaknesses. There is this, and there is his obvious need for a substitute father figure, which prompted him to latch onto Jeremiah Wright.
What we need to do is figure out a way to take advantage of these propensities of his.
You could read all that you spoke of into this, you could also try palm reading too but I doubt this story will get any more traction in the news cycle.
I don't think it will have the sticking power of McCain's 100 years in Iraq gaffe.
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
the 100 years in Iraq thing was an obvious mispresentation spun by Obama.
We have had troups in Japan, S Korea, and Europe for decades. Saying that forces could remain in Iraq for 100 years is not a gaffe, it is a way of putting Iraq into context.
"I don't think it will have the sticking power of McCain's 100 years in Iraq gaffe."
No, it won't. The McCain "gaffe" is not a gaffe, but an outright distortion by the Democrats of what McCain said. So it will have no sticking power, unlike Obama's gaffes, because no one, except for your fellow Kos kids, who are already Koolaid drinkers, are going to buy your silly lie.
But please keep trying, Kossite.
Like Hillary being named after Sir Edmund before he climbed Everest and became Sir Edmund, like Bill remembering all those churches burning in Arkansas, like Kerry being in Cambodia on Christmas, Gore forget about it, you needed a scorecard.
Where's the media gaffe patrol ?
Except they're not really mistakes and pathological is too kind a word. Can anyone at least consider the use of the word insane? There's something seriously wrong here, and what does it say about the Democrat party, a string of loons running for the Presidency.
"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville
His father was from Kenya and ran out on them.
His Imaginary uncle was in an Imaginary American unit participating in Imaginary action.
Imagine that.
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
that, once the factual error has been corrected, Obama's own family history has proof that the Holocaust occurred.
Which would be news to Mahmoud.
"I ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks."
"I ask you to feel what I'm telling you, not hear what I'm telling you". Not wanting to waste DVR time on MSM news tonight, I perused NBC's Nightly News for the segment on the weekend, got the tired same-old, same-old from the Obamessiah on "John McCain is tied to the failed policies of GWB", or words to that effect. And he seemed perplexed that McCain would have a "private fundraiser" with out the press. Nothing at all on the Obamessiah's holiday weekend gaffes. Big surprise there. Perhaps Obie has forgotten his private fundraiser in San Fran. Oh yeah, he's certainly tried to forget that one.
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