One of the right-wing blogosphere’s Obama critics makes a heroic attempt to gin up a mountain out of that mole hill. The back story is that Obama made a speech wherein he was discussing the importance of improving treatment for veterans. To illustrate the point, Obama mentioned a family member who was part of the military operation that liberated a concentration camp. After he returned home, the family stories went, that family member was so traumatized he just stayed in the attic for 6 months.
Unbelievably the Republicans are trying to make hay out of this Holocaust story. For some not quite clear reason, they think it is significant that Obama referred to his “great uncle” as his “uncle;” or that it is important that Obama got the details of a family story wrong in that his great uncle was actually part of the liberation of Buchenwald rather than Auschwitz.
Grasping at straws to assign some sort of significance to Buchenwald versus Auschwitz can lead to some jaw-dropping stupidity. You see, I have now learned that Buchenwald was “merely” a slave labor camp. Sure, sure, I can’t at all see why experiencing this (disturbing picture from Buchenwald) would cause Obama’s great uncle to require treatment.
Look, politics is partly sport. I get that. But, it’s also very relevant to who we are and whether we prosper as a society. So, let’s all take our shots at the opponents of our political candidates of choice. That’s part of the fun. But, for decency’s sake, pick your battles with a modicum of care. We’re supposed to think less of Obama because Buchenwald was a hair lower on the insanely evil scale than Auschwitz? Really? Is this really the sort of ground where Obama’s opponents want to make a stand? Really?
It could be argued that because Buchenwald was a slave labor camp, the conditions there may have been worse than Auschwitz. The picture you linked certainly wasn’t “warm and fuzzy.” In either case I can understand where someone would need treatment after witnessing the horrors at either camp. And unle, great-uncle? Maybe he just dropped the “great” part to make the story come more alive for the audience. Or maybe his family didn’t use the title of “great” uncle and always called him just plain uncle.
On that last point, it would make sense that the “greats” would get left off considering Obama was raised by his grandparents.
In my (large) family, I’m really close in age to my youngest aunts and uncles. I grew up calling my great grandma “Grandma Nell,” because that’s what everyone around me called her. More confusing to me is my great-great aunt Margaret. She was always “Aunt Margaret.” Even now, I have to stop and do the math (how many greats?). Or not.
And yeah, I think Obama should be cut some slack on the whole story. Just pictures of the sorts of things his (great) uncle saw are enough to give me nightmares. The US government treats our veterans disgracefully, and I’m glad that Obama is addressing the issue.
Exactly. This isn’t like the “Sniper Fire” mistake by Clinton. The relevant facts are still the same, but some of the details that really don’t matter were wrong.
Part of the point is his lack of understanding that the Soviets liberated Auschwitz, not the Allies, leading to concerns that this may be another of his made-up stories.
After all, this is the man who said his parents got together because of what happened in Selma, even though he was born four years before that event.
This just adds to a long list of naive gaffes, such as misunderstanding the meaning of Memorial Day, saying he’d call the “President of Canada” (they have a Prime Minister but no President), 10,000 people dying in the Kansas tornado (actual number: 12), and my favorite, that he “visited all 57 states”.
What percentage of the U.S. population knows which army liberated which camp? I’m an avid consumer of WWII history (dad’s brothers served in Europe and the Pacific), and wouldn’t have known it was the Soviets who liberated Auschwitz. There were so many camps that their names kind of blend together.
Rev makes a good point: I think I would have preferred to be gassed on day one in Auschwitz than worked to death at Buchenwald. But that doesn’t have anything to with this story, really. For someone remotely related to the events, like Obama, it was probably “uncle helped liberate a concentration camp”, “concentration camps I know of include Auschwitz and… ummm…”, “uncle helped liberate Auschwitz”. It’s a gaffe. Doesn’t really shed any light on his judgment.
Running for office mostly on your opinion about Iraq, yet constantly confusing Shia and Sunni, now THAT would be concerning…
What it sheds light on T, for any person running for President, is that superficial research, reflection, and vetting of factual information leads to superficial, and often misguided, decision-making. I don’t know about you, but I consider that less than acceptable.
I can think of too many examples from all concerned, including President Bush, not to be seriously disappointed in the quality of aides and consultants these days. And, it’s not like they have to visit the Library of Congress to get information like this these days either.
Seriously, if any of us had an uncle, great uncle, aunt or cousin, or dog who had been involved in such a monumental moment in history, do you really think we’d mix up the names of where it happened??
I think Barry is a nice guy, but you really can’t give him a pass on this one can you??
Well yeah, actually I think I would. Even more so if it was some sort of family lore being passed down. And, it bears mentioning once again that this detail is completely incidental to the point being made — the horrors of war inflicted psychological damage on veterans that went untreated. We need to improve treatment for the soldiers.
I would prefer the candidates not make gaffes or factual errors. But of all the errors any candidate has made in this cycle, this one amounts to trivia. It doesn’t change the point that was being made, or the event he was describing.
Misremembering sniper fire was a bigger deal. Although even that has a bit of an extenuating circumstance in that they were prepared for that eventuality. It was still a big gaffe, misrememberence, or lie. It wasn’t quite as big as if she said she landed in Miami under sniper fire. But it was a doozy nonetheless. It concerns me more than whether Obama’s uncle was a great uncle or whether the death camp he liberated was in Poland or Germany.
Thinking Iran is arming Sunnis in Iraq is just freaking scary, though. That has real present consequences, because when such a misunderstanding is combined with other misunderstandings like whether weapons caches that are ballyhooed to be of Iranian manufacture actually are (oops, we misspoke), it could lead to war. And we already have all the war we can handle right now.
It’s sort of hilarious and at the same time a really a good reality check to reflect on some of the gaffes during this campaign and others through the years. I’m not a Clinton fan and I can see where the Republicans have plenty of ammunition to use for Obama’s gaffes. At the same time McCain has had his own gaffes to deal with. The joke that Huckabee told during the NRA’s convention in Louisville was over the top as was Hillary’s reference to RFK’s assassination 40 years ago this coming June 5. I was 10 years old in 1968 but I remember RFK’s assassination. My mom was a FDR Liberal Democrat and my dad was a Conservative Republican. They were kind of like James Carville and Mary Matalin of today, it was interesting listening to my parents spar. My parents are both deceased but I remember my mom telling me about how irate my dad was after the 1960 election when Kennedy beat Nixon. I remember going on vacation with my parents that summer of 1968 to New England. My mom wanted to see the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, it was about a month after RFK’s assassination and the area was cordoned off. One of the interesting things that strikes me though is how tired all of the candidates must be with this long primary season.