Barack Obama's Gaffes

Gaffes

"This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal"

Barack Hussein Obama

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Note:	Items are archived in the order of their discovery
The Bomb Gaffe	Despite his huge support staff, Obama still manages to screw up basic American historical facts -- from a speech in West Lafayette, Indiana (CNN transcripts) (video). "Throughout our history, America's confronted constantly evolving danger, from the oppression of an empire, to the lawlessness of the frontier, from the bomb that fell on Pearl Harbor, to the threat of nuclear annihilation. Americans have adapted to the threats posed by an ever-changing world." The History Place tells us that the Japanese attack force under the command of Admiral Nagumo, consisting of six carriers with 423 planes -- according to the Obamamessiah, ONLY ONE HAD A BOMB! Eight battleships were damaged, with five sunk. Three light cruisers, three destroyers and three smaller vessels were lost along with 188 aircraft. The casualty list included 2,335 servicemen and 68 civilians killed, with 1,178 wounded. Included are 1,104 men aboard the Battleship USS Arizona. That must have been "some bomb" - eh, Obama?
My Dad's A Veteran	In June 2008, Obama Falsely Claimed His Father Served In World War II: Obama: "My father served in World War II, and when he came home, he got the services that he needed." (Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks At The NALEO Conference, Washington, DC, 6/28/08)
Where Do I Work Gaffe	In this video, Obama refers to the Banking Committee as "my committee." Obama: "Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, which is my committee, a bill…" (Obama Press Conference, Sderot, Israel, July 23, 2008) (video) The problem is, Obama is not on the Banking Committee and is not on any of its subcommittees. This probably explains why Obama never called a meeting of his subcommittee on European relations to discuss the NATO effort in Afghanistan. He hasn't been at work in the U. S. Senate enough to even know what his committee assignments are. He's too busy campaigning in Europe on the taxpayers dime. This certainly should give the voter the impression that Obama hasn't got a handle on his current job, let alone the one for which he’s campaigning.
Obama Speaks Austrian	Obama responding to a question from an Austrian reporter at the 2009 G-20 Meeting: At a news conference afterward, Obama said his debut on the international stage had convinced him that "political interaction in Europe is not that different from the United States Senate," where he served before entering the White House. "There’s a lot of -- I don’t know what the term is in Austrian -- wheeling and dealing, and people are pursuing their interests, and everybody has their own particular issues and their own particular politics..." Tricky language, Austrian.
Cinco de Cuatro	Mary Katharine Ham likes to note these little incidents when they happen, not because she thinks it makes Obama an idiot because he occasionally stumbles over his words, but because his somewhat overblown reputation as the most cerebral, eloquent, utterly erudite president of all time could really use a pricking every now and then. Also, because if Bush had made such a blunder, it would have been the basis of a four-part MSNBC investigative series on the malapropism's deleterious effects on the Republican Party's attempts to woo Hispanic voters, Mexican-American relations, and our "place in the world." So, Obama, Mary Katharine will not turn your tendency to misspeak (and, then reprimand your Teleprompter) into an international incident, but she will note it with some glee: On the eve of the Mexican holiday, Obama on Monday had an event in the East Room of the White House with Mexico's Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan. Obama joked that it was "Cinco de Cuatro," botching a play on the Spanish word for "four" when he meant to say "Cuatro de Mayo," or the Fourth of May. He tried again, but he still did not get it right. This from a unilingual man who's embarrassed that more of us can't speak French and suggested that we all learn Spanish. If only he were as conversant in Spanish as he is in noted non-language "Austrian," this wouldn't have happened. The literal translation of "cinco de cuatro" is "five of four." Maybe Obama was talking about the time of day? He quits working at 4 PM -- it's in his union contract -- and was just warning all present that he was done for the day -- he gets tired, you know.
Obama Flunks World War II History	Obama is a history buff. When he makes a political point he instinctively reaches for the historical parallel: the Lincolnesque "team of rivals" making up his cabinet, Winston Churchill's attitude to torture or his own family's experience of World War II. The only problem is that he sometimes gets history wrong. His plan to visit Buchenwald is in part a tribute to his great-uncle, Charlie Payne, who participated in the liberation of Ohrdruf, a satellite camp. Last May, however, Obama said that his uncle "was part of the first American troops to go into Auschwitz." Republicans pointed out that it was the Soviets who liberated Auschwitz. "Unless his uncle was serving in the Red Army, there's no way Obama's statement can be true," a Republican spokesman said. The Democratic candidate issued a correction, but critical historians have found earlier examples of Obama's elastic approach to the facts. In 2002 he cited the wartime experiences of his grandfather, Stanley Dunham. "My grandfather...heard the stories of fellow troops who first entered Auschwitz and Treblinka." Treblinka, like Auschwitz, is in Poland, and was also liberated by Soviet troops. Last week Obama extrapolated from another historical example -- the prohibition of torture in wartime Britain -- to conclude: "Churchill said 'We don't torture' when ... all of the British people were being subjected to unimaginable risk and threat." Historians pounced again, pointing out there was no record of Churchill explicitly banning torture. In fact, a November 2005 story in the Guardian details torture by British soldiers between 1940 and 1948, at the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre -- known as the "London Cage" -- run by MI19, responsible for interrogating enemy prisoners of war. The Guardian concluded that the London Cage "was used partly as a torture centre," where 3,573 German officers and soldiers were brutally interrogated. SS Captain Fritz Knoechlein, taken to the Cage in October 1946, alleged he was starved, beaten and kept awake for four days straight.