All the World's a Stage (UPDATED: It Was Buchenwald)

Do you sometimes feel as though the presidential campaign of a certain senator is merely a multi-act play performed by an off off off Broadway acting troupe?

I can't shake that feeling sometimes because it seems to me that nearly everything that Barack Obama says requiring simple American historical and/or cultural knowledge is just off of the mark and paradoxically, far wide of it. His comments in New Mexico yesterday are exemplary of this phenomenon.

There's this:

On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes — and I see many of them in the audience here today – our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.

Anyone who has cracked open novels/non-fiction containing descriptions of battles knows that, unless otherwise specified, the verb 'to fall' when connected with war means 'to get killed' and the word 'fallen' is the verb's associated participle and can be used as an adjective. /grammar geek

Therefore, the senator did not see any fallen heroes in his audience (hopefully). He probably does not know what the word 'fallen' means in that context and didn't think to rhetorically separate the 'fallen heroes' from the living military personnel in his audience--as I did when I mentioned my personal hero yesterday. He was merely repeating lines written by someone equally as ignorant.

A much more serious gaffe is this one:

Obama also spoke about his uncle, who was part of the American brigade that helped to liberate Auschwitz. He said the family legend is that, upon returning from war, his uncle spent six months in an attic.

(All emphasis mine.)

As many have noted, Auschwitz was not liberated by the Americans, but by the Russians--and if you know that Auschwitz is in Poland, you know your geography and you know from which direction the Soviets entered Germany and from which direction the other allied troops entered the country, this makes sense. Armed with such knowledge, it's a difficult error to make.

The question is this: does Obama possess factual knowledge about anything involving American history?* It seems that nearly everything he says about it produces a gaffe.

It's almost as if Obama is playing a role. Badly.

(Thanks to Ace of Spades)

UPDATE: Lord Nazh notices that Obama also claims that his grandfather enlisted right after the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japan. However, the Kansas WWII Veterans Record shows that his grandfather Stanley Armour Dunham, enlisted in the military on June 18, 1942. Is the delay explainable or was this another badly learned line?

UPDATE: It was Ohrdruf at Buchenwald and it was his grandmother's brother, Charles Payne..

*Some folks talking about the subject are just as bad as he is, noting that his mother was an only child and that his father was Kenyan, therefore "what uncle is he talking about?" Hmmm. (Hint: scroll down and look for two men with the surname 'Dunham.')

As we know, my biological father is also Kenyan; additionally, my mother has no brothers. However, I had not one but two uncles who served in the American forces during WWII--not to mention a grandfather.

I wonder how that could have happened.

But these observers aren't running for president.

Comments

[fletch]

Baldi-

Is the delay explainable or was this another badly learned line?

The Military was massively underfunded during the Depression, so that the US couldn't possibly have immediately 'armed' and 'trained' everyone - seven months seems rather reasonable to me.

I have always heard that so many people showed up to enlist on Monday Dec. 8, 1941 that they were told to go home and wait for the Gov't. to "draft" them...

[baldilocks]

That makes sense.

There's so much mixing of the real and the laughably false with this guy that it's tough to tell the difference.

[DagneyT]

My first thought was from that movie, "I see dead people"!

He's such an empty suit. One of the other recent gaffs that cracked me up was the "57 states", until I learned there are 57 MUSLIM states in the world. Then the gaff scared the wits out of me! Now I keep repeating over and over, to convince myself, "He's an empty suit." "He's an empty suit." "He's an empty suit." "He's an empty suit."

[IronMike]

Oh come on Dagney! Listen/watch his "57 states" thing again. It looks exactly like a person who is thinking in his mind (let's see, there are 50 states, and I have been to all but 3, okay 57). It looks like a mistake, one anyone can do when put under pressure of public speaking.

I'm no fan of Obama and his socialism, but I'm not going to jump on him for a slip of the tongue. He's got plenty more wrong about him.

[Tully]

His g'uncle Ralph E. Dunham was drafted in May 1942. His g'father Stanley Dunham enlisted in June 1942. Draft notices had been going out for a while by then. Stanley Dunham had only the one brother. On his g'mother's side her only brother was Obama's g'uncle Charles W. Payne of Wichita. The only Charles W. Paynes that are listed as having entered WW2 military service in Kansas both enlisted in the Navy.

The only concentration camps liberated by Patton's Third Army were the satellite camps of Buchenwald (the main camp was abandoned before we Americans got there, and had been taken over by the prisoners) and the upper Austrian camps of Mauthausen-Gusen.

[Lord Nazh]

Nice post baldi; even though I got the uncle and grandfather mixed up.

I realize that it takes time for you to be trained to be sent to fight; but you join the military BEFORE basic, not after don't you?

[baldilocks]

Hard to say, since they tended to be less rigid about thing in those days.

[Tully]

So now it's changed from his g'father to his g'uncle, his granny's brother. So where did Charles W. Payne join up/get drafted? Because if it was in Kansas, I'd like to know how he managed to skip the Navy to get into the Army after enlisting Navy.

My grandfather signed up for a war the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, fought in Patton's army. He saw the dead and dying across the fields of Europe; he heard the stories of fellow troops who first entered Auschwitz and Treblinka. --Barack Obama, 2002

He sure does seem to have trouble keeping that side of his family straight. Did Stanley Dunham also serve in Patton's Third Army?

[Tully]

Lord Nazh--if Obama his own self gets his great-uncles and his grandfather mixed up, who are you to feel bad about it? ;-)

[DipShit]

Are you all really not curious, 'cause I see nothing anything about it as you drone on about this garbage, why Obama does NOT, nor does ANYONE, retort Bush for his 'appeasement' talk with the cold, hard fact that his grandfather, Prescott Bush, was indicted for WW II crimes, trading with the enemy, namely, the Nazis?

So why is that no mentioned? That's pretty damned curious, do you think? Why off limits? Who's got their own skeletons to not raise this obviously recorded one in the American historical texts?

baldilocks sez: You know that you've struck a nerve when the whack jobs come calling. Welcome, Dip Shit.

[SoldOut]

Obama's just pandering, like most candidates, for Israel's and the world's media's affections. That's why he and all candidates (minus Paul, Gravel, and Kucinich) didn't make that a$$-kissing trip to Israel BEFORE they even announced that they were running last year. And for that, for the fact that Cong Ron Paul pointed out repeatedly during the earlier debates, as we all know too well, that israel can EASILY take care of itself and does not need Americans to spread israel's wings with the blood of Americans.

But the American voter, AKA Doofus Americanus and/or Boobus Americanus, actually believes he/she gets news by watching TV, reading the newspapers and listening to the radio. What's that Thomas Jefferson said about those who read the paper to stay informed are the most taken in?

Zippy straight.

In the words of Holden Caulfield: "Sleep tight, ya morons!"

baldilocks sez: Save the pandering for your fellow Paulnuts, my dear.

[David Ross]

I'm interested: America in World War 2 fought two fronts, one in the Pacific and then, later, in Europe. My understanding is that the Pacific was Navy and Marines, because it is mostly ocean with islands. Europe was Army, because it is mostly land.

What did the US Army do in 1942 and 1943?

[Tully]

North Africa, Sicily, Italy.

[largebill]

You can't blame him, he got these stories from some typical white people who can't keep their war stories straight.

My dad and all my uncles who were old enough to serve in WW II did, but I don't remember a single first hand story. My mom or an aunt may have said these ones were in the pacific and this one was where ever else, etc. I'll cut Obama some slack on dates and such as he was born 20 years after the fact and likely heard stories second hand. However, as a Harvard educated presidential candidate his alarming lack of historical & geographical knowledge is scary.

Separately, only war story my dad ever alluded to was something about sneaking a whole ham out of the chow hall and shipping it home. Apparently, military meat was salted back then to preserve it and folks back home didn't know to boil it to get the salt out. I assume the statute of limitations has expired on the stolen ham. :-)

[monsieurink]

Wow, how dumb can a collective crowd be? You are your ilk are why American politics suck for everyone, rethugs and demos alike. Harping on BS. I'd think, again collectively, ya'll have NEVER left mommy's house, let alone the city/town or the county.

Keep showing your hick-selves and pretty soon, oh my, the money paid for this blog to blow bull$hit daily will stop coming in.

For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something
They invest in.
Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares
Propaganda, all is phony.
Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Made everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far
That not much
Is really sacred.

My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards
False gods, I scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off
Say okay, I have had enough
What else can you show me?

[Hank]

David Ross

The Army had 91 Divisions during WWII. The marines had 6. The Pacific theater had 24 divisions.

1) McArthur did not like any one but himself to get publicity so he squelched most everyone else’s in the Army.

2) The marines had a very good public relations program.

Both had equally tought assignments. I.E. The 32d Division spent more time on the front line than any division in any theater.

[baldilocks]

monsieurink

Always fun to receive guests.

[VPliskin]

Maybe he meant "fallen" as in imperfect or sinners. You know, like "fallen" angel. So I suspect he was seeing those veterans in the audience who most likely sexually harassed our own female soldiers.

[j. marzan]

obama is an overrated, slickly-packaged product of david axelrod. he's an empty suit pol who mouths off his lines from his handler's prepared scripts.

the problem with obama is that he doesn't know the difference between a "good script" from a "bad script." that's why he has made so manny gaffes.

he is only an actor, and he only knows how to memorize and deliver lines from david axelrod..

[waltj]

Obama reminds me of the lawyer who asked prospective jurors if "you or anyone in you family has ever been a murder victim", without appearing to realize that murder victims don't make particularly useful jurors. Totally clueless.

As Hank noted, the U.S. Army saw plenty of action in the Pacific, mostly with MacArthur's forces, but by no means exclusively. For example, the 27th Infantry Division fought at Saipan. An uncle of mine was wounded as a member of the 27th during that operation. The 10th Army, with four Army and three Marine divisions, defeated the Japanese on Okinawa. The 81st Infantry Division completed the conquest of Peleliu that had been started by the 1st Marine Division. So there was plenty of work to go around, whether you were wearing blue or khaki.

Monsieurink: Sacre bleu, Pierre, is that you? It sounds like your incoherent blather anyway. I wondered where you'd hang your hat, since the Doc is taking a break. If not, sorry about the mistaken identity. And instead of just taking pot shots and posting lame poetry, how about joining the discussion? You may not think you have anything to learn here, but I can assure you that you do.

[Casey]

To join in on Tully's original question (Juliette is handling the trolls quite nicely on her own!) the Army spent several years just grinding through the New Guinea jungles, but that got old real fast compared to the Marines' amphibious assaults.

Basically they spent more ink on what they considered "interesting," in the same manner today they focus on the "interesting" facets of the Iraq war.

...Just caught something in M. le lackwit's comment; since when did you start making money here, Jules? Can I hit you up for a few bucks? /[snerk]

[Tully]

BREAKING:

No CW Payne on the rosters of the 89th. No S Dunham or R Dunham on the rosters of the 89th. Expect new versions of the story from the obama camp--or a VERY uncomfortable silence.