The Left and Right of Gaffes

Let's start with Obama's story about his own conception:

Marking the anniversary of the March 1965 "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, Ala., Obama, speaking at a church, he credited the those civil rights marchers of 1965 with the fact that his parents, a black African father and white Kansas mother, were inspired to fall in love and get married.

"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.!"

Obama was born in 1961; the Selma march was four years later.

Last May, he claimed that tornadoes in Kansas killed a whopping 10,000 people: "In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died -- an entire town destroyed." The actual death toll: 12.

In Obama's memoir, Dreams of My Father, he writes of a story in Life magazine that influenced and touched him greatly. It was about a black man trying to bleach his skin white. The Chicago Tribune researched Life magazine for the article. No such article could be found in Life. They researched Ebony as well, but found nothing.

A few weeks ago in Rush Limbaugh's hometown of all places, Obama messed up again:

Obama posited -- incorrectly -- that Arabic translators deployed in Iraq are needed in Afghanistan -- forgetting, momentarily, that Afghans don't speak Arabic. "We only have a certain number of them and if they are all in Iraq, then its harder for us to use them in Afghanistan," Obama said.

In a speech on Memorial Day Obama said 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."

Which of course led to rightwing blogs with headlines like, "Obama sees dead people."

Speaking in Oregon a few weeks ago Obama said: "I've now been to 57 states." Which prompted a new flag pin he could wear.

Now he has said this:

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. “Now obviously, something had really affected him deeply, but at that time there just weren’t the kinds of facilities to help somebody work through that kind of pain,” Obama said. “That’s why this idea of making sure that every single veteran, when they are discharged, are screened for post-traumatic stress disorder and given the mental health services that they need – that’s why it’s so important.”

Auschwitz, of course, is in Poland. It was liberated by the Soviets on January 27, 1945, not by Americans. Obama's uncle was either part of the Red Army or he was told a story that he didn't think through.

Look, all Presidential candidates make gaffes and misspeak. This is why I never blogged on Obama's mistakes. Presidential campaigns are brutal and any normal person would make mistakes like this. But we all know that if McCain has made these same mistakes the pundits on TV would be frowning and asking America if McCain's "senior moments" would hurt his ability to lead.

The problem is how the media (not the bloggers) react to these mishaps when they happen to Republicans. As Jim Geraghty points out:

Dan Quayle gets defined by one foolish moment where his misspells "potato," and George W. Bush is forever mocked as a dunce for his (admittedly classic) "Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country."

If the MSM would either A) be more forgiving of Republican officials who they don't like or B) be a little tougher on Democratic officials they do like, the world would be a better place. In this case, I don't think Barack Obama is deliberately lying, or trying to pull a fast one. It sounds like a family "legend" in which the specific horrors of war witnessed by his uncle are mistaken as the years go by. It happens, and Obama only deserves the lightest of metaphorical slaps on the wrist for it. But it would help if his fans in the press actually paid attention to what he says.

Even Hillary's sniper story didn't bother me because all politicans polish and embellish stories all the time. But we all know that the only reason Hillary got the same treatment by the media usually reserved for Republicans is because she is the Democrat who has the gall to not bow out gracefully to Obama, the media's love child.

I don't mind if the media gives Obama a pass on mistakes and gaffes, as long as they show the same courtesy to McCain.

Let the bloggers, on the left and right, have fun with them, but the MSM needs to be fair. Period.