Did Obama’s other uncle sink the Bismarck?
WASHINGTON _ An interchange between the Republican National Committee and Barack Obama’s campaign this afternoon illustrates how closely politicians watch one another – and how today’s candidates respond quickly out of fear of being “swiftboated.”The story begins in New Mexico where Obama, in a Memorial Day speech yesterday, recalled the pain of a family member who fought in World War II.
“I had an uncle … who was part of the first American troops to go into Auschwitz and liberate the concentration camps. And the story in our family was that when he came home, he just went up into the attic and he didn’t leave the house for six months,” he said.
This afternoon, the Republican Party asserted that Obama’s “dubious” claim was inconsistent with history and demanded an explanation.
Indeed, it was Soviet troops, not American forces, that entered the Auschwitz complex, on Jan. 27, 1945, liberating 7,000 people, the RNC pointed out after a trip to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum web site.
An hour later, the Obama campaign responded, saying their candidate, “mistakenly referred to Auschwitz instead of Buchenwald in telling of his personal experience of a soldier in his family who served heroically.”
The release, also citing the Holocaust Museum, noted that Obama’s great-uncle was part of the 89th Infantry Division that entered part of Buchenwald on April 4, 1945, the first Nazi concentration camp liberated by U.S. troops in Germany.
Besides showing the scrutiny and rapid-response tactics in presidential politics, this episode would seem to demonstrate how the Democrats’ never-ending contest breeds mistakes by worn-out candidates.
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If Obama can’t take a few months of friendly campaigning, how on earth do you expect him to weather four years of much greater responsibility - and with much more serious consequences for mistakes - as President? The lesson to be learned here isn’t that the Democrats have campaigned for too long, but that Mr. Obama is not up to the demanding job of serving as President.