Simple Rule: Don’t Try To Score Points By Claiming To Remember The Holocaust Better Than Someone Else
Posted on May 28, 2008 by andrew
That Auschwitz/Buchenwald thing yesterday really pissed me off. Before I went to bed, I caught this post from John Aravosis noting Jake Tapper’s excellent response to the mainstreaming of the non-story. Reading it really made me feel a bit better. I was especially pleased to see Tapper specifically call out the Post’s Michael Dobbs for his ludicrous and insulting “fact-checker” piece on the dispute.
This should be very straight-forward: Barack Obama made a mistake that any reasonable person could see was an honest mistake. Believe me, I am as sensitive to the importance of remembering the Holocaust- and remembering it accurately- as any person who is not themselves a survivor could possibly be. I am not offended by Barack Obama’s mistake but rather impressed by his previous unwillingness to tell his uncle’s story despite clear political benefits to doing so. Barack Obama did not cheapen this story by using it politically, and if his opponents had any sense of propriety, they would have dealt with the gaffe in an equally respectful manner.
Nonetheless, all of the above is irrelevant to what I really wanted to say. That is, I want to take a moment to thank Barack Obama’s great-uncle for his service to this country, to the world, and specifically to the survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Thank you.
That is all.
Sphere: Related Content» Filed Under 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama, World War II
Comments
Leave a Reply
