Clown Town act on the road in Springfield, Illinois 8/22/08 
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Click image to launch: "Barack America" Introduces "President Joe Biden" |
Posted on 12/29/2008 2:26:32 PM PST by steelyourfaith
I'm seeking to compile refutations to the Obama-is-smart mythos. Especially anything funny ... and can be verified by reference to an internet link.
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Click image to launch: "Barack America" Introduces "President Joe Biden" |
April 27, 2009, during a speech at the National Academy of Sciences ... on the same day that an airplane from the Air Force One fleet, with F-16 fighter escort, buzzed low over lower Manhattan frightening many.
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Click image to launch: "Obama gets ahead of teleprompter" |
"This Week" with Stephanopoulos, 9/7/08
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Click image to launch: "Obama Admits Muslim Faith" |
April 1, 2009, in London on the occasion of the G20 summit, Obama is sharing a joint press conference podium with PM Gordon Brown of the UK. Obama is asked a question by BBC political editor Nick Robinson. The response amused John Crace of the left wing Manchester Guardian, inspiring him to publish the piece below, The Question that Flummoxed The Great Orator:
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Rush Limbaugh also commented on Obama's response on his radio program of April 7, 2009. The text of this is archived on his website as The "World's Greatest Orator" Concludes His World Apology Tour. Rush's comments, given extemporaneously as he played the actuality of Obama's response, have been added here in red to Crace's piece.
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Barack Obama, the World's Greatest Orator (™all news organisations), didn't exactly cover himself in glory when the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson asked him a question about who was to blame for the financial crisis. Normally word perfect, Obama um-med, ah-ed and waffled for the best part of two and a half minutes. Here, John Crace decodes what he was really thinking ...
Nick Robinson: "A question for you both, if I may. The prime minister has repeatedly blamed the United States of America for causing this crisis. France and Germany both blame Britain and America for causing this crisis. Who is right? And isn't the debate about that at the heart of the debate about what to do now?"
Brown immediately swivels to leave Obama in pole position. There is a four-second delay before Obama starts speaking [THANKS FOR NOTHING, GORDY BABY. REMIND ME TO HANG YOU OUT TO DRY ONE DAY.]
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RUSH: ...This goes two-and-a-half minutes. We have a limit here. Normally I put a restriction on the sound bite length. I don't want any longer than a minute. If it goes longer, cut it up into two or three sound bites. In this case, we have made an exception to the rule. This goes on for a full two-and-a-half minutes. Here is Obama basically (responding to): How do we assess blame? Is the United States really responsible for the crisis, and what do we do about it now?
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Barack Obama: "I, I, would say that, er ... pause [I HAVEN'T A CLUE] ... if you look at ... pause [WHO IS THIS NICK ROBINSON JERK?] ... the, the sources of this crisis ... pause [JUST KEEP GOING, BUDDY] ... the United States certainly has some accounting to do with respect to . . . pause [I'M IN WAY TOO DEEP HERE] ... a regulatory system that was inadequate to the massive changes that have taken place in the global financial system ... pause, close eyes [THIS IS GOING TO GO DOWN LIKE A CROCK OF SHIT BACK HOME. HELP]. I think what is also true is that ... pause [I WANT NICK ROBINSON TO DISAPPEAR] ... here in Great Britain ... pause [SHIT, GORDY'S THE HOST, DON'T LAND HIM IN IT] ... here in continental Europe ... pause [DAMN IT, BLAME EVERYONE.] ... around the world. We were seeing the same mismatch between the regulatory regimes that were in place and er ... pause [I'VE LOST MY TRAIN OF THOUGHT AGAIN] ... the highly integrated, er, global capital markets that have emerged ... pause [I'M REALLY WINGING IT NOW]. So...
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RUSH: Stop the tape. Remember, now, the question here is: Who's right? Who's really responsible for this, and isn't the debate about that? Who is responsible for it, at the heart of the debate about what to do now?
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... at this point, I'm less interested in ... pause [YOU] ... identifying blame than fixing the problem. I think we've taken some very aggressive steps in the United States to do so, not just responding to the immediate crisis, ensuring banks are adequately capitalised, er, dealing with the enormous, er ... pause [WHY DIDN'T I QUIT WHILE I WAS AHEAD?] ... drop-off in demand and contraction that has taken place. More importantly, for the long term, making sure that we've got a set of, er, er, regulations that are up to the task, er, and that includes, er, a number that will be discussed at this summit. I think there's a lot of convergence between all the parties involved about the need, for example, to focus not on the legal form that a particular financial product takes or the institution it emerges from, but rather what's the risk involved, what's the function of this product and how do we regulate that adequately, much more effective coordination, er, between countries so we can, er, anticipate the risks that are involved there.
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RUSH: Are you following this?
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Dealing with the, er, problem of derivatives markets, making sure we have set up systems, er, that can reduce some of the risks there. So, I actually think ... pause [FANTASTIC. I'VE LOST EVERYONE, INCLUDING MYSELF] ... there's enormous consensus that has emerged in terms of what we need to do now and, er ... pause [I'M OUTTA HERE. TIME FOR THE USUAL CLOSING BOLLOCKS] ... I'm a great believer in looking forwards than looking backwards.
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RUSH: So here we have a stumbling, bumbling two-and-a-half minute answer to the question, and you need to remember this bite each time you hear what an impressive trip Obama had and what a great orator he is. Because he basically mumbled and jumbled through a non-answer, and if you want to try to ascertain any substance in this, actually, it is that, "Yes, I think the United States is to blame, but I'm not gonna look back. We're going to look forward to, and we're gonna find ways to punish the United States. I'm just telling you here in a way that you can't understand."
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The best that a YouTube search for video documentation of this response could produce was segments on two different videos with an intervening phrase missing.
The first 1:22 of the response can be found on the following video beginning at 0:12 with Nick Robinson's question. It mysteriously edits out the remainder.
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Click image to launch: "G20 Socialism Vs Capitalism in Downing Street dinner-1 April 09" |
The following video begins with a 1:21 continuation of Obama's response from the previous video, although there is a slight gap during which Obama had said,
"Not just responding to the immediate crisis, ensuring that, ..."
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Click image to launch: "Brown vs. Obama 1/4: Talking Heads of States" |
April 29, 2009
Bauer Notes Obama's 100 Mistakes, Misstatements and Missteps in His First 100 Days
Former presidential candidate Gary Bauer on Wednesday, Barack Obama's 100th day in office, noted a series of mistakes, misstatements and missteps for an administration which has received little comprehensive media coverage.
Bauer, chairman of the Campaign for Working Families, said that he released this list to provide a more balanced picture of the first 100 days of the Obama Administration. Bauer observed, "The media coverage has been so glowing from the Washington Press Corp that it is important to remind Americans about a number of bad decisions from policy to personnel from the most left-leaning administration in our nation's history."
The following is a top 100 list of Mistakes, Misstatements and Missteps for the Obama Administration, as released by the Campaign for Working Families.
Undermining Our Values
1. Calling for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act on the White House website.
2. Listing on the White House website a call for an expansion of the definition of federal hate crimes to include homosexual behavior.
3. Calling on the White House website for policies like the "Fairness Doctrine" that could silence conservative and Christian talk radio.
4. Repealing limitations on taxpayer-funding of human embryonic stem cell research.
5. Repealing limitations on taxpayer-funding of abortions overseas.
6. Pledging $50 million to the United Nation's Population Fund, which supports China's draconian one-child policy.
7. Proposing new rules to gut conscience clause protections for pro-life doctors and other medical personnel who don't want to be forced to perform abortions or other procedures that violate their values.
8. Proposing increased funding for the nation's largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood.
9. Calling on the White House website for "a goal that all middle and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year," (mandatory volunteerism).
10. Inviting homosexual families to the White House Easter Egg Roll.
11. Allowing his attorney general to call for the reinstatement of Clinton-era restrictions on the Second Amendment.
12. Breaking his promise not to appoint lobbyists to his administration. He hired 17 in his first two weeks.
13. Breaking his promise to sign legislation only after a five-day period of public comments.
14. Asking that the monogram for Jesus Christ be covered up during a televised speech at a Catholic university in which Obama quotes the Sermon on the Mount.
Undermining Our National Security
15. Apologizing for America in Europe and Latin America.
16. Bowing before the Muslim king of Saudi Arabia.
17. Pledging to base America's foreign policy toward Iran on "mutual respect" in a video to the Iranian people and Iran's Holocaust-denying dictator.
18. Returning the bust of Winston Churchill given to George Bush after 9/11 by our British allies.
19. Giving British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the leader of America's most loyal ally, a box of DVDs that don't work in British DVD players.
20. Ordering Guantanamo Bay closed without any idea of where to send the terrorist suspects held there.
21. Suggesting that some of those terrorists now at GITMO may kill again, but may also be released onto U.S. soil and set up with welfare benefits.
22. Caving to communist Cuba by relaxing travel restrictions and remittances for Cuban Americans before any Cuban political prisoners have been released.
23. Shaking hands with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.
24. Sitting silently though a 50-minute anti-American diatribe by Nicaragua's communist president, Daniel Ortega.
25. Releasing Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the suspected mastermind the 2000 suicide bombing of the U.S.S. Cole.
26. Releasing classified CIA memos outlining our interrogation techniques.
27. Telling our CIA agents not to be discouraged when he acknowledges their "mistakes."
28. Declaring a new openness to "truth commissions" and prosecuting intelligence officials involved in enhanced interrogations of terrorists.
29. Proposing to send a $900 million foreign aid package to Palestinians in Gaza.
30. Asking Congress to relax the law so that some of that money could go to the terrorist organization Hamas.
31. Calling for the U.S. to eliminate its nuclear weapons.
32. Telling Russian President Demitri Medvedev that America's commitment to missile defense is negotiable.
33. Dropping the term "enemy combatants" for GITMO detainees.
34. Dropping the term "terrorism" for "man-made disaster."
35. Dropping the term "Global War on Terror" for "overseas contingency operations."
36. Giving his first interview as president to the Arab language network Al-Arabiya.
37. Telling the Muslim world that his "job" was to communicate "that the Americans are not your enemy," when it's Muslim extremists who have declared war on us.
38. Proposing that military veterans use private insurance for the cost of a service-related injury before they would be eligible for coverage through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Undermining Free Enterprise
39. Signing the trillion-dollar plus so-called "stimulus" bill, which the Congressional Budget Office said would actually hurt long-term economic growth.
40. Saying Caterpillar wouldn't lay off workers if his trillion-dollar stimulus bill passed Congress. Obama signed the bill on Feb. 17th. On March 17th, Caterpillar laid off nearly 2,500 workers.
41. Hosting a "Fiscal Responsibility Summit" one week after signing the trillion-dollar "stimulus" bill.
42. Railing against "outrageous recklessness and greed" of AIG bonuses that were legally protected in the so-called "stimulus" bill he signed four days after it passed, not five as he promised.
43. Breaking his promise on earmark reform by signing the $410 billion "omnibus" spending bill with billions in earmarks.
44. Proposing a $3.6 trillion budget that doubles the national debt in five years and triples it in ten years.
45. Proposing a "carbon cap and trade" scheme that will raise energy taxes by hundreds of billions, even trillions, of dollars.
46. Burning more than 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to fly to Iowa for Earth Day to promote "wind power."
47. Proposing $634 billion in higher taxes for socialized health care.
48. Proposing to raise taxes on small business owners.
49. Saying the White House is open to the idea of taxing employer-sponsored health care benefits as income.
50. Signing a massive expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, calling it "a down payment on my commitment to cover every single American."
51. Establishing the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research to give bureaucrats the power to ration health care and tell your doctors what care you can and cannot have.
52. Signing the 2009 Omnibus Public Land Management Act, which the Sierra Club praised specifically because it "will safeguard millions of acres ... from oil and gas leasing."
53. Suggesting he has found $1.5 trillion in bogus "savings" by not spending money in Iraq that we were not planning to spend years from now.
54. Ordering his Cabinet to "cut" $100 million in spending in 90 days, after proposing nearly $5 trillion in spending in his first 90 days.
55. Proposing to limit tax deductions for home mortgage interest.
56. Proposing to limit tax deductions for charitable donations.
57. Refusing to allow banks to repay TARP money.
58. Bailing out AMTRAK with a 10% increase in its taxpayer subsidies.
59. Bailing out the United Auto Workers Union with billions of taxpayer dollars to GM and Chrysler.
60. Bailing out the United Auto Workers by giving it a majority ownership stake in Chrysler. Yes, the union will own the company.
61. Bailing out Big Labor by issuing an executive order mandating that infrastructure projects paid for with "stimulus" funds must use union labor, guaranteeing higher costs for the taxpayer.
62. Bailing out Big Labor again by repealing regulations requiring the disclosure of how union dues are spent. So much for "transparency."
63. Saying, "The United States government has no interest in running GM," then vowing that the government will back auto warranties.
64. Saying, "The United States government has no interest in running GM," then firing the CEO of General Motors.
65. Allowing states to set their own fuel efficiency and emissions standards, making it harder for struggling auto makers to compete.
Personnel Is Policy
66. Nominating Timothy "The Turbo Tax Evader" Geithner as Treasury Secretary to oversee the IRS.
67. Nominating as attorney general Eric Holder, who urged Bill Clinton to pardon tax evader Marc Rich and 8 FALN terrorists.
68. Nominating David Ogden, a prominent attorney for the pornography industry, to be Deputy Attorney General.
69. Nominating Tom Daschle, who owed more than $140,000 in back taxes, as Health and Human Services Secretary.
70. Nominating Kathleen Sebelius, who is ardently pro-abortion and owed $8,000 in back taxes, to be HHS Secretary.
71. Nominating Janet Napolitano, who said, "crossing the border is not a crime per se," as Homeland Security Secretary.
72. Nominating Steven Chu as Energy Secretary. Last September, Chu said, "Somehow, we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe," which at that time were roughly $8.00 a gallon.
73. Nominating Ron Kirk, who owed more than $6,000 in back taxes, as Trade Representative.
74. Nominating Bill Richardson, who was embroiled in an ethics scandal, as Secretary of Commerce.
75. Nominating Nancy Killefer, who also owed back taxes, to be the government's "Efficiency Czar."
76. Nominating Rosa Brooks, a leftwing acolyte of George Soros, as an advisor to the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.
77. Nominating Harold Koh, an ardent supporter of using international law in the interpretation of our Constitution, to be the top legal advisor to the State Department.
78. Nominating Carol Browner, who was a member of the Socialist International, to be "Climate and Energy Czar."
79. Nominating John Holdren, an environmental extremist and advocate of population control, as the White House Science Advisor.
80. Nominating Dawn Johnsen, who is so pro-abortion she once compared pregnancy to slavery, to direct the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department.
81. Nominating Charles Freeman, an anti-Israel, pro-Arab apologist, to be head of the National Intelligence Council.
82. Nominating Tony West, who represented American Taliban John Walker Lindh and exposed the Bush Administration's terrorist surveillance program, to the Justice Department's Civil Division.
83. Nominating Annette Nazareth to be Deputy Treasury Secretary, who withdrew after a month-long probe into her taxes.
84. Trying to nominate pro-abortion Catholics to be ambassador to the Vatican, a move even John Kerry opposed.
85. Appointing Ellen Moran of the pro-abortion group Emily's List as his White House communications director.
86. Appointing Melody Barnes, a board member of Emily's List and Planned Parenthood, as his director of the Domestic Policy Council.
87. Appointing Harry Knox of the Human Rights Campaign (the largest homosexual rights lobbying group) to the White House's Faith Based Advisory Council.
88. Appointing Adolfo Carrion as Director of White House Office of Urban Affairs, even though he is under investigation for kickbacks in a scandal nearly identical to one that cost GOP Senator Ted Stevens his election.
89. Nominating David Hamilton as his first appointment to a federal appeals court. Judge Hamilton has issued a number of controversial rulings, including prohibiting the Indiana House of Representatives from opening sessions with prayers in the name of Jesus.
Other Obama Outrages
90. Telling congressional Republicans to stop listening to Rush Limbaugh.
91. Coordinating attacks on Rush Limbaugh, Rick Santelli and Jim Cramer out of the White House.
92. Hosting weekly parties at the White House, serving up $100-a-pound Waygu beef during what Obama called, "the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression."
93. Laughing it up on 60 Minutes as the country is mired in a recession.
94. Allowing Air Force One to buzz the Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan, creating panic in New York City.
95. Disparaging Special Olympians on the Tonight Show.
96. Allowing his Department of Homeland Security to issue a report accusing pro-life, smaller government conservatives and returning Iraq/Afghanistan veterans of being "rightwing extremists."
97. Promising to push for comprehensive immigration reform, i.e., amnesty.
98. Killing the school voucher program in the District of Columbia, while sending his two daughters to an elite private school, rather than D.C.'s public schools.
99. Moving the Census out of the Department of Commerce and into the White House.
100. Relying too much on his teleprompter.
SOURCE Campaign for Working Families
In this August 2001 "lost episode" of Check, Please!, then Illinois state back-bench senator Barack Obama moonlighted as a food critic and reviewed Dixie Kitchen and Bait Shop restaurants in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.
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Click image to launch: "Barack Obama on Check, Please!" |
May 4, 2009, at the White House, in what appeared to be Obama's attempt to note they were celebrating on the fourth of May (instead of the fifth of May) the Mexican holiday which commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.
Obama: “Welcome to Cinco de Cuatro - Cinco de Mayo at the White House....”
Sadly, cinco de cuatro means “five of four” in Spanish.
April 5, 2009, Palaiz de la Musique et Des Congres, Strasbourg, France
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Click image to launch: "Obama Thinks That Austrian Is A Language" |
Rather like claiming "American" is spoken in all 57 states.
May 25, 2008, Las Cruces, NM, at the same Memorial Day speech where he acknowledged the dead people he saw in the audience (see post 10 above, Obama recounts the exploits of his uncle (apparently serving in the Russian army) who liberated Auschwitz.
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Click image to launch: "Obama's uncle liberated Auschwitz?" |
Obama Misremembers: "Obama also spoke about his uncle, who was part of the American brigade that helped to liberate Auschwitz. "
Actually, Auschwitz was liberated by the Russian Army on Jan 27 1945.
It's always a treat when Obama starts flapping his gums off-teleprompter.
May 21, 2009, Obama's National Security speech
Which Gates? Obama flubs defense chief's name
President Barack Obama sees his secretary of defense just about every day, but he still flubbed Robert Gates' name on Thursday. Gates is a holdover from the Bush administration, and therefore this gaffe by Obama is clearly Bush's fault. Besides, governing 57 states is hard word and gaffes are bound to happen.
Robert Gates was in the crowd for Obama's national security speech. Pointing him out, the president said "William Gates" was on hand. Perhaps the ordered mind of Obama was thinking of Bill Gates, billionaire founder and chairman of Microsoft.
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Click image to launch: "Obama recognizes Secretary of Defense "William" Gates" |
May 26, 2009, the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to SCOTUS by TOTUS.
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Click image to launch: "Obama: Constitution written "20 centuries" ago" |
Transcript of Obama-Sotomayor announcement from CNN.
Of the many responsibilities granted to a president by our Constitution, few are more serious or more consequential than selecting a Supreme Court justice. The members of our highest court are granted life tenure, often serving long after the presidents who appointed them. And they are charged with the vital task of applying principles put to paper more than 20 centuries ago to some of the most difficult questions of our time.
July 29, 2008 somewhere in Missouri
Obama Insists Inflating Tires Better Than Oil Drilling
Obama"There are things you can do individually, though, to save energy," Obama said. "Making sure your tires are properly inflated – simple thing. But we could save all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling – if everybody was just inflating their tires? And getting regular tune-ups? You'd actually save just as much!"
Does Obama really think that accessing our own offshore oil (before the ChiComs & Cubans slant drill it all) would only increase domestic production by 3%? He spends his time in this video picking his ear and community organizing his nose harvestings while flaunting his ignorance. Again, B.O.'s pretentious arrogance makes his profound ignorance all the more laughable.
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Click image to launch: "Obama Insists Inflating Tires Better Than Oil Drilling" |
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Click image to launch: "Barack Obama's answer to meeting energy demands" |
Related auto/oil examples of Obama's keen grasp of facts:
March 23, 2009
William Amos and HA reader Xiphos send today’s entry, where President Barack Obama waxes nostalgic for the days when cars were truly fuel-efficient. Both the San Francisco Chronicle and the Detroit Free Press reported this late last week:
In his first few months, President Barack Obama has proven an ardent booster of the U.S. auto industry’s future — but he keeps screwing up its history.
Last month, Obama mistakenly called the automobile an American invention, surprising the Germans who claim that mantle. And in a speech in California today, Obama revived an inaccurate jab against the industry that Ford Motor Co.’s original Model T burned less fuel than modern sport utility vehicles. …
“The 1908 Model T — think about this — the 1908 Model T earned better gas mileage than the typical SUV in 2008,” Obama told the crowd. “Think about that — a hundred years later and we’re getting less gas mileage, not better, on SUVs.”
Well, except it didn’t, as the (Detroit Free Press) explains:
But according to Ford the first Model Ts built in 1908 could go 13 to 21 miles on a gallon, depending on the particular variation. The automaker and Model T clubs say typical Tin Lizzies averaged 15 m.p.g.
What remains unclear is how it makes sense to compare a fabric-roofed, four-seat car to a seven-passenger truck stuffed with high-tech accoutrements.
Those first Model Ts weighed about 1,200 pounds, lacked windows, rode on wood wheels and could ease up to a top speed of 45 miles per hour. A modern SUV tips the scales at 4,600 pounds, hits a top speed of 140 m.p.h. and has to meet a bevy of laws for crashworthiness.
The Chronicle includes this pithy quote from the CEO of the Model-T Ford Club of America, emphasis mine:
But with an array of modern regulations, he noted, “You couldn’t build a Model T today because the government wouldn’t let you put it on the road.”
Maybe Ford should check with Obama to start applying for waivers ….
Obama's Cairo University, Egypt, speech of June 4, 2009, is archived in six parts on YouTube. In Part One Obama claims a number of achievements for Islamic culture that have benefited civilization:
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Click image to launch: "Obama Cairo Speech [Full Speech PT1] June 04 2009" |
Later that day on his radio show Rush Limbaugh challenges Obama's claims:
President Obama's Cairo Speech: Outrageous, Absurd, Embarrassing
June 4, 2009
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, we're going to move on here to President Obama's speech in Cairo -- and I understand, ladies and gentlemen. I have studied the reaction to the speech as part of my intense show prep today. And I have detected maybe a consensus in all media quarters that this was a surprisingly good speech, that there's really not a whole lot here to criticize -- and you better not criticize it! If you criticize it, why... Somebody told me -- I didn't hear this, but somebody told me -- that somebody said that this speech is as important, is as powerful, was as important as Reagan's speech, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." (interruption) Who said that? (interruption) Who? Who? Where? Who said it's the equivalent of the "I Have a Dream" speech? (interruption) Well, anyway, doesn't matter who said it. That's the general tenor, the general tenor is it's a brilliant speech. It's better than we coulda hoped for. Don't criticize it. It's only going to harm you, if you criticize it. So, with that in mind, let's play the first sound bite I have chosen to share with you from Obama's speech this morning at Cairo University.
OBAMA: As a student of history, I also know civilization's debt to Islam. It was Islam at places like Al-Azhar that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's renaissance and enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra, our magnetic compass and tools of navigation, our mastery of pens and printing, our understanding of how disease spreads and how it could be healed. Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires, timeless poetry and cherished music, elegant calligraphy, and places of peaceful contemplation -- and throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.
RUSH: Okay. I know we're not supposed to criticize Obama's speech here. I know it's going way off the reservation here to do this. But, folks, that is outrageous. This is simply outrageous. It was absurd, in fact. Let's see. Where do we start here? "It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra." No. The origins of algebra trace back to the ancient Babylonians. They were not Muslims. Algebra was temporarily developed by the ancient Greeks and later the English. "Our magnetic compass, tools of navigation," Islam gave us these? No. "Recent research suggests that the compass may have been discovered by Central Americans, but if they didn't do it, the Chinese are then its discoverers. In either case, be it the Chinese or the Central Americans, the compass was discovered centuries before the advent of Islam."
Now, what am I supposed to say? I'm not supposed to say this stuff. Now, let's see, let's see. "Our mastery of pens and printing..." Has anybody ever heard of Gutenberg? I didn't know Gutenberg was a Muslim. "Our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed..."? Are there Nobel Prizes for Medicine awarded to Muslims I have missed? "Islamic has given us some majestic arches and soaring spires..." Well, sorry, folks, but arches and spires predate the arrival of Islam by centuries. I mean, come on, folks. Arches? Anybody heard of Rome? He also talked about the great gift, "timeless poetry and cherished music." The only problem there is that music -- and musical instruments especially -- are forbidden in most Islamic traditions. And it should be unnecessary to have to note Islam's "religious tolerance" has been demonstrated. Okay, I'm... Take it away.
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