-By Warner Todd Huston
During his faux “jobs” speech on Sept 8, President Obama went off script for a brief sojourn into history to reveal to one and all that he hasn’t a clue about the subject.
I say off script because these words are not in the prepared text…
Sorry, big guy, but Abe Lincoln was not the “founder of the Republican Party.” In fact, Lincoln wasn’t even a member of the GOP when it was founded. Lincoln stayed in the Whig Party for a while after the GOP was founded in 1854. Lincoln did not start coming the GOP’s way until 1856.
During those two years Lincoln adamantly denied any interest in the GOP but three years after he finally joined the party — mostly because his own Whig Party simply withered away — he became the GOP’s first successful presidential nominee.
Now, the question is this: will the Old Media lambast The One for his complete lack of knowledge about the history of the United States (yes all 57 states). After all, the Old Media has attacked Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann for what they felt were mistaken claims about U.S. History.
But I will say this for The One. At least he finally corrected his most common history gaffe during his faux “jobs” speech.
For the last four years Obama has repeatedly called the transcontinental railroad the “intercontinental railroad.”
But during the Sept. 8 speech he finally, finally got it correct.
… and the media still ignored his lack of knowledge.
(And here is an interesting note about timing. I wrote this yesterday morning but never posted it. I figured I’d just wait until Saturday to post it. But I woke up Sat. morning and found EVERYONE had posted it. I should have posted this stupid thing right after I wrote it!)
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.