John Fund, columnist for the Wall Street Journal, wrote last Friday:
For months, Barack Obama has had the image of an incandescent, golden-tongued Wundercandidate. That image may be fraying now.
As smart and credentialed as he is, Sen. Obama is often an indifferent speaker without a teleprompter. He has large gaps in his knowledge base, and is just as likely to dig in and embrace a policy misstatement as abandon it. ABC reporter Jake Tapper calls him "a one-man gaffe machine."
Fund then illustrates Obama’s tendency toward misstatements, miscues, and mistakes with:
1- His incorrectly stating in New Mexico on Memorial Day weekend that his uncle helped liberate the victims of Auschwitz, when in fact it was his great uncle who helped liberate Buchenwald. Earlier in 2002 he had said his grandfather knew U.S. troops who had liberated Auschwitz and Treblinka, both of which were liberated by Russian troops alone.
2- On Memorial Day, still in New Mexico, Obama appropriately said that the crowd was gathered to honor America's "fallen heroes", then going on to note that many of those fallen heroes were present with them in the audience as he spoke.
3- Earlier in May, he said that the U.S. had 57 states.
4- Barak Hussein Obama in May said in Portland, Ore., that Iran doesn't "pose a serious threat to us," saying that "tiny countries" with small defense budgets aren't much cause to worry. Iran in fact has around one fourth the population of the U.S. and is engaged in a expansive military development and is extremely close to acquiring nuclear weapons. Obama the very next day had to backtrack, noting that for years he had "made it clear that the threat from Iran is grave."
5- Two weeks ago Obama said in Orlando that he would meet with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez and would include in their discussions Chávez's support of the Marxist FARC guerrillas in Colombia. However, the very next day he insisted in Miami that any country supporting the FARC should suffer "regional isolation." Fund notes that Obama advisers "were left explaining how this circle could be squared."
6- Obama said last year in Selma, Ala., that his birth was inspired by events there which took place four years after he was born.
7-. Last April he denied that the handwriting is his on a questionnaire on which, as a state senate candidate, he stated that he favored a ban on handguns. His campaign now argues that--even if it was his handwriting-- this doesn't prove that this was his true position because he may not have read the full questionnaire.
8- Last July in a presidential debate, Obama pledged to meet the leaders of Iran, North Korea, Syria and Cuba without any precondition. He said that President Bush’s refusal to do so was "ridiculous" and a "disgrace."
When Obama was overwhelmed with criticism, he dug in rather than relent, claiming, in defense of his position, that John F. Kennedy's 1961 summit with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna was a crucial meeting that led to the end of the Cold War.
This in spite of the fact that Kennedy himself admitted he was unprepared for Khrushchev's bullying. "He beat the hell out of me," Kennedy confided to advisers. Khrushchev described Kennedy to his Politburo as weak. This perception led to the Berlin Wall being erected just two months later. . . where it stood for 28 years!
Fund then notes:
Reporters may now give Mr. Obama's many gaffes more notice. But don't count on them correcting an implicit bias in writing about such faux pas.
Over the years, reporters have tagged a long list of conservative public figures, from Barry Goldwater to Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush, as dim and uninformed. The reputation of some of these men has improved over time. But can anyone name a leading liberal figure who has developed a similar media reputation, even though the likes of Al Gore, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have committed substantial gaffes at times? No reporter I've talked to has come up with a solid example.
That hardly disqualifies Mr. Obama from being president. But you can bet that if Hillary Clinton had done the same thing it would have been the focus of much more attention, especially after her Bosnia sniper-fire fib. That's because gaffes are often blown up or downplayed based on whether or not they further a story line the media has attached to a politician.
You can see Mr. Funds full article at
Of course, all of this concern with Obama’s misstatements and factual errors is of great concern. But even of greater concern are the extremely radical leftist positions of Obama of which he is clear, uncompromising, unrelenting, and unapologetic, but about which the mainstream media does no reporting and asks no questions—positions that would alienate many Americans including many Democrats and many African Americans.
These controversial positions include full term abortions (the murdering a children while they are being born), the dismantling of America’s ability to defend itself from terrorist and totalitarian states who are rapidly growing super power military status to use against us, and his commitment to a radical "gay" agenda including the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, which will result in gay marriage as the law of the land.
If you believe I am overstating Obama’s positions, go to his web site at