Tuesday, March 1, 2011

GeographyBee Hot on the Trail of Obama's Childhood




H/T to Right Wingnut

From the LA Times:

In a radio interview...Mike Huckabee said Barack Obama grew up in Kenya with his father and grandfather. A spokesman for the former Arkansas governor says he made a simple mistake.

"Gov. Huckabee simply misspoke when he alluded to President Obama growing up in Kenya. The governor meant to say the president grew up in Indonesia," said J. Hogan Gidley, who works for Huckabee's political action committee.

Huckabee...suggested that"having grown up in Kenya" Obama would view the British as Imperialists.

I added emphasis to the last sentence because that is the real killer. If Huckabee merely had a mental block and meant to say Indonesia instead of Kenya, that would be pretty understandable. I do that kind of thing every day. However, Indonesia was a Dutch colony until the 1940s.

Kenya was the British colony.
This dilemna leaves the reader to puzzle. Is Obama afraid of wooden shoes or does he want to force all Americans to eat haggis? Please clarify Mr. GeographyBee.

15 comments:

Pablo said...

Tell me he wasn't regurgitating the D'Souza Obama/neocolonial crap.

Anonymous said...

Dang those Dutch for planting tulips everywhere they went, and for making the natives where wooden shoes!

Anonymous said...

Dan, so glad you posted this.
Is Huck going to issue an 'apology' now? Haha.

The truth is that Huck sticks his foot in his mouth too much to be the leader of the free world.

-Martha

Anonymous said...

Not to confuse things further, but don't the Dutch believe that haggis and chocolate are brothers?

Right Wingnut said...

Here's the full quote. I don't know what to make of this. I don't think Huck is a birther or anything, but this is just bizarre. Even the birthers agree that he spent much of his childhood in Indonesia. The statement he released doesn't pass the smell test. Can you imagine if Palin had said this?

"One thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for example, (is) very different than the average American,"

"The bust of Winston Churchill, a great insult to the British," Mr Huckabee said. "But then if you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather. He probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather."


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/8356132/Leading-Republican-claims-Barack-Obama-grew-up-in-Kenya.html

Right Wingnut said...

Drudge linked to the above story.

Anonymous said...

RW, makes one wonder if Huck put as much thought into the records of those criminals he pardoned as he has into the childhood of Obama or the history of Indonesia.

Right Wingnut said...

The NYT has a slightly different version of Huck's quotes, and puts it in contxt. His comments were a response to a birth certificate question.

...Mr. Huckabee’s comments were prompted by the conservative radio host Steve Malzberg, who asked Mr. Huckabee: “How come we don’t have a health record, we don’t have a college record, we don’t have a birth certificate — why, Mr. Obama, did you spend millions of dollars in courts all over this country to defend against having to present a birth certificate?”

The former governor responded: “I would love to know more. What I know is troubling enough.” Mr. Huckabee, who is now a Fox News host, then talked repeatedly about his concerns that Mr. Obama was raised in Kenya. (The audio of the entire interview with Mr. Huckabee was posted on the WOR Web site.)
“If you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather,” Mr. Huckabee said....


http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/huckabee-questions-obama-birth-certificate-claims-he-was-raised-in-kenya/

Anonymous said...

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-huckabee-obama-20110302,0,2888247.story

“Gov. Huckabee simply misspoke when he alluded to President Obama growing up in Kenya. The governor meant to say the president grew up in Indonesia,” said J. Hogan Gidley, who works for Huckabee’s political action committee.
Huckabee’s spokesman said that the governor believes Obama was born in the United States.
“When the governor mentioned he wanted to know more about the president, he wasn’t talking about the president’s place of birth — the governor believes the president was born in Hawaii,” Gidley said. “The governor would however like to know more about where President Obama’s liberal policies come from and what else the president plans to do to this country — as do most Americans.”

Can't we just deal with what Obama specifically does, rather than always wondering about his past? I'm really glad Romney has never mentioned anything about Obama other than the policies he disagrees with. Newt, Palin, and now Huck are all going after Obama for the wrong reasons.

-Martha

Jonathan said...

This is a big gaffe by Huckabee. It'll appear that he is at least playing footsie with the Birther movement, which is a massive turn-off to the majority of the Republican Party and definitely the majority of the American people.

Right Wingnut said...

I want to say one more thing before the Huck fans show up to defend him on this...

Try this. Take the full quote, and substitute Indonesia for Kenya. It still doesn't make sense.

Anonymous said...

RW, those quote are dynamite. The Mau Mau Revolution was in Kenya. Huckabee absolutely did not mean to say Indonesia, and the disclaimer from his spokesman is a flat out lie.

Pablo said...

This is outrageous. He was either playing footsy with the birther movement or the D'Souze/Gingrich neocolonial movement. Either way, he is an idiot for doing so.

Revolution 2012 said...

Great post Dan.

Huckabee caught AGAIN with his foot in his mouth.

RWN, You're right. If Palin had made the same comment, they would have cut into all the scheduled programs on the tube to let everyone know.

Noelle said...

Of all of the potential GOP nominees, the one for whom I have the least respect is Mike Huckabee.