When Obama Goes Off Script, He Flubs American History

As I read along the prepared remarks sent out by the White House while listening to Barack Obama read them, I noticed that he stayed on script, word for word..... until close to the end when he went off script by adding one sentence about Lincoln.

Others noticed this as well and they are pointing out that not only did Obama go off script but he flubbed his history when he did.

The prepared remarks sent out by the White House says:

We all remember Abraham Lincoln as the leader who saved our Union. But in the middle of a Civil War, he was also a leader who looked to the future – a Republican president who mobilized government to build the transcohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifntinental railroad; launch the National Academy of Sciences; and set up the first land grant colleges. And leaders of both parties have followed the example he set.

NYT shows what Obama added in on his own:

We all remember Abraham Lincoln as the leader who saved our Union. Founder of the Republican Party. But in the middle of a civil war, he was also a leader who looked to the future -- a Republican President who mobilized government to build the Transcontinental Railroad -- (applause) -- launch the National Academy of Sciences, set up the first land grant colleges. (Applause.) And leaders of both parties have followed the example he set."

The American Thinker caught the slight change and points out two things.

One- Lincoln did not join the Republicans until 1856, over two years after the party was founded. The first Republican convention was held in Ripon, Wisconsin in 1854.

Two, and by far the most interesting, is that PBS, either edited out the gaffe or they used the prepared remarks sent out by the White House and mistakenly called it a transcript.

But how does it appear in the PBS transcript?

"We all remember Abraham Lincoln as the leader who saved our Union. But in the middle of a Civil War, he was also a leader who looked to the future - a Republican president who mobilized government to build the transcontinental railroad; launch the National Academy of Sciences; and set up the first land grant colleges. And leaders of both parties have followed the example he set."

Hot Air has a little fun with showing the differences in how the media reports when a Republican makes a gaffe or flubs a fact, the very same gaffe, they ignore from Obama yet previously criticized a Republican for.

Snark alert:

Don’t worry, though — the media is actually covering this gaffe. For instance, Tom Maguire finds Time Magazine having to correct the record on Lincoln:

He gives a good speech, but he’s loose with the facts. He called Abraham Lincoln the “founder” of the Republican Party. Nope. Lincoln was not the founder of the party; he wasn’t even the first Republican nominee (John Fremont was, in 1856). Lincoln was, of course, the first Republican to be elected president.

Great work by Time, huh? Only this piece wasn’t written this week. It was written in September 2008, and fact-checked Mike Huckabee, not Barack Obama. And guess who wrote this historical correction? Time Magazine’s Jay Carney … who now works at Barack Obama’s press secretary. They don’t talk to each other much in this White House, do they?

By the way, Time still hasn’t noted Obama’s error in the same way they did with non-candidate Huckabee in September 2008.

Legal Insurrection wonders if the media will show the same type of attention to Obama's gaffe as they did to Palins accurate statements on Revere.

So now the media will erupt for weeks on end about what an “idiot” and “fool” and “know-nothing” Obama is, just like it erupted over Sarah Palin’s (accurate) comments about Paul Revere?

It’s even worse, because Palin’s (accurate) comments were made in an on-the-fly interview whereas Obama’s were in a prepared speech.

And all the enlightened conservative pundits who bashed Palin endlessly over Revere now will denounce Obama’s historical ignorance, right?

Let me add my own reminder here about the media and liberal's inability to act consistently and objectively.

Remember when media personalities and the far left howled, insulted, criticized and claimed how dumb Sarah Palin was when she referenced the 1773 Tea Party?

Then people showed them how to use a search engine?

Story: Sarah Palin referenced the 1773 Tea Party and members of the far left liberal progressive portion of the Democratic party decided to deride her for her lack of knowledge, it was tweeted, retweeted, reported on and generally the left were having a field day stating that Palin didn't know the date of the Tea Party.

Welllllllllllllllllllllllll, once they actually looked up the Tea Party, you know, using the dandy little thing called a SEARCH ENGINE..... the backtracking began.

The lesson from all this is this: Palin does better with little notes on her hand than Obama does with a script and a teleprompter.

Quote of the day:

Other lawmakers had an altogether different review of the president's speech. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) told reporters he was mesmerized by Obama's skill with teleprompters.

"It is a head dance, just a beautiful thing," Gohmert said, moving his head from side to side. "Back and forth, three to five seconds between the teleprompters. ... He is so good. I mean I don't need sound, I can just sit there and admire how good he is at going back and forth between those two teleprompters."

Ummmmmm..... only when he sticks to the words on that little teleprompter dude.

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