The American Mind

We’re unofficially in summer. It’s an excuse for Sen. Obama to go on vacation. Two embarrassing mistakes in two days tells me he’s tired. First, it was Obama seeing dead people. Now, it’s his family’s myth of an uncle liberating Auschwitz.

It’s good for a laugh for a day or two, but trying to turn Obama into Dan Quayle won’t work–not with the deep network of support he’s built. President Bush stumbled over his words during his first term only to be reelected. So being the butt of comedians’ jokes won’t stop Obama from winning. Critics are better off making the case for why Obama is too liberal and inexperienced. Tit for tat ends up generating more tit for tat.

In running Sen. Clinton’s mention of Robert Kennedy’s assassination The Politico’s John Harris writes:

The signature defect of modern political journalism is that it has shredded the ideal of proportionality.

Important stories, sometimes the product of months of serious reporting, that in an earlier era would have captured the attention of the entire political-media community and even redirected the course of a presidential campaign, these days can disappear with barely a whisper.

Trivial stories - the kind that are tailor-made for forwarding to your brother-in-law or college roommate with a wisecracking note at the top - can dominate the campaign narrative for days.

Webloggers and MSM alike need to keep their eyes on the big picture.

“Well, Maybe Obama’s Uncle Was in the Red Army”

UPDATE: The Obama campaign corrected the Illinois Senator:

“Senator Obama’s family is proud of the service of his grandfather and uncles in World War II — especially the fact that his great uncle was a part of liberating one of the concentration camps at Buchenwald,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement. “Yesterday he mistakenly referred to Auschwitz instead of Buchenwald in telling of his personal experience of a soldier in his family who served heroically.”

The campaign said his great uncle, Charlie Payne, served in the 89th Infantry Division, and that the unit was among those to liberate Ohrdruf on April 4, 1945.

It would have been nice if the candidate himself would admit to his mistake. That would be an appreciated “new politics.” I doubt it will happen, but when Sen. McCain makes an understandable mistake the Left puts it in its proper perspective.