Quick blog today due to work schedule but I just wanted to address the story of Mike Huckabee that's been buzzing in the media since some comments he made Tuesday on a right wing talk radio show.
On the Steve Malzberg show, Mike Huckabee was addressing something about Obama removing a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office. Apparently the bust was removed because Obama's people were making it so that all the busts in the office were of Americans. I'm not sure if that's actually the reason but that's not important.
Huckabee made a statement that the removal of the bust was due to Obama being raised in Kenya which was a British colony for quite some time. Here's Huckabee's statement:
“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.”
In fact, Obama's grandfather was arrested by the British and detained for a period. This isn't the fun stuff though.
In response to the media pointing out that Obama was in fact not raised in Kenya, Huckabee came out with this statement:
"I simply misspoke when I alluded to President Obama growing up in 'Kenya' and meant to say Indonesia."
Well, except for the fact that there was not a Mau Mau Revolution in Indonesia and Obama's grandfather didn't live there and Indonesia was not a British colony.
What happened here is that Huckabee got caught pandering to the far right. I've seen Huckabee on MSNBC where he comes off as a real gentleman and almost, dare I say it, kinda middle of the road politically. On networks like MSNBC, Huckabee is confident of Obama's American birth.
What's happening these days though is that politicians like Huckabee, lest we forget, he's an ordained Southern Baptist minister, play to whatever audience they're addressing.
When conservative politicians go on shows like Malzberg's they frequently get put into positions where correcting lies and propaganda can be political suicide. Yet, they have to put themselves out there to pander. They can't win without that lunatic fringe that makes up the conservative base.
There are only two ways Huckabee's statements could have gone down. Either he actually thought Obama grew up in Kenya or he simply lied. The fact is that Obama never visited Kenya until he was an adult.
But then Huckabee followed up with a statement claiming he simply used the word Kenya rather than Indonesia as he intended. Obviously a lie since he elaborated on it being Kenya.
So, you're busted playing to the right and lying to them so what's next? You blame the whole thing on the left wing media! Here's the statement on his website about that:
"I'm not surprised the NY Times chose to sensationalize this story. In fact, the New York Times, the AP, and other news organizations ran with the "sensationalized story" despite being specifically told by Steve Malzberg himself that they were incorrect in their assessment of the sound bite. You just can't help but laugh when my simple slip of the tongue, becomes a huge story - and a certain Presidential candidate claiming to visit all 57 states, gets widely ignored."
Well, except that Obama saying 57 states is an obvious speaking mistake. He didn't go on to elaborate how the additional seven states were incorporated into the union. The whole point of Huckabee's Malzberg interview debacle was that Kenya was the point of the story.
You can find many examples of right wing media and bloggers out there right now defending Huckabee and making him the victim of a left wing media smear campaign and I'm sure the majority of right wingers are taking that bait.
Fact is that they're getting played and, since they don't typically get actual news thrown in to their daily mix, they'll keep getting played like this.
Baptist minister, obviously a liar, no biggie.
To me though, the funniest thing about this whole story is that Huckabee says something about Obama being raised to believe the Brits "were a bunch of imperialists". As in, how could somebody believe anything like that about those nice British folk? All they were trying to do is help!
I'll save the blog on the British and their colonial period for later. A history lesson on the Mau Mau Revolt is good background though. Here's the link to the Wiki on it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Mau_Revolt
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