# Great diplomat Obama strikes again. "Ignorance and incompetence" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 30, 2012, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541 "2012-05-30T13:43:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541/101 "2012-05-30T19:18:59Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > California, New York, and Illinois are probably a lock for Obama. Every single state on that list save Florida and perhaps Ohio will go for Obama in the fall. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541/102 "2012-05-30T19:22:07Z")
> [@Jas09](#): > > Every single state on that list save Florida and perhaps Ohio will go for Obama in the fall. I’ll take your word for it. I am not as familiar with the demographics of those other states. 🙂 However, I don’t think the Polish/American vote is going to swing any states so that they show up “Red” in the fancy election night reportage. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541/103 "2012-05-30T19:38:34Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > That’s no tree falling, that’s a bear taking a dump. And no one really cares. So if the Pope takes a dump in the woods, are all the trees Catholic? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541/104 "2012-05-30T20:22:01Z")
> [@picker](#): > > Since we’re in the Pit now, go fuck yourself **Terr** [Moderating] Actually, you can’t say that in the Pit, either. Please review the rules about acceptable language in the pit, and avoid using this language to other posters in the future. No warning issued. [/Moderating] ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541/105 "2012-05-30T20:24:35Z")
> [@Enkel](#): > > Fixed it for ya [Moderating] **Enkel** , we ask that our users not edit other poster’s quotes when using the Quote function, even when done in obvious or explicit jest. Please do not do this in the future. No warning issued. [/Moderating] ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541/106 "2012-05-30T21:08:32Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > Yup. You’re not worried at all - that’s why there is all this effort to deny and redirect in this thread - it’s like shining a light on cockroaches. > > Obama made a stupid remark. That’ll cost him votes in Polish-American community. It was completely self-inflicted and unnecessary. I enjoy that. There isn’t much more than that - that’s why I posted it in MPSIMS and not in “Great Debates” I don’t see how you can blame the President for his ignorance and incompetence. It has been scientifically proven in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=653191) (cites and all!) that negros are genetically inferior in intelligence and behavior. If you want to stop ignorance and incompetence from coming out of the White House, we’re going to have get one of them orientals in there (but not an Arab or a North American Indian kind, as they are [more similar to negros](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=15113208&postcount=143)). ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541/107 "2012-05-30T21:09:26Z")
I thought conservatives hated to apologize to foreign countries for any reason. Of course there was Reagan’s visit to the Bitburg cemetery and Cheney in that parka… ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541/108 "2012-05-30T21:26:23Z")
You guys are all missing the brilliance of what Obama did. Sure calling it a Polish death camp upsets Poles and will cost him Polish-American votes. But there are only 9,000,000 Americans of Polish ancestry. But by calling them Polish death camps, Obama took the Germans off the hook and that’s going to win him German-American votes. And there are 42,800,000 Americans of German ancestry. Romney wishes he had thought of this first. Sure he’ll probably try to play catch-up with some awkward statement about how Hitler was misunderstood and how his administration will be full of Kaisers instead of Czars. But Obama won this round. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541/109 "2012-05-30T21:29:01Z")
From the article dissing the Obama’s gift of DVDs: “The Prime Minister has not had the best of luck when receiving gifts from U.S. presidents. He was given a fur-trimmed brown leather bomber jacket by George W. Bush during his first trip to America in the summer of 2007. Commentators gleefully pointed out that the garment was hardly in keeping with Mr Brown’s usual sober attire of business suit and tie.” Glad you aren’t a partisan hack. Can someone educate me about the Polish complicity in the holocaust? Several commentators seem to be likening this as akin to the Turkish response to the charges of Armenian genocide, or, as you might call it, the Bart simpson defense “didn’t happen”. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541/110 "2012-05-30T21:33:41Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > You guys are all missing the brilliance of what Obama did. > > Sure calling it a Polish death camp upsets Poles and will cost him Polish-American votes. But there are only 9,000,000 Americans of Polish ancestry. > > But by calling them Polish death camps, Obama took the Germans off the hook and that’s going to win him German-American votes. And there are 42,800,000 Americans of German ancestry. > > Romney wishes he had thought of this first. Sure he’ll probably try to play catch-up with some awkward statement about how Hitler was misunderstood and how his administration will be full of Kaisers instead of Czars. But Obama won this round. Don’t give him ideas or we’ll be hearing about how Pearl Harbor was bombed by Pitcairn Islanders. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541/111 "2012-05-30T21:41:06Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > \*\*phouka \*\*- you’ve expressed exactly what I was thinking. To me, this is yet another example of people going out of their way to be offended. And if it matters, both sides of my family came from Poland. I can tell you that my parents were born and raised in Poland and were in Polish concentration camps (we’re Jewish). Frankly, they associated it more with the Poles than Germans, for a variety of reasons. ETA Just saw this: > [@hajario](#): > > Those words were entirely accurate. My family was killed and everything of theirs stolen by Polish people. They probably never even saw a German. > > Germany has atoned many times over for their sins. Poland still won’t admit their guilt. That shithole is still the most anti-Semitic place in all of Europe. Fuck them and their outrage. Yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541/112 "2012-05-30T21:56:45Z")
> [@FuriousGeorge](#): > > Jesus H Christ, Almighty and tits, the tu quoque’s in this thread are like roaches in an Olive Garden kitchen. President Obama fucked up. He apologized. The Poles (or someone speaking for the Poles) didn’t accept the apology. BFD, they’ll get over it.. or they won’t. End of story. > > Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney and any other conservative/right winger/religous zealot/Tea Partier have absolutely nothing to do with it. It does if we’re discussing a pattern of public stupidity and misstatements. Since we’re not, you’re right. Obama’s handlers should have caught the gaffe before it was verbalized, but since Poland’s government decided to use deliberately derogatory terms in reference to our President, fuck them. I know enough about the Poles’ actions in WWII to not have a lot of sympathy with their state of denial and manufactured outrage over this. Also, the misuse of the term _tu quoque_ in this thread is alarming. ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541/113 "2012-05-30T22:34:17Z")
I want tu quoque eggs for breakfast this morning. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541/114 "2012-05-30T23:30:22Z")
The poles get revenge: [http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/\_news/2012/05/30/11955461-delta-loses-pole-vaulters-poles-athlete-calls-it-bummer-for-sure?lite](http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/30/11955461-delta-loses-pole-vaulters-poles-athlete-calls-it-bummer-for-sure?lite) ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541/115 "2012-05-31T00:53:18Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > From the Maddow blog by Steve Benen > > Tempest in a **Terr** pot Oh that is such complete bullshit. Yes, yes, I can believe news organizations with proof readers and copy editors and syntactic guides and so forth can nevertheless make that kind of goof-up once in a while. But _Stephen Fry_ ? Lies ! ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541/116 "2012-05-31T01:22:34Z")
For the record if I had to pick an ethnicity besides American it’d either be German or Polish and I couldn’t give less than two shits about this even though, on the balance, there’s more to defend about Poland’s image than Germany’s. That’s because even though that phrase isn’t the best, Obama isn’t some ignorant cowpoke or a revisionist with an agenda: he simply misspoke. Now, you want to talk about what might affect the election amongst Polish Americans, you can talk about the Catholic health care brouhaha. That might have more of an affect than this little thing: but still, hardly any at all. In fact, who is still talking about that after a month or so? Come November no one will remember this either, even Polish Americans. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541/117 "2012-05-31T01:31:06Z")
> [@FuriousGeorge](#): > > Jesus H Christ, Almighty and tits, the tu quoque’s in this thread are like roaches in an Olive Garden kitchen. Please look up the definition of _tu quoque_ and get back to us once you’ve absorbed it. Here’s a hint, it’s a specific thing, not just any old compare-and-contrast that you find uncomfortably close to the truth. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541/118 "2012-05-31T01:55:59Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > Please look up the definition of _tu quoque_ and get back to us once you’ve absorbed it. Here’s a hint, it’s a specific thing, not just any old compare-and-contrast that you find uncomfortably close to the truth. I did. It’s a hat that’s no dumber-looking than the hats they have in Canada. ---
**Author:** ![FuriousGeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecae2f/32.png) [@FuriousGeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuriousGeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541/119 "2012-05-31T02:12:05Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > Please look up the definition of _tu quoque_ and get back to us once you’ve absorbed it. Here’s a hint, it’s a specific thing, not just any old compare-and-contrast that you find uncomfortably close to the truth. Suck my balls, you smarmy condescending fuck. Tell you what. [Go here.](http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/)Find the one you like best and shove it so far up your ass that you can taste it in the back of your fucking throat. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541/120 "2012-05-31T02:18:55Z")
u mad bro? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-diplomat-obama-strikes-again-ignorance-and-incompetence/623541.md?page=7)