One small note of concern with the Auschwitz/Buchenwald confusion. He loses a bit of an opportunity to bound with some of the older Jewish voters (see South Florida) with this one. It could have been a chance to show how that story made an impact on him and show that he understands some of the huge impact that history had in the lifetimes and mindsets of some of this demographic. He ends up instead illustrating that the story hadn’t really been all that much of interest to him, just a bit of extended family lore the details of which were really not so vital and that he hadn’t paid close attention to. For those who know the old joke: “… Iceberg, Greenberg … what’s the difference?”*
That said, my family lore includes the story that my father was one of the first American army troops at the gates of Dachau. My father allegedly came back from experience committed to doing his part to repopulate the Jewish people and that’s one of the reasons that I have 4 older sibs.
After hearing how Obama got his family lore confused I felt the need to make sure that it was indeed American troops that liberated that camp. It was. Thing is, that site also discusses how the “American GIs in a frenzy or horror, anger and guilt gun down some 122 captured German soldiers - most of them Waffen SS. Dozens of inmates break out of the prison enclosure and kill approximately 40 guards, some with their bare hands. Private John Lee of I Company later told newspapers that he was personally involved in at least 60 of the killings.” Dad never told me that part of the story. I have little doubt however that he was an active participant, and would be unsurprised to have found he just gave the name John Lee to reporters. (In fact he later used several pseudonymns as a salesman running his own business and a Mr. Lee, albeit not John Lee, was one of them.) He is long deceased now so I’ll never know his version of those events.
The point is that I’d have been upset to know that I had some of that history wrong and am sad that I do not have the opportunity to hear the rest of the story form my Dad. But the details of this history are unimportant to Obama. I still admire him. I still want him as President. But the detail that the details weren’t important to him will not be lost on some that he is trying to reach.
*For those who do not know the old joke, well it is not really a good one, but here it is:
A Jewish guy walks into his third bar of the night, and sees a Chinese guy having a drink. He goes up and slugs him. “What the hell was that for?” asks the Chinese guy. “Pearl Harbor,” replies the not completely sober Jewish guy. “That was the JAPanese, I’m CHInese! You idiot!” Yells out the Chinese guy. “Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, what’s the difference?” the Jewish guy answers. The Chinese guy gets up shakes his head, sits down and goes back to his drink. Then a minute later he gets up and slugs the Jewish guy. “That was for the Titanic!” he says. “The Titanic? That was sunk by an iceberg!” says the Jewish guy from the floor. Shrugging, the Chinese guy answers, “Iceberg, Greenberg … what’s the difference?”
Not a great joke, but it does illustrate how someone not knowing or caring about the differences is important if they are your differences. It won’t matter to most but he likely did lose some ground with the very group that story could have helped him connect to.