Obamateurism of the Day
posted at 8:05 am on September 19, 2011 by Ed Morrissey
Barack Obama went to Fort Hayes High School in Fort Hayes, Ohio last week to sell Ohioans on the American Jobs Act, but maybe he should have stopped for a class in local history first. Obama promised that his bill would get spent in part renovating buildings at Fort Hayes, but Obama seemed to be unclear just when they were built:
Ohio, if you pass this bill, then right here in this state, tens of thousands of construction workers will have a job again. (Applause.) This is one of the most common-sense ideas out there. All over the country, there are roads and bridges and schools just like Fort Hayes in need of repair. Some of the buildings here at Fort Hayes were originally built during the Civil War. That’s old.
It sure is … a little too old. Fort Hayes didn’t exist during the Civil War. The federal government commissioned what was later known as the Columbus Arsenal and then Columbus Barracks late in the war, but the first and only personnel and warehouse building erected during that time was the arsenal, called the Main Building, which served as the headquarters … until the government tore it down in 1910. Most of the other buildings on the site were added between 1890 and 191o. The site itself wasn’t called Fort Hayes until 1922, and more buildings were added in 1933 — presumably as part of FDR’s public-works projects in the New Deal.
That doesn’t make Fort Hayes’ buildings new, but they’re not from the Civil War, not any of them. And even if they were, that wouldn’t necessarily make them valueless anyway. (H/T reader Lloyd P)
Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at obamaisms@edmorrissey.com with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I’ll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I’ll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.
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didn’t Sherman hafta march through Ohio and kill him some Germans in order to win the French-Indian War?
/
ted c on September 19, 2011 at 8:08 AM
“History is bunk.” (Henry Ford Obama)
NeighborhoodCatLady on September 19, 2011 at 8:09 AM
it’s mind boggling the hysteria on the left during W’s term when we have a daily reminder of the cluelessness of this maroon….
seriously…
cmsinaz on September 19, 2011 at 8:12 AM
American Jobs Act: I do think at some point you’ve given your unions enough of our money.
petefrt on September 19, 2011 at 8:13 AM
With Barack O’Blarney it’s always the thought that counts.
JimK on September 19, 2011 at 8:13 AM
Those who are ignorant of history are doomed to f**k uo the present royal.
Nethicus on September 19, 2011 at 8:14 AM
c’mon, maybe Fort Hayes’ history is just one “Bridge Too Far” for this fella….
ted c on September 19, 2011 at 8:16 AM
I don’t think the new stimulus will pass, but just in case, I’m working on plans to build a solar-powered electric bridge-building crane that requires five union workers to operate, instead of just one.
RBMN on September 19, 2011 at 8:18 AM
That history blip doesn’t concern me as much as this does:
Where have these Ohio people been hiding? Don’t they realize Obama kills jobs?
RDE2010 on September 19, 2011 at 8:20 AM
Ed, you really can’t expect Giggles to put any value on anything that predates His Benevolent Reign.
crazy_legs on September 19, 2011 at 8:20 AM
Barry really has a top-notch staff working for him, doesn’t he? How long would it have taken for one of them to do a Google search on this and provide the correct information?
Remember back in 2008 when people were making the point that Obama had no executive experience and he countered by saying that we should look at the people he chooses to surround himself with . . . .?
AZCoyote on September 19, 2011 at 8:28 AM
Cleveland. someone has to keep electing Kusinich
The_Livewire on September 19, 2011 at 8:28 AM
that’s a euphemism for “F U John Kasich”
ted c on September 19, 2011 at 8:28 AM
Anything that happened before November 2008 is to be known as pre-history.
Drained Brain on September 19, 2011 at 8:31 AM
And not a single person who heard this speech knew any better. He was speaking at a public high school afterall.
darwin-t on September 19, 2011 at 8:32 AM
Just another trip around the block in the clown car with o’bozo and his posse.
lukespapa on September 19, 2011 at 8:35 AM
“And when my great great grandpappy Baracky Obama Senior fought the rebs here, he did it so that one day his progeny could grow up to be President in a free nation. In fact he killed General Pickett right over there, killed him with a bayonet right through the heart, yessir he did.”
-PBHO
Bishop on September 19, 2011 at 8:35 AM
they didn’t have bayonets back then….Senior used a drone strike and set the new tone for freedom.
narratives.
ted c on September 19, 2011 at 8:37 AM
Ding ding ding!
And that is why charlatans like him always get elected.
Stupid in, stupid out.
Badger40 on September 19, 2011 at 8:38 AM
Barack, as Barack Obama, quickly rises to national public prominence. He becomes a media celebrity with an appearance on a television talk show, and is soon on the A-list of the most wanted in Washington society. Public opinion polls start to reflect just how much his “simple brand of wisdom” resonates with the jaded American public. At an upscale Washington cocktail lounge, two important, older, well-dressed men are discussing Barack; one says to the other, there is a rumor “he holds degrees in medicine as well as law.”
Being There
No Niks on September 19, 2011 at 8:38 AM
hahaha
itsnotaboutme on September 19, 2011 at 8:43 AM
Bad enough that he dreamed up this charade as a weapon against Republicans who are duty-bound to defeat it, but now he’s spending taxpayer dollars traveling around to pretend to support it and get some mindless sheep behind him. There is no depth to which he will not sink.
SKYFOX on September 19, 2011 at 8:45 AM
stay in school, kids….it obviously isn’t helping.
ted c on September 19, 2011 at 8:45 AM
He is the DESTROYER OF THE ECONOMY……every area, every industry, every entrepreneur, every place they can touch.
Regulate it, Tax it, Break it and turn it into a Government controlled “Utility”.
THAT is a Progressive dream come true. To them….it’s sex.
PappyD61 on September 19, 2011 at 8:47 AM
Not to worry Mr President.
The LSM will cover for you.
Again.
TimBuk3 on September 19, 2011 at 8:48 AM
Cut the man some slack, Ed. Do you think they taught American history at that school he attended in Indonesia?
Kafir on September 19, 2011 at 8:48 AM
Just words, Ed…just like when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor..
/sarc
Static21 on September 19, 2011 at 8:48 AM
somewhere, deep inside the Ministry of Truth, all of them kiddos textbooks are being summarily unshelved, burned, and rewritten with this new piece of history.
/Orwellian./
ted c on September 19, 2011 at 8:52 AM
Uh, Odumbo, don’t we already know that each of your stimulus jobs (the one that actually materialize) cost over a couple 100 K each?
That’s quite a bit of cash you need to put 10′s of thousands of Ohio construction workers to work. He’d better strike up the printing presses.
I’m sorry but this POTUS is clearly not dealing with a full deck.
I’m glad I’m not anywhere near the left ideologically. I don’t know how they can not be supremely embarassed of the farce they elected.
ORconservative on September 19, 2011 at 8:52 AM
Maybe congress can pass a law to make facts matter again… lol
/s
golfmann on September 19, 2011 at 9:00 AM
Sing it Baracky:
http://youtu.be/jNO72aCnVr0
Tim Zank on September 19, 2011 at 9:06 AM
Obama: “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?”
Forget it. He’s rolling.
pdigaudio on September 19, 2011 at 9:06 AM
I thought the french-polynesian war was fought in Ohio….
jbh45 on September 19, 2011 at 9:12 AM
Obama should be careful what he says in Ohio. Some there are still mad at him for chirping “I think LeBron would look good in a Bulls uniform” when Cleveland was struggling to keep him.
radjah shelduck on September 19, 2011 at 9:16 AM
Simply amazing how people can applaud someone who is lying to their face while picking their pocket. Hey, Ft. Hayesians, if you need new buildings, build them yourself, don’t use my money to do it.
Kissmygrits on September 19, 2011 at 9:16 AM
Ed, you usually do pretty good research, but I’m afraid you’re mistaken on this one. Joe Biden watched the construction of Fort Hayes on his television, and it most definitely occurred towards the end of the Civil War.
BlueCollarAstronaut on September 19, 2011 at 9:23 AM
President Roosevelt did a heckuva job on that project.
forest on September 19, 2011 at 9:26 AM
Uh-oh, he’s reeling, call a corpse-man from Fort Hayes, STAT!
Knott Buyinit on September 19, 2011 at 9:39 AM
I don’t expect any president to fact check everything he says. That’s what staff are for. But to have a staff that is this lazy? incompetent? doesn’t care? does go to the guy at top. And his puppet master, George Soros.
rbj on September 19, 2011 at 9:47 AM
Did anybody there know that?
Did any media outlet point this out? (besides hotair)
If Obama’s an idiot, but many people are ignorant of it, does it even matter?
bridgetown on September 19, 2011 at 10:17 AM
bridgetown on September 19, 2011 at 10:17 AM
Yeah, it’s sooooo much easier to call someone dumb for the pronunciation of nuclear. Facts over pronunciation – pronunciation wins every time.
katablog.com on September 19, 2011 at 10:45 AM
That would make them historical!!!
Does anyone, and I mean anyone in the WH do their job? Anyone???
capejasmine on September 19, 2011 at 11:38 AM
Oh my, if Sarah had said “there are roads and bridges and schools just like Fort Hayes in need of repair. Some of the buildings here at Fort Hayes were originally built during the Civil War.” It would be front page, above the fold news.
IowaWoman on September 19, 2011 at 11:48 AM
The hallmark of a leftist is the “Yeah-but” mentality. They have to say “yeah” to your arguments “but” the facts ultimately don’t matter as much as some other factor–like their feelings, or their prejudices, or the prejudice they perceive everyone else holds, etc.
Even conservatives are somewhat guilty sometimes because we make excuses–out of prejudice–because “what else do you expect from liberals?”
Hence, prejudice and ignorance are always at home on the left.
rwenger43 on September 19, 2011 at 12:47 PM
Obama’s lies are as old as 2004, and as on-going.
What a dummy!
Schadenfreude on September 19, 2011 at 1:39 PM
No no. You are thinking of the Duke of Wellington. I can understand how you would make that mistake. All those guys on the money look the same to him.
cobrakai99 on September 19, 2011 at 6:48 PM