Althouse: At the memorial, Obama compared Mandela to Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln.

December 10, 2013

At the memorial, Obama compared Mandela to Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln.

"In the arc of his life, we see a man who earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness, persistence and faith. He tells us what's possible not just in the pages of dusty history books, but in our own lives as well."

50 comments:

lemondog said...: And in his own mind, all four to himself.; 12/10/13, 8:27 AM
James Pawlak said...: What, no hug?; 12/10/13, 8:33 AM
pm317 said...: What! Obama didn't compare Mandela to himself?; 12/10/13, 8:37 AM
Strelnikov said...: At Obama's memorial, he'll be compared to Herbert Hoover, J. Edgar Hoover, and a Hoover.; 12/10/13, 8:59 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: Who knows?

Abraham Lincoln is the great hero of my little hometown in Illinois. He's the homeboy hero.

Living in other regions, I was surprised to discover that there are people who view Lincoln as a butcher, a whore for the railroads and an enemy of the rights of each region of the U.S. to decide whether it wanted to remain within the Union.

Same can probably be said about Mandela. Depends on whose ox is getting gored.; 12/10/13, 9:00 AM
AustinRoth said...: How many times did Obama reference himself?; 12/10/13, 9:05 AM
ajs said...: And, implicitly, Obama compared Mandela to Obama. Which is no surprise because everything is about Obama.; 12/10/13, 9:07 AM
Robert Cook said...: I found it disgusting to hear this mendacious, cowardly, hypocritical little man speak so highly of Mandela's bravery in opposing the apartheid regime and enduring his many years in prison as a result of his actions in opposition to it, while he persecutes Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden and others who are truth-tellers to the malevolence and crimes of the American government.

If challenged on this, he would say, "But, they broke the law!"; 12/10/13, 9:16 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: Better comparisons would be with people who were wrapped up in destructive things, then repented of those ways, and became powerful forces for good. Not only more apt, but better story-wise and inspiration-wise.; 12/10/13, 9:17 AM
pm317 said...: Obama: Like SAfrica, US had to overcome centuries of racial subjugation. “Michelle and I are the beneficiaries of that struggle”

Yes, he went there. He is the Mandela of the USA, the liberator of all things white guilt.; 12/10/13, 9:20 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: You always want to be telling the prodigal sons that they can come back.; 12/10/13, 9:31 AM
Jane the Actuary said...: Mandela is not Gandhi -- he's more complex than that. Read the Wikipedia article, which seems to be factual; there was armed conflict there, not simple peaceful resistence.; 12/10/13, 9:34 AM
SomeoneHasToSayIt said...: Mandela was a bad man. Winnie may have been worse. Look it up, as they say. That most don't know that, helps explain why America is in the fix it is in.; 12/10/13, 9:51 AM
Portia said...: I didn't listen. Cannot stand to hear the man speak....at all.; 12/10/13, 10:01 AM
Lewis Wetzel said...: Mandela was remarkable only in that, unlike other post-colonial, revolutionary leaders in Africa, he left office when his term was up.; 12/10/13, 10:06 AM
Robert Cook said...: "Mandela was a bad man."

So were the founders of our country...to the British, who rightly saw them as traitors.; 12/10/13, 10:23 AM
Illuninati said...: Obama, Bush, Clinton, and Castro are in South Africa celebrating a myth not the actual human named Mandela.

Compared to the other gods in the leftie pantheon, Mandela is not bad. He, himself, doesn't appear to have ever portrayed himself s a god or to have bought into the myth himself. His myth is entirely the product of Western lefties who do view themselves as far above the average man and who view his success as their success.; 12/10/13, 10:29 AM
William said...: I don't mean this as a knock against the men Obama mentioned, but why are only those who struggle against white Anglo subjugation so ennobled? Are there no noble opponents of Charles Taylor, Mengitsu, Mugabe et al. How about Havel? Is opposition to Communist rule not ennobling?......I get the impression that not all oppressors are equal. Charles Taylor used children to rape and mutilate other children. Best not to mention him nor draw any moral lessons from his rule.; 12/10/13, 10:30 AM
Paul said...: I didn't know Gandhi was a Communist?

Or MLK was one. And surely Lincoln was not one.

Strange. The only Communist I can see was Mandela. Now Obama is a socialist and that is simply a cheap communist so maybe Obama was just confusing himself with these people.

For you see, Obama is a legend in his own mind.; 12/10/13, 10:34 AM
Meade said...: "So were the founders of our country...to the British"

The founders were not fully British… to Parliament and the king. That is what was at the root of the problem… for the founding Patriots.; 12/10/13, 10:34 AM
Joe said...: Mandela was a complicated man who did some very good things with his life and was a great symbol in defiance of a truly evil regime. I do think he showed poor judgement once he gained real political power and failed to leverage it in a way only he could have to the detriment of South Africa (above all, he became cautious.); 12/10/13, 10:35 AM
mccullough said...: Mandela is interesting. He started out by protesting the government and engaging in civil disobedience. When that didn't work, he turned violent; not just against the government but against citizens. When he was released from prison and then became head of government he refused to follow a path of retaliation and pushed for reconciliation. He's more similar to our founders than Lincoln and very different than King or Gandhi. Why compare him to anyone. His story is unique.; 12/10/13, 10:44 AM
damikesc said...: Mandela was a decent man who left behind a party that is systematically destroying S. Africa.

I don't blame Mandela for it. He seemed to want to reconcile and heal up divisions as best he could.

He shouldn't be blamed for the idiocy of those who followed.; 12/10/13, 10:52 AM
rhhardin said...: It's bullshit.

More bullshit is always better, Obama thinks.

There's a product you can add to dog food that "gives feces an unpleasant taste," to quote the ad.

Maybe something like that is needed in the media.; 12/10/13, 10:54 AM
Chef Mojo said...: Meanwhile, in South Africa, the President of the United States upholds the dignity of his nation by taking selfies at a funeral.; 12/10/13, 11:05 AM
pm317 said...: @Chef Mojo, who are the white people Obama is ingratiating himself with in that selfie -- MO looks unhappy.; 12/10/13, 11:12 AM
Chef Mojo said...: The guy on the left is British PM David Cameron. The woman in the middle is Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt.; 12/10/13, 11:26 AM
pm317 said...: Haha.. more pics to go with Chef Mojo's link to Obama's selfie with Danish PM. I must applaud MO here -- she is true to herself and can't contain how she feels or show it to the world.; 12/10/13, 11:40 AM
Hagar said...: The hagiography being trumpeted about Nelson Mandela has little to to with Mandela or his life; it is aimed a keeping the Black people of the U.S. still voting Democrat in 2014.; 12/10/13, 11:40 AM
Robert Cook said...: "Now Obama is a socialist...."

You obviously don't know what socialism is.; 12/10/13, 11:42 AM
Chef Mojo said...: And to top it off, FLOTUS made POTUS switch seats with her after the selfie, putting herself between the Danish PM and POTUS.

Like a "behave children" moment in a church pew. Which would actually be the charitable assessment of that action.; 12/10/13, 11:52 AM
garage mahal said...: Obama shaking hands with Castro could be seen as a distraction from ObamaCare --> Syria ---> Benghazi ---> Mustard.; 12/10/13, 12:12 PM
RecChief said...: plus he got a selfie with that hot PM; 12/10/13, 1:04 PM
Bilwick said...: As a libertarian (you know, one of those oddball hold-outs who believes his life and property belongs to himself and not to President Cloward-Piven or Darth Soros),I'm wondering how much of a hero Mandela actually is. Certainly apartheid was a statist intrusion into the private realm; but I'm suspicious when the "liberal" (and by "liberal" I mean of course "tax-happy coercion-addicted State-humpers") Hive wants me to admire someone. If someone were genuinely and consistently pro-liberty, the Hive wouldn't want us to admire him. Just the opposite, in fact.; 12/10/13, 1:18 PM
Scott M said...: "In the arc of his life, we see a man who earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness, persistence and faith. He tells us what's possible not just in the pages of dusty history books, but in our own lives as well."

In other words...someone that actually, you know, earned their Peace Prize.; 12/10/13, 1:22 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Surely the selfie pic is a photoshop or something else going on.; 12/10/13, 1:38 PM
tim maguire said...: Are Obama's speeches being written by computer software now? He was always laughably over-rated as a speaker, but the last year or two his speeches have seemed talk-by-number, a jumble of boring repeated phrases and claims.; 12/10/13, 1:56 PM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Yes Garage another distraction. Luckily for him he was out of the country the day newspapers ran front page stories about the horrendous "sticker shock" hitting consumers now that heathcare.clusterfuck.gov is showing deductibles for "comparison" to existing plans. Oh and the fact that HIV drugs are not on the formulary (so THAT'S how they save money!) of exchange-vetted plans.

You read that right. HIV drugs are a no-go. So if you have AIDS you get to keep AIDS. A lot of goddamn good it did gays to to swoon over Obama's conditional late-conversion to the gay marriage drama. Now you know where his heart truly lies.; 12/10/13, 4:06 PM
ganderson said...: Funny, I would have compared him to Gerry Adams. Of course Gerry Adams' followers are not taking a ballpeen hammer to the Northern Irish economy...; 12/10/13, 4:19 PM
Writ Small said...: I wonder the degree to which Obama's appeal is due to superficial similarities with Mandela. There are a lot of physical similarities as well as how they speak and carry themselves.

From what I understand, Mandela was a truly great man deserving of the comparisons Obama made, but Obama also benefits from any unconscious connections people make between himself and Mandela.; 12/10/13, 4:30 PM
Chris Lopes said...: I think Robert just invented the "no true socialist" fallacy.; 12/10/13, 4:35 PM
Kirk Parker said...: Cookie,

"So were the founders of our country...to the British, who rightly saw them as traitors."

Ummmm.... Burke???; 12/10/13, 4:42 PM
Kirk Parker said...: Freeman,

As far as I can tell these photos are all genuine.; 12/10/13, 4:42 PM
pm317 said...: Yeah, those photos and that selfie photo, in particular are all over the news feeds.. Yeah, they all are photoshopping.; 12/10/13, 5:15 PM
pm317 said...: Yay! no moderation! it is so fucking liberating. Thank you.; 12/10/13, 5:16 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Well, the on and the off. It helps you appreciate freedom when you have it.

I prefer not moderating, so when it's on, it's on for a reason. Trust me.; 12/10/13, 5:41 PM
Ann Althouse said...: And… it's back on now. Sorry!; 12/10/13, 5:46 PM
kentuckyliz said...: I didn't know Lincoln, Ghandi, and MLK necklaced people.

(Placed a burning tire around their necks to kill them); 12/10/13, 9:45 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: I refuse to believe that the President of the United States was taking selfies at Nelson Mandela's funeral. Once one accepts that as fact, it's like falling down the rabbit hole or swirling around in one of those colorful movie vortexes that plops you out in the future or another galaxy or acts as a metaphor for intoxication, emotional or chemical.; 12/10/13, 11:56 PM
Tom said...: I doubt Lincoln took "selfies" at Gettysburg...; 12/11/13, 12:02 AM