Well, we must be in Bizarro-World because I have to defend John Kerry here. Yes, he did mistake the infamous Nazi death camp Treblinka with the equally infamous KGB headquarters at Lubyanka Square. So what? It’s an easy mistake to make. I don’t see another Freudian about that, just the kind of mistake anyone would make when they’re trying to remember something under pressure. Remember that in 2000 Bush couldn’t remember who General Musharraf was – and now he’s working with him in a major war against terrorism. There are a lot of things to dislike about John Kerry and indicate that Kerry is not fit to be Commander in Chief in this war. That isn’t one of them.
Now that I’ve defended Kerry, I feel the need to take a shower…
Yeah, I was curious about that too when I heard it… “Treblinka Square”? That can’t be right…
10/1/2004
I respectfully disagree for several reasons.
Firstly, this was not the only inaccuracy for Mr. Kerry. There were others, and bloggers are busy finding them. He was wrong about the details concerning the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was wrong about the subway in New York City being closed. He was wrong about Treblinka. He was wrong about how involved the Bush administration has been to curb nuclear proliferation. There are probably more factual errors in his statements, and I am sure that these will be pointed out in the days ahead. The blogosphere has the expertise to catch things that the media will ignore.
Secondly, analysis and comments on the debate generally describe Mr. Kerry as showing great debating skills. He is supposed to have been far superior to President Bush. But, one of the key characteristics of a great debater is accuracy. Mr. Kerry may have seen confident, poised, and polished, but was he accurate? For liberals perception is 100% of reality. Mr. Kerry is a great debater and the winner of last night’s debate if he is perceived to be so. That is where we come in. We show where his performance was less than great. Was President Bush more accurate? Then he deserves credit for this.
Thirdly, CBS has been trying to hide behind a “fake but accurate†defense of its story on President Bush’s Air National Guard service, and their hysteria piece on the “Draftâ€. Mr. Kerry seems to have already started to develop a defense of “inaccurate but right,†or “correct.†He shows a pattern of inaccuracy that stretches over decades, and this is part of the story behind his ever-changing position on many issues. He isn’t good-natured about his slips like President Reagan was, but tries to make them seem right by covering over them. Vice President Dan Quail was hammered without mercy for just such slips, and he wasn’t as good-natured about it as Mr. Reagan either. Seeing that the MSM will ignore any imperfection in Mr. Kerry’s debate performance. I think that we should at least mention them as part of our critique of the debate.
Lonnie Kendall
An honest mistake by the Senator. Bush makes blunders like this as a matter of course, so Bush fans need to cut Kerry a little slack in this department, I think. I’m not a Kerry supporter, but reading anything into his misstatement under pressure drags the level of debate into pointless pettiness.
Lornie, I’m sorry, but lets be real here when you go after Kerry for mistakes. Arguably the pesidents job is so important mistakes are not to be tolerated. However mistakes do happen. Case in point is Iraq. We had a lot intelligence saying that saddam had wmds, and or was only a few years off from getting them. However the truth is he didn’t, and we were wrong. Whats important is his ideas, and Bush’s, for the future of our country ( although Bush has to answer for certain problems of his presidency, the same as kerry should have to own up about his voting record ((Vietnam and national guard aside, we beat that horse to death)).
Keep in mind too, if you were on a stage and had only 2 minutes to get out a point, and you were faced with unexpected response from your opponents, lets see how well you do.
98% of the people watching (including me) didn’t catch the Treblinka mistake. I bet that even fewer knew the correct location was Lubianka. To focus on this is a waste of time and counterproductive. As is his lie about the New York subways (even I caught that), and the sanctions on Iran. Yes, Bush would have been exoriated if he’d made these mistakes, but that is only because he is a Republican.
Kerry will not lose the election because of Treblinka or subways. There are, many things Kerry said that he did mean and that are meaningful: “global test,” cancelling the bunker buster program, unilateral nuclear freeze, summits on Iraq, more waffling on Iraq, and his “secret” plans.
I caught the blunder, and blew it off. While a similar slip by Bush would have gotten him crucified, I still cannot bring myself to think that such action is required, no matter who said it.
There were enough substantively inane things that the man said; I agree with Jay that it’s not required to pick on him for what amounts to a brain fart.