NYC Letter: Today's Big Stupid -- Début! Mr. Obama

Day 1,195 of CHOPE

UPDATE 05.04.12: Welcome, Hot Air folk.

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Super Special Presidential Edition

His very self. It was only a matter of time.

Regular skimmers may recall Mr. Obama's claim that he only hires the less competent. Obviously a bad policy.

WHITE HOUSE CITES NAZI SUPPORTER
IN JEWISH HERITAGE MONTH PROCLAMATION

No. You read that right.

May 2, 2012 (algemeiner.com) - American Jewish artist and Nazi supporter Gertrude Stein was cited yesterday in a White House proclamation in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month 2012

The official release which praises Jewish contributions to American society includes the following statement:

Their history of unbroken perseverance and their belief in tomorrow’s promise offers a lesson not only to Jewish Americans, but to all Americans. From Aaron Copland to Albert Einstein, Gertrude Stein to Justice Louis Brandeis.

The folk at Algemeiner had the foresight to make a screen capture.

Stein, who’s exhibition currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was strongly criticized by Harvard Law Professor [Alan Dershowitz] in an Algemeiner column yesterday, where he wrote:

Gertrude Stein was herself a major collaborator with the Vichy regime and a supporter of its pro-Nazi leadership. ... Stein’s closest friend, and a man who greatly influenced her turn toward fascism was Bernard Fay, who the Vichy government put in charge of hunting down Masons, Jews and other perceived enemies of the State. Fay was more than a mere collaborator as suggested by the Met exhibit. He was a full blown Nazi operative, responsible for the deaths of many people. After the war, when the horrendous results were known to all, Gertrude wrote in support of Fay when he was placed on trial for his Nazi war crimes.

Team Barry is on it! Gertrude Stein -- down the memory hole!

UPDATE: In an email to the Algemeiner, Matt Lehrich, a White House spokesman claimed that the inclusion of Gertrude Stein in the proclamation was a mistake. He wrote, "A version of this proclamation was sent out in error. The corrected final version has now been issued."

Please note that the most transparent administration in the history of the world chose to delete Ms. Stein without annotation. Perhaps no one will've notice. Oh. Wait. We already have!

The new release, dated May 2nd, omits the reference to Stein and the other Jewish Americans originally mentioned.

Ms. Stein takes Aaron Copland, Albert Einstein, and Justice Louis Brandeis with her. The worthy deleted with the unworthy. Once bitten -- Team Barry isn't taking any chances. If only Team Barry had access to an encyclopedic repository of some sort to fact check Mr. Obama's public remarks. Something they could access easily, say, from a computer. If only someone would invent the Internet. Oh. Wait.

Now some will argue that this is sloppy staff work, not Mr. Obama's big stupid. We would argue that Mr. Obama made the hires, pointedly didn't hire anyone more competent than himself, then "hereunto set my hand" to the proclamation. This flub is consistent with the quality of staff work by this White House, which Mr. Obama has never troubled himself to improve. It's his staff. It's his big stupid.

CHOPE.

Mr. Hitler: "It will be in the cloud forever..."