Was Bush right or was he misquoted?

The wisdom of the Daily Kos on the gaffe that wasn't a gaffe.

They ask if Bush was right or was he misquoted.

Right about what?

The accompanying poll provides a strong indication that the Kos blogger doesn't have anything substantive to say on the subject.

Understood properly, Bush is right that somebody made an interesting comment about the lack of a Mandela-like personality in Iraq.
Understood via the fugue of the Fever Swamp, Bush was wrong that Mandela was dead because Hussein killed every one of the Mandelas. Apparently some of the Mandelas escaped.

clipped from www.dailykos.com Was bush right or was he misquoted ? bush was misquoted by the left winged liburul press.. 1 vote - 2 % g w bush has a very dificult job, thinking and stuff... 22 votes - 47 % This is just a South African plot to discredit g w bush 0 votes - 0 % Well, if bush says Mandellas dead maybe he is.. 1 vote - 2 % He was thinking of Mandellas wife, ah, ah what's her name..Ah 0 votes - 0 % Foolme once and shame on me, ah, fool me again and, ah, ah, youse cant fool the decider 13 votes - 28 % I cant decide.. 0 votes - 0 % Ivy League aint all that it's made out to be.. 6 votes - 13 % Hugo Chavez, the praknster is behind this.. 3 votes - 6 % 46 Total Votes Poll submitted: Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 08:43:25 PM PDT Back to g w bush at his best pronounces that Nelson Mandela is dead ? .

Seems like the big thing for lefty blogger is to try to be John Stewart or Stephen Colbert.

Media continue to twist Bush's remark about Iraqi Mandelas.

Hilarious stuff--but frighteningly irresponsible journalism.

NELSON Mandela is still very much alive despite a gaffe by US President George W. Bush, who alluded to the former South African leader's death in a speech yesterday.

"It's out there," said Achmat Dangor of the Nelson Mandela Foundation of Mr Bush's comment, which received worldwide media coverage.

(news.com.au)

Apparently these Aussies want you to believe that Dangor was calling Bush's comment "out there" in the sense of being crazy.

That doesn't appear to be the case.

Former president Nelson Mandela is alive and well after comments on Iraq by US President George Bush appear to have been misunderstood, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said on Friday.

"It appears that his statement has been misunderstood and we wish to assure everyone that Mr Mandela is alive and well and enjoying some rest and relaxation at his home in Johannesburg," said Achmat Dangor, chief executive of the foundation.
(Independent Online)

But why bother representing the entirety of what Dangor said when you can twist it to make fun of Bush?
The Independent account went on:

Dangor, said, "We know that his statement was made in the context of the difficulty in finding Iraqis capable of resolving the conflict in their country."

Thanks to Reuters and a slew of other dingbats in the business of journalism, many will never get enough of the story to have Dangor's understanding of it.


*****

If You Can't Say Anything Good Department

I'd like to congratulate the 2 out of 32 at the Daily Kos who appeared to express a firm inkling that the supposed Bush gaffe about Nelson Mandela being dead wasn't really a gaffe at all.

Numbers subject to change as the commentary thread grows.


*****

Reuters sticks foot in media mouth

Captain's Quarters has done a nice job with this story, but I can't pass up commentary because this type of media coverage is exactly what chiefly motivates me to blog.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Nelson Mandela is still very much alive despite an embarrassing gaffe by U.S. President George W. Bush, who alluded to the former South African leader's death in an attempt to explain sectarian violence in Iraq.

"It's out there. All we can do is reassure people, especially South Africans, that President Mandela is alive," Achmat Dangor, chief executive officer of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said as Bush's comments received worldwide coverage.
(Reuters)

Even without the background information provided by Cap'n Ed, isn't it perfectly obvious even in the immediate context what Bush meant?

"I heard somebody say, Where's Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas," Bush, who has a reputation for verbal faux pas, said in a press conference in Washington on Thursday.

They seriously thought that Bush believed that Hussein killed Nelson Mandela?

This serves as yet another example of the way a set pattern of thinking leads to editorializing in "objective" news stories. There is no faux pas here by Bush. It's a faux pas by the person who wrote the story for Reuters, and it's a black eye to every editor who passed the story on to its readership.

Why there's no correction or apology attached to the story already is beyond me (barring a brazen attitude in the press regarding such matters).

Compounding the problem, they couldn't even get the wrong punctuation right. There's a single quotation mark after the question mark with no mate to be found in the rest of the paragraph. They probably meant to have it this way:

"I heard somebody say, 'Where's Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas," Bush, who has a reputation for verbal faux pas, said in a press conference in Washington on Thursday.

But it should have been like this:

"I heard somebody say, 'Where's Mandela? Well, Mandela's dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas,'" Bush, who has a reputation for verbal faux pas, said in a press conference in Washington on Thursday.

Here's egg on your face, Reuters.

*****