I saw this on and hoped it was not true Rocket River http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22461088-5005961,00.html Bush's Mandela death gaffe 'out there'Article from: September 21, 2007 10:27pm 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. "All we can do is reassure people, especially South Africans, that President Mandela is alive," he said. In a speech defending his administration's Iraq policy, Mr Bush said former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's brutality had made it impossible to unite the country. "I heard somebody say, 'Where's Mandela?'," he said. "Well, Mandela's dead because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas." The bizarre gaffe was made in a press conference in Washington yesterday. Mandela became South Africa's first black president in 1994. He won a Nobel Peace Prize for preaching racial harmony and guiding the nation into the post-apartheid era. References to his death – Mandela is now 89 and increasingly frail – are seen as insensitive in South Africa.
you are such an idiot. here's the full quote, in context: [rquoter]Part of the reason why there is not this instant democracy in Iraq is because people are still recovering from Saddam Hussein's brutal rule. I thought an interesting comment was made when somebody said to me, I heard somebody say, where's Mandela? Well, Mandela is dead, because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas. He was a brutal tyrant that divided people up and split families, and people are recovering from this. So there's a psychological recovery that is taking place. And it's hard work for them. And I understand it's hard work for them. Having said that, I'm not going the give them a pass when it comes to the central government's reconciliation efforts.[/rquoter] as James Taranto has noted In this context, it is clear that the literal meaning of "Where's Mandela?" is "Where is the Iraqi who will play the role in his country that Mandela played in postapartheid South Africa?" This was a pithy metaphor, not an "embarrassing gaffe." next?
I saw it, and it was very strange. His voice rose in level as he almost shouted Mandela's dead. It sounded so strange that I laughed out loud. Then when he started talking about Saddam, I didn't know what to think.
was he referring to an iraqi "mandela" equivelant...and how if there was one in iraq saddam killed them
He used all the plutonium from his alleged WMD program to power up the flux capacitor. It sounds like a metaphor to me.... Just like that "Kerry gaffe", I don't like fake stories that play upon the LCD that people supposedly have.
This one is not that clear that it is a gaffe. We don't need this. We already have enough gaffe footage to make feature movie!
i was going to post it in the morning when i read it on 20 minut0s; but i was confused if it belonged in the hangout with "Chavez changes time, Jorge predicts future"..or in the Debate and discuss. the video: http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/279738/0/bush/mandela/muerto/ the mandela foundation had to make a statement saying he was not dead.
Yeah, it was terribly delivered line. He should have said people asked him "Where's Iraq's Mandela?" or something like that. But even if he had delivered it properly, what was it supposed to mean? That we believe Saddam killed all the competent politicians in Iraq so there are no capable leaders left? That's a nice thing to say.
Isn't it kind of ironic that basso is distraught about criticizing Bush for a verbal gaffe, when he was one of the first to feign offense at Kerry's "you end up in Iraq" botched joke?
I thought it was clear, but still a little telling that he couldn't think of a Middle Eastern equivalent (at least not one that we didn't help ouster or invade). Or that the person he chose spent most of his life revolting against, y'know, Western suppression. Ivy league History grad, hmmm...
If you think that's a pithy metaphor given the circumstances you are bigger idiot that Spanoulis. Does it actually matter? South Africans, North Africans, South Americans, NOrth Americans - all these people pretty much think Bush is an idiot - and it's true. History will establish the true scale of the damage this guy has done to our country, it really is frightening.
rrriiiiiiiightttt, because south africans, north africans, south americans, and north americans south of the border have historically held the US is such high regard.
