Conservatives are Livid: Obama Printed Flyers for Speech in Germany IN GERMAN!

Posted by Gavin M, Sadly, No! at 6:21 AM on July 24, 2008.

Patrick Ruffini, another one of those puzzlingly well-placed Republican blogger-consultant-columnist-Webmaster-operatives, as well as a general all-around cigar cutter and Kool-Aid drug mule, thinks he's found a good one:

Obama Campaign Prints German-language Flyers for Berlin Rally

by Patrick Ruffini | July 22, 2008 at 10:36 PM This is pretty extraordinary. A candidate for the American Presidency is using flyers printed in German to turn people out for his campaign rally in Berlin on Thursday. This flyer can be found on a bilingual page on BarackObama.com advertising the event:
The German flyers bear Obama's campaign logo and say "Paid for by Obama for America."

Get that? ...For America! For America! But it's in German!!!

I'm surprised at this lapse in judgment in an otherwise well-oiled and professional Obama campaign. The last time they printed up campaign paraphenalia in a foreign language, it didn't work out so hot for them.

Here he's referring to the tongue spoken in Lata, and also in its former colonies in Latin America. This attempt to pander to the Latts was widely derided by fellows such as Patrick Ruffini (whose name means "Patrick, the Little Ruff" in his native dialect of Miscegenated Catholic Immigrant). When English is declared as the official language of the United States, there'll be no more of this 'Novus Ordo Seclorum' and 'Semper Fidelis,' not to mention 'Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc' or what's that other one? Oh yeah, 'E Pluribus Unum.' It's a veritable Tower of Babel; it's tearing this country apart.

So, this isn't just some sober, high-minded foreign policy speech, part of a foreign trip occurring under the auspices of his official Senate office. It is a campaign rally occuring on foreign soil. They are using the same tactics to turn out Germans to an event as they would to any rally right here in America.

Tactics like telling people where the event will be, and at what time.

This after Obama's campaign said this:

"It is not going to be a political speech," said a senior foreign policy adviser, who spoke to reporters on background. "When the president of the United States goes and gives a speech, it is not a political speech or a political rally.

"But he is not president of the United States," a reporter reminded the adviser.

And he therefore has no right to travel overseas and speak to foreigners. Has he forgotten that there are foreigners who want to kill us? This unconditional meeting-with-foreigners sends a dangerous message, emboldening those who have rejected America by choosing to back foreign regimes, etc.

The sea of Germans drummed up by the Obama campaign...

Are we alone in picturing the following?

Above: Screee-eee-eee!

...will be used as props to tell us Americans how to vote, and the campaign isn't trying to pretend otherwise.

... As is demonstrated by the campaign saying otherwise without declaring it to be Backwards Day -- because if it is Backwards Day, they must backwardsly not declare it to be; and you can see how their little scheme falls apart from there. Also noted: Whenever Germans do something, Americans are helpless not to follow. Cases in point: Klaus Nomi, Zungenwurst, der Urin-Therapie.

But the campaign is clearly attempting to make it seem as if Obama can attract an audience, using the crowds that attend Obama events as pawns in their crooked game. These cynical attempts to make the candidate look good, and thus to tell us how to vote, are beyond the bounds of acceptable discourse.

On the other hand [heh heh], do you know who else used to drum up a sea of Germans to be used as props, and who did not try to pretend otherwise? [heh heh] I'm not going to say, but he sure did cause quite a "furor." [heh heh]

That's breathtakingly arrogant, and par for the course for Barack Obama.

So to sum up: The sea of Germans drummed up will be used as props, and while this is breathtaking, it is par for the course. That would be a geographic metaphor, a music or sales metaphor, a stage or film metaphor, a metaphor based on a bodily sensation, and then a golf metaphor, all smashed together like the cars of a wrecked circus train.

Yes, we'll go for the cheap shot. 'Arrogance' is writing a broadside like Ruffini's, and doing it in such crappy English.

Update: Ruffini responds via Twitter:

Anyone who thinks that the issue is a German flyer in Germany is a nitwit. The issue is electioneering on foreign soil and personality cult

Anyone who thinks we've been making fun of Patrick Ruffini's political utterings is a nitwit. The issue is shiny suits and 'the wet look':

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Tagged as: obama, language, germany, german, latin, patrick ruffini, idiocy

Gavin McNett is a writer and designer in the New York area.