In Washington, as Andrew Sullivan reminds us, a gaffe is when a politician inadvertently blurts out what they actually believe. It is always occasion for equal measures of embarrassment and entertainment. So, no, Barack Obama’s reference to a “Polish death camp” was not a gaffe. Worse than that, it was a blunder. Not of malice but of carelessness or ignorance but not much better for that.
To recap: Obama was awarding the Medal of Freedom (posthumously) to Jan Karski when he said this:
[Emphasis added.] The Poles, understandably, are horrified. David Frum and Michael Tomasky, neither of whom are likely to be invited to supper at Rush Limbaugh’s place, explain just why this is such a dreadful slip.“Jan served as a courier for the Polish resistance during the darkest days of World War II. Before one trip across enemy lines, resistance fighters told him that Jews were being murdered on a massive scale and smuggled him in to the Warsaw Ghetto and a Polish death camp to see for himself.”
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