More Obama History Gaffes

Timothy Birdnow

According to Barack Obama in his jobs speech:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/july-dec11/obamaspeech_09-08.html

"We all remember Abraham Lincoln as the leader who saved our Union. But in the middle of a Civil War, he was also a leader who looked to the future - a Republican president who mobilized government to build the transcontinental railroad; launch the National Academy of Sciences; and set up the first land grant colleges. And leaders of both parties have followed the example he set."

But my brother Brian, a professor of American history, begs to differ:

"On the land grant colleges thing, I know that a couple of GOP-sponsored Congressional Acts of the 1870s and 1880s encouraged the founding of state universities in the areas that would soon become states, like Nebraska, Colorado, the Dakotas, et cetera. However the impetus for state colleges predates the Republican Party. Also, the GOP supported the Homestead Act before 1862 as a means of ensuring that small farmers would migrate west, thereby checking the possible expansion of slavery (and slaveholders) in the territories. The building of the Transcontinental railroad was fully consistent with the Hamiltonian idea of a closely linked governing and mercantile class...the exact type of thing that the conspiracy minded jigs and hillbillies who make up the most passionate core of Obama supporters fear more than anything else."

So BHO is behind on his knowledge of American history in general.

Hardly a surprise.