Obama's sniper tale? When he stood up to Detroit's 'cold' shoulder

Is this another Bosnian sniper incident, where a Democratic candidate for president describes a scene involving some personal courage, but later videotape shows that maybe perhaps it wasn't really quite all like that exactly?

Sen. Barack Obama, the leading Democratic candidate for his party's nomination, is very fond of telling receptive audiences the story about how last May he walked right into the automotive lion's den of Detroit and told those industrialists they were going to have to shape up, change the way they do things and start making more fuel-efficient vehicles to protect our environment.

"And I have to say," the straight-talking Obama tells his chuckling followers, "that when I delivered that speech, the room got really quiet. [Laughter] Nobody clapped."

Well, in honor of Obama's return campaign visit back to Michigan this week, someone -- perhaps Republicans, perhaps someone closer to home politically -- assembled videotape of Obama's oft-told tale and spliced it side by side with videotape of that actual Detroit speech.

You'll never guess what. The room wasn't quiet at all. Obama, in fact, got a loud round of applause. And at the end of his address the camera's view of him at the podium is partially blocked because the audience of local businesspeople and automotive executives was rising to give him a standing ovation.

(UPDATE: Ben LaBolt, an Obama spokesman, has provided numerous contempoary independent news accounts of the candidate's Detroit speech. They describe the audience as presenting a standing ovation at his introduction but only delivering "polite" or "light" applause during it, along with selected quotes from some audience members praising his courage or consistency in delivering the message about better mileage.)

There were no departure ceremonies after the speech because of sniper reports. Far too dangerous for that. It was all he could do then to duck his head and just run for the vehicles. See for yourself below.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Comments

[mona]

What's the big deal? Obama will apologize, says its a boneheaded mistake, say he can no more disown his comments than he can disown the you tube video and democrats will kiss and make up with Obama. Please let's not waste our time trying to act as if the wrong Obama does really does matter. He is invincible because he will bring the "change" everybody wants. It's a fact. While on that note, everyone was in an uproar about what Bush said, puh leeze Bush has been talking this way for the past 8 years , " cowboy politics" is the term I hear thrown around. Today everyone is an uproar and Obama made it about him. WOW, could you be anymore full of yourself. I don't support Bush by any stretch but the uproar kills me. Here comes Obama to save us from Bush. Let's all stand up and clap for him like the you tube video because he just marched right in there and told Bush off.......Obama our hero!!!! ....Here he comes to save the day!!! I'm sorry I didn't believe the democrats when they told me Jesus was back and he's black. I'm sorry did I just commit blasphemy? Don't worry the democrats got my back, I will just apologize and all will be forgiven and forgotten. ( oh wait, the republicans will not forget!!!) Those damn republicans I tell you (LOL)

[Ann Prehn]

Compared to his usual audience response, that one WAS quiet!

[pat]

if this is all you got i think ill vote for him.

[Aengil]

Erm... I'm sorry, but that video is misleading.

The clips from the speech in that video are from the END of the speech. Of course he gets some applause then.

But it's not like he's hiding anything - a video of the whole speech was uploaded by his campaign. Watch it -
http://youtube.com/watch?v=j1nno1El3-g - and what do you know, the room IS quiet. You can hear people cough.

True, there are a couple of points where he gets some mild applause. It would be incredible if there was no applause at all anywhere in the speech, particularly when he's talking about preserving jobs in the auto industry, but at many key points, like right after that when he talks about fuel efficiency standards - complete silence.

Simply put, his comment that the room got really quiet is true. It did.

[Mike Carlson]

It is really sad that people keep trying to find something to bring Obama down, really pathetic things at that. People should realize he is change and change is always good.

[W Hez]

Someone should tell Hillary the race is over!
This is now getting embarrassing.

[Tim in VA]

You have to be kidding, right? They were obviously applauding the fact he offered to help with health care prices in exchange for working on better fuel efficiency. In other words, they were applauding the carrot, not the stick.

If you did any research on contemporaneous accounts of that May 2007 speech -- something we used to call "fact-checking" -- you'd see the thrust of that speech, overall, did NOT go over well with those in attendance.

Yet another nit-picking distraction from the real issues of the day. Oh well.

[hesingswithfrogs]

Hmm is it another "bosnia sniper incident?" Are you hoping to find one and gain approval of all of your republiconnartist friends? That was a nervous minority clapping if I ever heard one. Notice how there were no vocal cheers and the clapping was rather subdued. Quite the opposite of what normally occurs at Obama's speeches. The floor rattles. It's interesting how the video produced is of Obama and not of the audience. Wouldn't a view of the audience tell us more about what percentage of the audience was clapping? Sure, hang "nobody" around his neck and ignore the true gist of what Obama was saying. You are grasping at straws and your desperation is showing.

[Travis]

This is an absurd comparison. Sen. Obama's speech in Detroit was definitely poorly received by industry insiders:

"Obama talks tough on Detroit
Criticism of auto industry could make winning support an uphill battle":

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080514/BUSINESS01/805140387/1014

"Obama's Tough Talk Backfires in Motown":

http://www.newsweek.com/id/34740

"Bill Ford, Jr. Miffed by Obama's Criticism of Auto Industry":

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,277013,00.html

[Susan Powers]

This scares me to say call him this but I did see him called this somewhere else, "the chosen one" can do no wrong. Isn't this sad that the United States is being sold a false bill of goods... again?
It doesn't matter anyway, this deal was made in the back rooms, we are not a nation of "of the people, and for the people"

[Are you kidding me?]

Are you kidding me? This is Obama's sniper tale? So the audience clapped twice? Isnt it a given that when you end a speech that you receive some kind of applause? Great job Andrew?

[Lol]

This has got to be a joke. He told a story and made it funny by saying it was quiet. NOT THE SAME as saying he was under sniper fire. Its nice to have a president with a sense of humor.

[John]

I don't think lying is very changey-hopey.

[Obama Mama]

I think this video is very misleading. True, they were applauding and he said they weren't. But... Obama is used to worshipful adoring crowds of mindless sycophants. To him, if they're not fainting and sighing and throwing their panties (that includes, of course, Democratic men), they're not with him. So he didn't "misremember". He didn't lie. He just doesn't have a close personal relationship with the truth like he does with Jesus. The black Jesus, of course, not the other one.

[Hogarth]

People should realize he is change and change is always good.

LOL, sure it is. That whole climate change ('change' being its new name since we can't seem to decide if it is warming or cooling, but it doesn't matter: SEND ME MONEY AND I WILL STOP IT, sez St. Al Gore) thing is all for the good, eh?

Gas prices changed this week. Up to $3.95 in my area. Thank goodness "change is always good."

This is the kind of naivete that will put a 46 year old neophyte, far left, fascist-appeasing Liberal in the White House, where he will be the happy, smiling change-puppet of our dysfunctional tax-us-until-we-bleed-and-consider-the-job-half-done Congress and dictatorial tyrants from all over the globe.

But hey, yeah, change is always good.

[John Paul Telhomme]

For a while, I have always doubting the " journalism" of these two. Is this splices YouTube video supposed to contradict Obama? I bet that if you had the whole video, you would have played it in full to show your objectivity but you have none and even as "journalists" you rely on manufactured evidence. Gees! Bitterness-gate, Wafflegate , sweetie gate and now lets-restore-our-industrial-manufacturing-power gate. Thanks Andie. Thanks Donaldo.

[Taptap23]

It is a very deliberate misremember. Most of Obama's fierce supporters are greens. These stories fed right into the "US Car Executives are Monsters" ideas.

[Hope]

Perhaps the applause wasn't all that memorable. Perhaps Obama's not in it for his own glory. This is such a non-story. You Hillary supporters are really losing it.

Hillary invented sniper fire lies, invented the dying pregnant woman (because she had no healthcare) lies, paul v clinton lies... please!

http://www.paulvclinton.com is where the real video is!

Obama '08!

[EDH]

Hmm. HRC implied she had entered a zone of physical danger, but other than be there, she did not claim to have acted courageously.

BHO later tries to convey that he courageously stood-up to the auto industry. In fact, what he did was offer a federal subsidy to pay for their out-of-control private sector union benefits in exchange for proposing inefficient command and control CAFE standards on manufacturers.

His economic advisor Goolsbee called this an example of a "market-based Grand Bargain"?

I suppose if HRC proposed tossing tax payer money out of the C-130 transport to distract the "snipers" while she landed there would be a greater parallel.

[John B Sheffield]

Well yesterday the non-story was "sweetie" today it is "applause or not" - my oh my, is it August already, the month when everything seems quiet and the media have to scrape round for stories, all that is happening in the World at present and this is classed as either news or worthy debate - NO!!!!

Next story!!

[John Paul Telhomme]

Dear Don and Andrew,

I wonder if you consider yourselves objective journalists. Judge for yourselves -- here is the complete speech:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=j1nno1El3-g

And here are commentaries written at the time the speech was delivered by
(1) Newsweek:http://www.newsweek.com/id/34740

(2) Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,277013,00.html

Having seen the video and read through both articles, I think he is right and you are wrong.

[Obama BS Meter pegged]

'Nobody clapped' means nobody swooned and fainted in that that revival tent mass hysteria kind of way. Seems there'll be more of this 'nobody clapped' business the longer Obama is exposed. In this Short Attention Span Theater of Democrat politics, maybe he's passed his 'sell by' date. Jumped the shark.

[Emlyn]

Uhhh.....Okay. Is the Dem race now so dead that the Los Angeles Times will print just anything that might create some new controversy?

I didn't hear silence, and neither did I hear "a loud round of applause" as you put it. What I heard was polite clapping during a pause in his speech; no doubt one of many.

This is not news. Go do your job.

[Chris Carlson]

Yeah, a standing ovation WHEN HE CONCLUDED HIS SPEECH. Sounded like he got little more than "pity applause" for his line about increasing fuel-efficiency to me.

This is stupid, and the premise that it's the equivalent of Hillary's sniper-fire comment is absurd.

[ALice Jones]

Andrew, did you learn this type of false reporting in school? I am sure your parents/guardians are very proud of you. No wonder sales are down for newspapers. I also love how people just read and follow these types of things like sheep without actually trying to find out the real deal. This is what's wrong with this country.