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Politico-Sized Gaffe: Enlightened Liberal Andy Barr says Mexico isn’t ‘in America’

It seems geography isn’t Andy Barr’s strong suit – nor is actual reporting.

When covering Texas Governor Rick Perry‘s (R) “sit down with reporters on Monday,” Barr reported that “the Texas governor incorrectly identified Juarez — located across the Rio Grande, and border, from El Paso — as ‘the most dangerous city in America.’”

“After an aide informed the governor of his mistake,” Barr concluded, and “Perry clarified that Juarez indeed belongs to Mexico, not Texas.”

Of course, what Perry said is completely accurate, despite Barr’s own idiotic reporting and embarrassing lack of geographic knowledge.  As even Andy Barr should be able to see from the clearly labeled map below, Mexico is, in fact, “in America.” This, of course, is exactly what Perry said, according to Barr’s own cited quotes.  Nowhere does Barr relate that Perry declared Juarez to be “the most dangerous city in Texas,” which his hackish and geographically challenged reporting suggests the Republican governor actually said.  In other words, unless he has data to prove that another city in America is more dangerous than Juarez, Andy Barr is an utter fool.

In fact, the only problem I see here is that Gov. Perry actually corrected an already correct statement, an act which gave the appearance of enough uncertainty that blithering idiots in the audience like Andy Barr were able to convince themselves, in turn, that Perry had said something wrong.

The Left and the media’s (but I repeat myself) air of educational and informational superiority is well known, and has been on full display for some time now, particularly when it comes to trumpeting supposed debunkings of conservatives’ statements. Do you remember Sarah Palin’s declaration to Tea Party faithful that they should wait until after the 2010 elections to “party like it’s 1773” – a reference to, you know, the actual date of the actual Boston Tea Party? Do you remember the Left’s reaction to her statement – including that of presidential debate moderator (and author of a book which literarily fellated the “transformational” 57-state president Barack Obama) Gwen Ifill?

Naturally, such a historically accurate statement as Palin’s “1773″ declaration was met with the same smug reaction as Perry’s statement that Juarez, Mexico is “the most dangerous city in America.”  Palin, though, didn’t second-guess herself about the date of the tea party, despite the educated left’s uproar over her statement.  Should he find himself in a similar situation again, I would hope Perry too would refrain from showing uncertainty about a statement which is true on its own merits, as allowing the follow-me media to see doubt simply feeds into their preconceived notions about Republicans’ constant state of wrongness on each and every issue.

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COMMENTS

  • Finrod

    .

  • zarras

    Many hispanics point to our use of the term “America” to only mean The United States of America as arrogant. They consider themselves “Americans” because the live in North, Central, or South America. From this perspective there is nothing technically wrong with the Governors statement. So much for the lefts cultural diversity sensitivity. Oh yeah, all that goes out the window when you criticise conservatives.

  • Adjoran

    It’s a high school debate argument.

    The point is, that was all Barr could think to write about – at MOST a slip of the tongue.

    The GREATER point is, WHY would any reasonable person waste their time and energy reading the leftist hackery at Politico?

    • The_Gadfly

      blood in the streets or quickly corrected slip of the tongue, Barr chose the slip of the tongue. We were all taught the newspaper coverage adage was: if it bleeds it leads. So given the party affiliation of the mistake maker, that makes the piece nothing but a political hit job.

  • Tbone

    We members of the aboriginal tribes who are indigenous to this continent can only accept that Juarez is the most dangerous city in Aztlan.

    What the imperialist, European occupiers call this place is only a manifestation their oppressive nature.

  • cirby

    For most of the last couple of decades, one of the best ways to get an “enlightened” lefty into a minor snit was to call citizens of the US “Americans.” It was imperialism – or something.

    That was really, REALLY important. Up until this week, when it’s now the opposite. Or whatever. Give them a couple of weeks to get the narrative lined up, and they’ll get back to you.

  • Gandalf

    The only people I have ever heard use the term “America” to refer to anything other than the United States is those darn Canadians who so eagerly want to insist that, “I’m American too!” To the rest of the world, “America” = United States whereas “North America” or “The Americas” are universally the broader inclusive terms. Sorry, “America the Beautiful”, “God Bless America”, “Proud to Be an American”, etc. are NOT written about Mexico.

    Perry had a slip of the tongue by leaving out “North”. 99% of Americans (oops, I mean United Statesers) use the term “America” exclusively to refer to the United States. While technically defensible, the mistake should be recognized for what it is and promptly forgotten.

    Seriously, I don’t think we need to defend every word that comes out of anyone on our side’s mouths. They’re human too, and it honestly wasn’t even that big of a slip. I think the average American (meaning U.S. Citizen, not Canadian or Mexican) understands that.

    So no, Mexico isn’t ‘in America’; Perry was incorrect. It’s ‘in North America’. Big deal and move on. He left out a one-syllable, five-letter word. Big. Freakin’. Deal.

    Clarification: I agree that the bigger fault here is with anyone in the media who would make a big deal about such a slight slip of the tongue. But I also think it’s silly to try to defend it by insisting that Perry didn’t make a slip when he clearly did.

  • http://jeffemanuel.net Jeff Emanuel

    …and that we should call a mistake a mistake and move on. However, the simple fact is that Perry was correct in what he said.

  • http://vladenblog.tumblr.com Steve Maley

    http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/America

    A?mer?i?ca [uh-mer-i-kuh]
    ?noun
    1. United States.
    2. North America.
    3. South America.
    4. Also called the Americas. North and South America, considered together.

  • dhoerster

    Honestly, I think Perry made a mistake. I don’t think he was making some broad statement of Juarez being the most dangerous city in North America; I think his point was that it’s the most dangerous part of the USA.

    But here’s the thing — so what? He was probably fired up, talking to reporters, and got a little carried away. The city is right on the border and it’s still a threat to the USA.

    But to pile on the guy while not raising any issues with ’57 states’ and ‘the corpse of engineers’ is hypocritical.

    But I also think defending Perry by saying that “technically” he’s correct is also a little dishonest.

    He realized he made a mistake and corrected himself. Fine. Let’s move on.

    This is such a non-story story.

  • Gandalf

    I will not accept the high-jacking of the term “America” currently in vogue with multi-culturalists and those who equate the United States as an evil, imperialistic country “no better than any other”. Those are the usual ilk who would insist that a Mexican (or Canadian) city is ‘in America’. I’m not accusing you of that, but your insistence on this indefensible point certainly has given you strange bed-fellows.

    Gov. Perry’s correction was correct. Juarez is not ‘in America’ according to the standard English definition of “America” used by the vast, vast, vast majority of Perry’s constituents. Saying a Mexican city is “in America” is unacceptable in every way.

    The context clearly tells us that Perry meant, “North America”. Insisting that he didn’t recognize that Juarez is in Mexico and not in Texas is equally unacceptable in every way.

    This discussion is beyond absurd.

  • Gandalf

    Dictionary.com does include it as a sufficient definition. Within the broader sense of technical and international English usage, it is an acceptable definition.

    But that’s is NOT American (United States-ian) usage of the term. Perry recognized that. Why is it so difficult for people here to?

    I’m done. This conversation is making me more angry than I care to be. It does nothing for our side but make us look like arrogant, ignorant pricks who can’t admit a simple slip of the tongue.

  • http://seekingliberty.wordpress.com fmaidment

    The proper geographic term for North and South America, combined with Greenland, Bermuda and the Gulf of Mexico and Carribean islands is the single word “America”. Has been since Amerigo Vespucci explored the region. Is referred to in text books that was until the liberal/multi-cultis wanted to hate on the Monroe Doctrine. Then it became “America”.

    Which doesn’t invalidate your point that we shouldn’t defend every statement made by a favored politician. I’m just saying that your etymology is wrong.

  • http://seekingliberty.wordpress.com fmaidment

    slight omission, sorry

  • http://seekingliberty.wordpress.com fmaidment

    …made and/or accepted every excuse given for Obama’s “57 states” gaffe. So why not point out that while Perry’s statement is recognizable as an error in underlying thought if not in actual statement it is by far less severe than O’s error, which every school child who has passed the 3rd grade should know.

  • msctex

    This appears to be Andy Barr attempting to capitalize to an absurd degree on the omission of the word “North,” while our side responds by forcing the issue on a matter of geographic semantics regarding “America.”

    If this is the best they can do, it might be the better part of valor to let them rant. I can see the humor in using their methods against them, but the problem with that is that if they are silly, so are we.

  • The_Gadfly

    Particularly in common US usage, America is understood to refer specifically to the US.

    Andy Barr deserves to be called out for making a mountain out of a molehill. The governor quickly corrected himself, as in within minutes of the mistake instead of days later via a press secretary. There are multiple possible explanations for his misspeaking including the fact that were an international border not running through the place, Juarez and El Paso would likely be a single town.

  • The_Gadfly

    What should not be done is to argue that common usage of the term is other than what it is.

    And as far as I know, The Big 0 never corrected himself on the 57 states thing, he just sent PR flacks to explain it away.