Have you ever been caught telling a story at a party as though it happened to you, but really you read it on a blog or saw it on TV? That can be really embarrassing when someone calls you on it. “Naw, dude, that didn’t happen to you. That was on Wonkette last month.” Well, it appears that we’ve caught our president recycling someone else’s sound bites. Only ‘recycling’ doesn’t quite capture it. Regardless of whether you agree with the assessment of Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who last week testified about the military’s progress in Iraq before a joint session of the House armed services and foreign affairs committees, you have to admit that the statement was crafted with some attempt at eloquence:

Evaluating where Iraqis are today only makes sense in the context of where they have been. Any Iraqi under 40 years old—and that is the overwhelming majority of the population—would have known nothing but the rule of the Ba’ath party before liberation four and a half years ago. Those 35 years were filled with crimes against humanity on every scale. Saddam Hussein ruled without any mercy, not hesitating to use lethal force and torture against even those in his inner circle. His genocidal campaign against the Kirds and savagery toward southern Shi’a are well known. But he also used violence and intimidation as tools in the complete deconstruction of Iraqi society. No organization or institution survived that was not linked in some way to regime protection. He created a pervasive climate of fear in which even family members were afraid to talk to one another.

That is the legacy that Iraqis had as their history when Saddam’s statue came down on April 9, 2003. No Nelson Mandela existed to emerge on the national political scene; anyone with his leadership talents would not have survived.

Our president liked that idea. He thought it had some merit. So today he decided to try his hand at it. However, from the mouth of the leader of the free world, it comes out sounding like this:

Referring to former South African president Nelson Mandela, who led the fight against apartheid to become a symbol of reconciliation and hope, Bush said of Iraq: “I heard somebody say, ‘Now where’s Mandela?’”

“Well, Mandela is dead. Because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas.”

“No Nelson Mandela existed to emerge on the national political scene, anyone with his leadership talents would not have survived,” he said.

The next question, of course, is whether someone had to tell him who Mandela was, or whether he already knew. “Now hold on a minute, Dick. You want me to say Saddam Hussein killed Josef Mengele. You mean that Nazi doctor? Why’d he do that? Did he hate Nazis?”

UPDATE: 9/23/2007 9:50 AM

Thanks to wizbangblue, I’ve become aware of a couple of other interesting facts about the Mandela reference. The first is that Condoleezza Rice also tried it out between Crocker’s speech and Bush’s.

I think the Iraqis are trying to pull it together. Look, what they’re doing is very hard. Saddam Hussein destroyed the fabric of that society. Someone asked me, “Why is there no Nelson Mandela that, you know, a general, a huge figure who’s appeared to unify Iraq?” Well, the truth of the matter is that Saddam Hussein killed people, a lot of the leadership of Iraq.

Who is this person who keeps asking everyone in the administration about Mandela?

The second is that Dick Cheney, when he served in Congress, repeatedly called Nelson Mandela a terrorist and a communist, and in fact in 1986 voted against a non-binding resolution that called for the apartheid government of South Africa to release Nelson Mandela from prison and negotiate with the African National Congress, on the grounds that Mandela and his organization were terrorists who would establish a Communist dictatorship. But now Mandela’s a hero. How quickly we can change our minds when it suits us to do so.

Nelson Mandela can speak from personal experience on the matter. On Larry King:

KING: When did—were you a—you were a revolutionary. Were you a terrorist? Did you ever commit acts of aggression, violence?
MANDELA: Well, terrorism depends on...
KING: ... who wins.
MANDELA: That's right. I was called a terrorist yesterday, but when I came out of jail, many people embraced me, including my enemies, and that is what I normally tell other people who say those who are struggling for liberation in their country are terrorists. I tell them that I was also a terrorist yesterday, but, today, I am admired by the very people who said I was one.

I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps, and, uh, I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq everywhere like, such as. And I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., er, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future... for our children.