Obama's efforts to improve foreign relations...

... took a bit of a hit yesterday in Poland:

Poland demanded a “strong and clear response” from the U.S. after President Barack Obama’s mention of a “Polish death camp” while honoring a Pole who told the world about the Holocaust.

“We can’t accept such words in Poland, even if they are spoken by a leader of an allied country,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk told journalists in Warsaw today. “Saying Polish concentration camps is as if there was no German responsibility, no Hitler.”

Since, 2004 Poland has sought clarifications from several news outlets for the use of a phrase “Polish concentration camps” that were run by the Nazis during the country’s occupation in the World War II, according to the Foreign Ministry’s website. The government has convinced publications including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle to stop using the phrase.

“The president misspoke -- he was referring to Nazi death camps in German occupied Poland,” Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement. “We regret this misstatement.”

The text of Obama’s remarks on the White House website hasn’t been corrected as of today.

“The White House will apologize for this outrageous mistake,” Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski wrote on his Twitter Inc. account. “It’s a shame that such a momentous ceremony has been overshadowed by ignorance and incompetence.”

Ignorance and incompetence is about as accurate as you can get when describing this Presidency.

Was Bush ever similarly charged by a foreign leader?  I'm curious...

Comments

[tim aka The Godless Heathen]

“Ignorance and incompetence”?

You have no idea, no idea…

[RandomThoughts]

President Obama, alienating US allies one country at a time. Maybe he can add this to all the other "Did You Know" so-called accomplishments he's tacked onto past presidents' bios on www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents.

[Mark]

Enough of that stupid excuse that he "mis-spoke" - enough, enough! The Occutard did NOT mis-speak - he read exactly what was on his best friend, Mr. Telepromter, exactly what was written by him and his speech-writers, vetted by the State Department, checked by his advisors and political gurus. No-one, including The Most Brilliant President in History™, noticed and corrected this egregious insult to an ally. Ignorance and stupidity run deep in this regime.

[Barbara]

you have got to be kidding me. Obama is an idiot he managed to offend an entire nation in one sentence. More polish people than jews died in poland, polish people died putting their life's on the line for the jewish people. GERMAN NAZIS killed jews not the polish people. This was highly offensive. If the U.S. is such a good ally then how come it did not side with Poland over Russia in the arms debate? Only poland contributes to the alliance, they send THEIR troops THEIR people to go fight for the U.S. in Afghanistan and Iraq. What does the U.S. do for Poland? Absolutely nothing.This was ridiculous and Poland deserves a formal apology from Obama himself not some white house representative.