What a Moron...

...was what all my liberal friends and associates exclaimed when Sarah Palin correctly said, in an off hand interview, surrounded by paparazzi, that Paul Revere had warned the British that the American colonists were armed and waiting for them.

Now that paragon of liberal education, Barack Hussein Obama, has committed a similar gaffe.  While speaking to a joint session of Congress, he said:

"We all remember Abraham Lincoln as the leader who saved our Union. Founder of the Republican Party. 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 -- (applause) -- launch the National Academy of Sciences, set up the first land grant colleges. (Applause.) And leaders of both parties have followed the example he set."

Sounds good and noble and all, but somebody got their history wrong (I blame the teleprompter, TOTUS).  Abraham Lincoln did not, in fact, found the Republican party.  It was founded in 1854 at the first Republican convention in Ripon, Wisconsin.  In late 1854 Lincoln ran for Senate as a Whig.  In 1856, he was nominated by the Republicans as their Vice Presidential candidate.

NPR rushed forth to correct the record.  OK, I'm kidding.  They did what any rabidly liberal news organization would do, hide the evidence.  Their transcript of the evening reads:

"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."

 Notice anything missing?  The best news organization government money can buy...

The fact that somebody go their history slightly wrong does not, of course, make them a moron.  People get historical facts and quotations wrong all the time.  But they should own up to it when busted.

UPDATE:  Tom McGuire at Just One Minute absolves TOTUS and NPR and places the blame solely on POTUS.   He provides pretty convincing documentation that NPR published a transcript the White House released before the speech, and that the speech as written, and displayed on TOTUS did not contain the erroneous line.  It would appear that Obama ad-libbed the line.

UPDATE #2.  FYI, Mike Huckabee made the same mistake in 2008, where it was noted in Time magazine, by none other than Jay Carney, Obama's current Press Secretary. That should make for an interesting question at his next press briefing.