Pennsylvania newspaper runs ad advocating Obama assassination

Anyone working for a newspaper would, you hope, have caught this.

But I'm curious -- what percentage of Americans do you think could correctly answer the question "What do presidents Garfield & McKinley have in common?"

I'd guess less 10 percent.

 

They were both elected president in a year that ended in "0" - which, between 1840 and 1960, was a death sentence.

 

They both fought in the Civil War.

 

They've both never been in my kitchen.

 

They were both president.

Until they weren't.

 

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/presidentialrace/2008323949_campdig29.html

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=OKTB&p_theme=oktb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=124261BCEAE15B20&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date&s_trackval=GooglePM

But other than that ...

 

Welcome to my part of Pennsyltucky. (Next county over.) And knowing the paper involved, I have no problem believing it was an innocent -- as in clueless -- mistake on their part.

 

I'm sadly with those who believe the ad rep actually could have thought this was a favorable reference, particularly after seeing Lincoln and Kennedy, and had no idea the common element that connected them to Garfield and McKinley.

I don't know how old the ad rep was, but I see this all the time, in life, and in what you'd think would be relatively simple questions in the NTN trivia game in bars across the country.

In fact, I see people who don't know much, much worse things than this.

 

They all like lasagna?

 

Um, both were dead before I was born. That's what they have in common..... among other things.

 

I'd be willing to bet my meager paycheck that's exactly what happened. I mean, during the election Obama DID garner complimentary comparisons to Lincoln and JFK.

The ad rep saw that, didn't really know what to make of Garfield and McKinley, and put it through.

Dumb mistake. But I doubt it was intentional or malicious.

 

I doubt that it would be that high. Last night on Leno's final Tonight Show, some genius on the Jaywalking segment thought the two countries bordering the U.S. were Australia and Hawaii.