Gettysburg, God, and Obama: Today’s Right-Wing Freak-out

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Every day’s a good day for right-wing faux outrage at Obama, but the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address? That’s gold, Jerry! Regardless of what President Obama chose to do today, the outcome would have been predictable. Travel to Gettysburg? He’d be guilty of politicizing American history. Don’t travel to Gettysburg? That’s outrageous. (Not mention more proof that Obamacare is destroying the country.)

But the real indignity is Obama’s purposeful editing of the Gettysburg address to omit the phrase “under God”!

One nation under God?  Under President Obama, maybe not so much.

As first reported on WMAL’s Chris Plante Show Tuesday, the Commander-in-Chief joined a cast of 61 other noted lawmakers, politicians, news anchors and celebrities, including every living President, in reciting the Gettysburg Address, which President Abraham Lincoln delivered on November 19, 1863.

The dignitaries all delivered the address as Lincoln had written it, including the phrase, “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.” (Click to listen). Curiously, however, in his version of the address, President Obama omitted the words “under God.”

The only problem? There are actually five different versions of the address, three of which include the phrase, and two of which do not. It is generally believed that Lincoln read from one of the latter. Also worth noting is that President Obama’s recitation was done at the request of filmmaker Ken Burns, whose website LearnTheAddress.org notes: “Did you know there are five versions of the Gettysburg Address? We asked President Obama to read the first, the Nicolay Version.”

Needless to say, the Nicolay version does not contain the phrase “under God”.  These easily verifiable facts, of course, have not put any end to the pearl-clutching.

By: Sandi Behrns

Sandi Behrns is a noted policy nerd, new media & web developer, and consultant to progressive organizations and campaigns. She is a senior contributor to Liberaland, and the Executive Editor of Progressive Congress News.