Arnold's been hallucinating

[murraysovereign]

Maybe it's a steroid flashback?

 

Arnie's grasp of Austrian history questioned

 

VIENNA - While he has been a success as a bodybuilder, action star and politician, Arnold Schwarzenegger is a failure as a historian.

 

That's according to some people in Austria, his former homeland, who are calling into question the picture of his boyhood that Schwarzenegger painted when he addressed the Republican National Convention in New York.

 

Schwarzenegger, star of such films as Conan The Barbarian and The Terminator, told delegates on Tuesday that he recalled seeing Soviet tanks and that the country was dominated by socialists.

 

"I saw tanks in the streets. I saw communism with my own eyes," Schwarzenegger said in a speech that was lauded by many observers as the highlight of the gathering.

 

But those who have studied the history of Austria say that would have been impossible.

 

Schwarzenegger was raised in the province of Styria. It was occupied after the Second World War by allied troops, including U.S., British and Soviet forces, before he was born in 1947. The Soviets withdrew from the region in 1945, one historian says.

 

"It's a fact - as a child he could not have seen a Soviet tank in Styria," the Associated Press reports Stefan Karner telling the Vienna newspaper Kurier.

 

"The Terminator is constructing a rather bizarre Austria image," added Norbert Darabos, a ranking official of Austria's opposition Social Democratic party.

 

Schwarzenegger also said that "As a kid, I saw the socialist country that Austria became after" the country regained its independence in 1955.

 

But according to Martin Polaschek, a law history scholar, none of the country's chancellors were socialists between the years of 1945 and 1970.

 

"He did not speak as a historian, after all, but as a politician," Polaschek said, noting that during the period in question the country was governed by coalition governments, including the conservative People's party and the Social Democratic party.

[EWolfe]

Don't be a historical girlyman, you know I am right!

[wally]

Just like the Iraqi spokesman said there were no u.s troops in Baghdad three days into the war

[Ducknut]

Hey Bro, know where I can score some stuff? Like man I really need some 'roids.

[graupel]

Also, his recollection of watching debates between Nixon and Humphrey were fabrication as well. There never were any debates between those two for that presidential election.

 

Nixon wasn't interested in giving the other guy credibility by debating him. In addition, at that time apparently the fairness doctrine was still in play and may have encouraged the other minor party candidates to also be involved in the debates.

 

Like much of the rhetoric at the GOP convention, if you say it with a straight face, tell folks what to cheer for for the TV, maybe everyone will believe you.