Another post along these lines, alas:
House Democratic leadership aides were horrified to see this messianic-sounding quote this morning in Dana Milbank’s piece in the Washington Post:
Inside, according to a witness, he told the House members, “This is the moment . . . that the world is waiting for,” adding: “I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.”
A group of leadership aides quickly compared their notes as to what they heard Obama say, and–according to an e-mail I received from one of them–the actual quote was more like this:
Wld like to take credit for the crowds, the 200,000 in berlin, but can’t, represented a symbol of america returning to our best traditions.
Dana makes it clear in his story that he is relying on the recollection of someone who was in the room. As someone who has spent many years reporting on Capitol Hill, this is a situation that I have been in more times than I can count–chasing down people after a meeting to find out what was said in a closed session. But the second version rings more true to the way I have heard Obama speak about that crowd in Berlin.
UPDATE: It has been called to my attention that Dana Milbank was not the original source of the quote that appeared in his column today. The quote, which Dana picked up, originally appeared (at 10:15 p.m. last night) in the Post’s “The Trail” blog, where Jonathan Weisman has also now noted that it is being disputed.