Limbaugh attacks Obama for thanking Native Americans on Thanksgiving

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh took to airwaves Wednesday to blast President Barack Obama for thanking Native Americans for their part in Thanksgiving.

In a Thanksgiving day proclamation on the White House website, Obama declared, "This Thanksgiving Day, we reflect on the compassion and contributions of Native Americans, whose skill in agriculture helped the early colonists survive, and whose rich culture continues to add to our Nation's heritage."

"...at their casinos and on their reservations," Limbaugh added as he read the president's words.

"This spirit brought together the newly arrived Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe -- who had been living and thriving around Plymouth, Massachusetts for thousands of years -- in an autumn harvest feast centuries ago," Obama's proclamation also said.

"So, we were the invaders," complained Limbaugh. "We were incompetent idiots. We didn't know how to feed ourselves so they came along and showed us how and that's what Thanksgiving is all about."

"This has got to be parody," Limbaugh said. "Somebody is toying with me. Somebody is seeing if they can get one past me. Somebody is trying to take advantage of me being not as focused on the day before Thanksgiving and falling for this prank."

"He says nothing about the Constitution in his Thanksgiving Day proclamation because he's got a problem with it," Limbaugh claimed.

"Every cliche that is wrong about Thanksgiving shows up in his proclamation: The Pilgrims showed up at Plymouth. The Indians have been their for thousands of years. We get off the boats. We don't know how to feed ourselves. The Indians show us how," he explained.

"Is it possible [Obama] believes it," Limbaugh wondered. "I don't doubt that he believes it."

"Obama believes this nation is fatally flawed since its founding, even before its founding."

Then Limbaugh took credit for exposing the truth about Thanksgiving to the world. "I know that a lot of people did not hear the true story of Thanksgiving until I wrote it in my book in the early 90s," he said.

The conservative radio host then welcomed a caller, David, who thanked Limbaugh for the historical perspective that he provides.

But the caller offered a slight correction to Limbaugh's attack on the president. "You may be reading too much into it to say that Obama is perpetuating the entire myth," he said. "I wouldn't put it past him."

"No!" Limbaugh exclaimed. "[Obama] said that Thanksgiving is about the Indians saving us... The true story of Thanksgiving is how socialism failed. Of course we showed them gratitude. We shared our bounty with them. Not because we didn't know how to make it. It's because we first failed as socialists. Only when we turned capitalists did we have plenty. The Indians didn't teach us capitalism."

"We do illustrate absurdity by being absurd here and those that forget that quickly can lose their minds," Limbaugh concluded.

Obama isn't the first president to thank Native Americans in Thanksgiving Day proclamations.

President Ronald Reagan's Thanksgiving proclamation noted that the Native Americans taught the Pilgrims "so much."

On this day of thanksgiving, it is appropriate that we recall the first Thanksgiving, celebrated in the autumn of 1621. After surviving a bitter winter, the Pilgrims planted and harvested a bountiful crop. After the harvest they gathered their families together and joined in celebration and prayer with the Native Americans who had taught them so much. Clearly our forefathers were thankful not only for the material well-being of their harvest but for this abundance of goodwill as well.

In 2000, President Bill Clinton also mentioned Native Americans in his proclamation.

"Sharing in God's blessings is at the heart of Thanksgiving and at the core of the American spirit. At Plymouth in 1621, the Pilgrims celebrated their first harvest in the New World thanks to the generosity of their Native American neighbors," Clinton declared.

This audio is from The Rush Limbaugh Show, broadcast Nov. 24, 2010. The clip was first caught by Mediaite.