Did Barack Obama compare the U.S. to Nazi Germany, or is there another explanation? (public radio audio)

According to this and other sites, there's yet another nugget on the Chicago public radio interview with Barack Obama:

just to take a, sort of a realist perspective...there's a lot of change going on outside of the Court, um, that, that judges essentially have to take judicial notice of. I mean you've got World War II, you've got uh, uh, uh, the doctrines of Nazism, that, that we are fighting against, that start looking uncomfortably similar to what we have going on, back here at home

It's at 15:30 of the January 18, 2001 broadcast here. Note that that was before 9/11 and two days before the Bush inauguration.

However, note especially the comment discussing "realist perspective" here. There may be a somewhat plausible explanation for BHO's comments.

I'll leave it to others to a) verify that his remarks weren't taken out of context, and b) indicate whether he was actually comparing the U.S. to Nazi Germany or was simply making a legalistic point.

Politics · Mon, 10/27/2008 - 19:00 · · Importance: 4