I don't remember this.

What should he have said ?

It was the use of the word "eine". The argument is Kennedy should have said "ich bin Berliner" but that would have been incorrect as German is a literal language, and that would have said I am from Berlin.

Kennedy in fact was correct to say Ich bin Eine Berliner which means One of Berlin. But it was grabbed and linked to the doughnut which is allegedly called a Berliner. (but I had lived in Germany for 11 years by then, and I have never heard of a "Berliner" as a doughut)

 

It was in fact a KGB  misinformation plot, and when Kennedy proved his accuracy they murdered him to perpetuate the ridicule.

He was a good Presiden, it is too bad he had to die to be considered a great one.

Flash,

 

       Shouldn't it have been, "Ich bin ein Berliner"?meaning, I am a Berliner?

HE WAS WELL LIKED AND SO WAS HIS WIFE AT THE TIME.

I THINK IT WAS THE FIRST TIME THAT THE WHITE HOUSE HAD KIDS IN IT FOR AWHILE.

IN A NORMAL WORLD CUBA SHOULD HAVE BEEN BACK IN THE FOLD BY NOW. MAYBE IN ANOTHER TEN YEARS. I GUESS IT'S NO DIFFERENT THAT TRADING WITH CHINA.

Cuba would be back in the fold now if we dropped those stupid sanctions and opened it up for tourism.  An influx of American college students would do more to destroy socialism than any number of soldiers.

No. or maybe yes. (Cover my *ss time) maybe.

But I'm totally open to contradiction. I think German is like French, you omit the definite article for professions. it is quite subtle, not as simple as that. The upshot is, grammatically, not idiomatically, Kennedy was right. I hate to say that.

Whatever the truth, the Soviets manipulated it.

Ask JimBert. It's his fault.

In rheinland pfalz and also i think freistadt bayern a jelly donut is commonly called a berliner.

 

T-Man

Yes, that's their local slang, you mean? But it's not Berlin terminology which is what Kennedy was using.

I lived in Berlin as a boy several years and never heard of that, but of course my German was only by ear, never formally taught. As a kid though you do learn other languages quickly, but never formally. 

They cheered themselves hoarse.

Owl Call Bill Clinton he had a thing for cigars.

re#16, it wasn't the cigars so much as it was the unique way his humidor kept them moist.