The right-wing may think that it has finally found the big Obama scandal....but unfortunately the 'scandal' is based on an erroneous translation by Google relied upon by some pretty dumb Republicans.
This is why when you are doing something of great importance like investigating a supposed 'foreign donation scandal' involving president Obama, or even a basic business transaction, you hire professional translators to render the documents, you don't use Google Translate.
Obama ‘Foreign Donation Scandal,’ Hyped By Right-Wing, Based On Inaccurate Google Translation
The GAI’s report, America the Vulnerable: Are Foreign and Fraudulent Online Campaign Contributions Influencing U.S. Elections? cited a Norwegian blog as an example of an apparent non-citizen claiming to have illegally contributed to a U.S. political campaign:
A Norwegian blogger posts a solicitation from the Obama campaign, including the link to the donate page. When another blogger opines that non-U.S. citizens cannot contribute because of American law, the blogger responds in Norwegian, I have in practice given money to Obama, I had done it.”
The footnote for this claim links to a blogger anmed “Gaupefot.” His comment, in Norweigian, was:
Jeg mottar nok bare epost fra Obama. Pøvde å donere penger til John Kerry i 2004. Det gikk dessverre ikke. Forøvrig har ikke USA noe de skulle sagt på det området. De tar heller livet av utenlandske politikere. Pengedonasjoner blir for pingler slik de ser det. CIA har forøvrig gitt penger til Det norske arbeiderparti, og antakeligvis også til andre norske partier og politske grupperinger.
Hadde jeg i praksis kunne gitt penger til Obama hadde jeg gjort det.
The GAI report’s authors apparently relied on Google Translator for their translation of that final line. ThinkProgress confirmed with three Norwegian speakers, including a University of North Dakota professor of Norwegian language, that the quote actually means quite the opposite.
I've studied Swedish, which is in many way very similar to Norwegian and I can tell you that the sentence in question really says "
Had I actually been able to give money to Obama, I would have done that."