Idiotically and through a lens of partisanship, Jonah Goldberg tries to make this a patriotism problem for Barack Obama—it’s not only a low blow, but it detracts from his argument. Nevertheless, Goldberg hits on something that makes certain people allergic to Obama—his air of melancholy [e.a.]:
After 9/11, he wore it. During the debates over the Iraq war, he stopped because he saw the flag as a sign of support for President Bush. (He started wearing it again in May.) “I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest,” he added in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “Instead, I’m going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great and, hopefully, that will be a testimony to my patriotism.”
Read that line again: “What I believe will make this country great.”
Not to sound too much like a Jewish mother, but some might respond, “What? It’s not great now?”
This sense that America is in need of fixing in order to be a great country points to Obama’s real patriotism problem. And it’s not Obama’s alone.
I noted Obama’s melancholy in April 2007, called him “Dr. Blue,” and said he is a downer!
It’s a problem, all right. It’s just not a patriotism problem.
Calling it a patriotism problem is partisan hackery (which is to be expected by someone who wrote a book titled Liberal Fascism, which I won’t link to. Feh).
