Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.'s "patriotism" speech was delivered with about as much emotion as 1988 Democrat presidential candidate Michael Dukasis of Massachusetts mustered when asked during a presidential debate whether his view of capital punishment would be affected if his wife was raped and murdered: little or none.
THAT was a big mistake.
Obama should have learned from Dukasis' big loss after an apparently emotionless answer to such a personal question involving capital punishment that passion about basic American values and not just racism and "the fierce urgency of now" is the way to the White House.
Obama wisely questioned instead of publicly applauding the Supreme Court's recent 5-4 decision that gave child rapists a constitutional right not to be executed.
But Obama's recent attempt to move to the middle exposed him as what his former long-time pastor, Rev. Jeremiah A. "God damn America" Wright. Jr., described him as (and thereby forced him to cut their close ties): a politician.
Ironically, the Chief Justice (John Roberts) and the Associate Justice (Samuel A. Alito, Jr.), whose confirmations Obama had opposed, were among the four justices who rightly refused to legislate from the bench and the four consistently "liberal justices" who happily did so are the ones whom Obama has long applauded.
The media (even Fox) often refers to Obama as a former constitutional law professor, but he was a lecturer, not a professor, and his extreme views on constitutional law make him unfit to be either a professor or a lecturer, much less the person entrusted with the responsibility of nominating justices and judges.
Obama not only claimed that partial birth abortion was constitutional, but as an Illinois state senator he blocked a bill to respect the right to life of babies born alive as a result of botched abortions, fearing that could undermine the court-created constitutional right to abortion.
THAT is extreme. And worse than killing baby seals with a club for their skins.
But the media has been so Obama-friendly and caught up in the fairy tale of America electing someone
who is known to be part black as President that the whole truth is not reported or generally known.
Example: ABC News' shameless selective reporting of Democrat support among those serving in the United States military in Iraq. ABC reported that three persons interviewed planned to vote for Obama and two planned to vote for Hillary Clinton.
Here's the rest of the story, according to Major General (ret) Buckman:
"My niece, Katelyn, stationed at Baluud, Iraq was assigned, with others of her detachment, to be escort/guard/watcher for Martha Raddatz of ABC News as she covered John McCain's recent trip to Iraq . Katelyn and her Captain stood directly behind Raddatz as she queried GIs walking past. They kept count of the GIs and you should remember these numbers. She asked 60 GIs who they planned to vote for in November. 54 said John McCain, 4 for Obama and 2 for Hillary. Katelyn called home and told her Mom and Dad to watch ABC news the next night because she was standing directly behind Raddatz and maybe they'd see her on TV. Mom and Dad of course, called and emailed all the kinfolk to watch the newscast and maybe see Katelyn. Well, of course, we all watched and what we saw wasn't a glimpse of Katelyn, but got a heck'uva view of skewed news. After a dissertation on McCain's trip and speech, ABC showed 5 GIs being asked by Raddatz how they were going to vote in November; 3 for Obama and 2 for Clinton. No mention of the 54 for McCain."
Time will tell how many people Obama and his many supporters in the media can fool and for how long.
When Obama did not get the expected "bump" in the polls after Hillary suspended her presidential campaign, Newsweek quickly put out a poll showing Obama had jumped to a 15 point lead and the Los Angeles Times followed with one showing nearly as big a lead.
No wonder Obama performs better in polls than at the polls: those liberal pollsters skew the results and then blame racism.
Team Obama's effort to have it both ways by having Obama himself express respect for John McCain's military service while his surrogates (examples: Senator John Rockefeller of West Virigina and retired General Wesley Clark) either impugn that military service (Rockefeller said that McCain dropped bombs from too high an altitude) or question it as a qualification for the presidency.
Americans have elected Presidents whose military service included significant set back. John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, was the skipper of PT 109 during World War II and in charge when the Japanese sunk it. George H. W. Bush was the youngest American fighter pilot during World War II and his plane was shot down while he was at the controls. And during the Vietnam war John McCain's plane was shot down while he was at the controls.
General Clark is right that having your plane shot down (or your boat sunk) is not a presidential qualification, but military service is, and more so in time of war.
What Americans applauded about JFK was his heroism AFTER his ship was sunk, not the sinking of his boat.
Likewise, Americans cheer McCain's heroic conduct as a prisoner of war after his plane was shot down, not his plane having been shot down.
Character counts (whether the candidate is a Republican, or a Democrat, or a third party candidate)!
And military service in time of war hugely trumps working as a community organizer and going to Harvard Law School, as Obama did.
General Clark pointedly noted that McCain had led the United States Navy's largest squadron in peacetime, not wartime, so he never had to make executive wartime decisions.
That's literally true, but loony (NOT simply "inartful") to say.
Why an Obama supporter would highlight that McCain was unable to get executive military experience in wartime because he was a prisoner of war in "the Hanoi Hilton" for more than five years is baffling.
Obama has NO military experience, in peacetime or wartime.
Obama has NO executive experience, never having run a business or an organization, and having served only as a legislator.
Fact: McCain performed important military service and Obama did not perform any military service.
Fact: McCain is an American hero who made great personal sacrifices for his country and Obama is not.
Fact: McCain is a veteran United States Senator and Obama is a rookie United States Senator who became a presidential candidate soon after he was elected.
Fact: McCain is qualified to be President of the United States; Obama is not.