Posted on 04/25/2008 1:25:47 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
WASHINGTON -- Just when Sen. Barack Obama thought he might be getting past a rocky stretch of negative news, he finds himself facing new questions about his patriotism.
The Illinois Democrat was grilled Wednesday night in a nationally televised debate about why he doesn't wear an American flag on his lapel and his ties to a former member of the radical group Weather Underground who's refused to apologize for planting bombs at government buildings in the early 1970s.
He tried to brush aside the questions -- posed by a Pennsylvania voter, the ABC News debate moderators and rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. "Manufactured," he called them.
But the fact that those questions are percolating among voters and the fact that Obama himself fired back with opposition research about Bill Clinton's pardon of two other Weather Underground radicals suggest he knows they could hurt him now in the primaries and in a general election campaign.
The first was raised on videotape by Nash McCabe, from Latrobe, Pa.
"I want to know if you believe in the American flag," she said. "I am not questioning your patriotism. But all our servicemen, policemen and EMS wear the flag. I want to know why you don't."
"I revere the American flag," Obama said. "I would not be standing here if it wasn't for this country. ... There's no other country in which my story is even possible. Somebody who was born to a teenage mom, raised by a single mother and grandparents from small towns in Kansas, you know, who was able to get an education and rise to the point where I can run for the highest office in the land, I could not help but love this country for all that it's given me."
He also said he showed his patriotism by working to help veterans, to end the Iraq war and to improve health care and the economy.
He went on to rip into those who raise the issue, which is widely mentioned on the Internet and in conservative media.
"I have never said that I don't wear flag pins or refuse to wear flag pins," he said. "This is the kind of manufactured issue that our politics has become obsessed with."
He also was asked about his relationship with William Ayers, who was part of the Weather Underground and refused to apologize for its bombings.
"I don't regret setting bombs; I feel we didn't do enough," Ayers told The New York Times in an article published on Sept. 11, 2001, the day terrorists attacked New York and the Pentagon.
Ayers hosted a 1995 campaign meeting for Obama when Obama was running for the Illinois state Senate, and the Obama campaign was quoted as calling the two men friendly. They served together on the board of a Chicago foundation.
Obama tried to brush aside that relationship as a manufactured issue.
"This is an example of what I'm talking about," he told ABC moderator George Stephanopoulos. He said his relationship with Ayers was casual, and they didn't exchange ideas "on a regular basis."
"The notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense," Obama added.
He drew a parallel to a conservative friend, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, noting Coburn once said it might be appropriate to execute those who provide abortions.
"Do I need to apologize for Mr. Coburn's statements? Because I certainly don't agree with those, either," Obama said.
He said he trusted Americans would see through association.
Clinton differed, and argued many Americans would, too.
She noted Obama continued to serve on a charitable board with Ayers after his 2001 comments, which she called hurtful to New Yorkers.
"It is ... an issue that people will be asking about," Clinton said.
While Obama tried to dismiss the criticisms as politics as usual, he doesn't want to find himself turned into a political loser.
He hammered back at Clinton when she said she'd be the stronger candidate for the Democrats because her critics already had gone through her political baggage.
"I will be able to withstand whatever the Republicans send our way," Clinton said.
"By Sen. Clinton's own vetting standards, I don't think she would make it," Obama said, "since President Clinton pardoned or commuted the sentences of two members of the Weather Underground, which I think is a slightly more significant act."
He’s one of those “new age” patriots who think that by standing on the flag they are getting up in the world.
"This is the kind of manufactured issue that our politics has become obsessed with."
Obama tried to brush aside that relationship as a manufactured issue.
Methinks the lady doth protest too much.
Barack mcgovern should be glad there are only “doubts” about his patriotism. The man doesn’t understand America and it is showing.
“He also said he showed his patriotism by working to help veterans, to end the Iraq war and to improve health care and the economy”
he considers himself a patriot by losing a war, raising taxes, and institutuing a socialist health care system doomed to failure.
He won’t win over the ‘typical white person.’
That is a great graphic. Thanks for posting!
Fairey has a company ("Obey") that produces his own artwork, such as these. See Fairey's website: http://www.thegiant.org/wiki/index.php?title=Category:Prints
See more at:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2006110/posts
The Art of Politics ["Obey Obama"]
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