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Why Is Obama Apologizing for America?
The Daily Beast ^ | 4/8/09 | Nicole Wallace

Posted on 04/09/2009 9:10:00 AM PDT by lewisglad

Europeans aren’t better than Americans—so I can’t figure out why our president is saying sorry to them instead of explaining what makes our country great.

I guess I had it coming to me. I mean, I did insult Old Europe this week when I said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that President Obama’s suggestion that we should celebrate Europe’s union was “ridiculous.” I mocked the idea of celebrating Europe, saying, “What should we do, have a ‘celebrate Europe’ stamp?”

What Obama describes as “American exceptionalism” sounds like a political-science professor’s definition of nationalism, not a belief in America’s unique accomplishments and history.

So when a German tourist wound up his arm and slugged my 35-pound dog on Wednesday morning in Central Park for greeting him with too much exuberance, I should have been prepared. When I turned to him and said, “We don’t hit animals in this country,” he sneered at me and said, “I am German. I am lawyer.”

I called the cops and, God bless them, they were on the scene in less than five minutes. “Were they tourists?” the cops asked me when I explained what happened.

“Yes, Germans,” I said.

“Mmmhmm,” the cop said.

“Mmmhmm, what?” I asked.

“It happens a lot,” the cop said.

So, nasty European tourists have been known to hit dogs in Central Park. Who knew? It got me thinking. Of course, not all European tourists are dog beaters—most of them are pleasant, and I imagine more than a few of them love dogs. But they are not better than us, and I can’t for the life of me figure out what the hell our president is over there apologizing for.

Republicans have paid close attention to clues this week about Obama’s working definition of American exceptionalism. This examination does not mean we suspect he is anti-American, as some on the left have suggested. Waking up to news Tuesday that he’d visited our brave troops in Iraq before returning to Washington, D.C., I am quite certain, as I was Monday and the day before that, that Barack Obama loves his country.

But his definition of American exceptionalism differs from that of most Republicans. At just about every stop on his weeklong tour, Obama missed opportunities to remind audiences of America’s generosity and compassion by emphasizing our shortcomings and failures. He is wildly popular overseas (and at home), but instead of spending some of his abundant personal and political capital to deliver a clear and direct message that promoted and defended American values, he muddied the message by emphasizing occasions in which America had been “arrogant, dismissive, and derisive” toward Europe.

Liberals found it refreshing. Conservatives found it offensive. The way we see ourselves as Americans and the role of America in the world today is one of the greatest philosophical divides in this country.

Asked if he believed in American exceptionalism during his overseas trip, Obama said, “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.”

His suggestion that a belief in American exceptionalism is akin to the Brits’ belief in British exceptionalism and the Greeks’ belief in Greek exceptionalism played well in foreign capitals and at the United Nations. But what Obama describes as “American exceptionalism” sounds like a political-science professor’s definition of nationalism, not a belief in America’s unique accomplishments and history of unrivaled freedom, generosity, productivity, innovation, militaristic and diplomatic strength, and record as liberators, protectors, and defenders


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: backstabber; couricbiotch; couriclover; couricminnion; dirtbagnicole; nicoleisaho; palinbackstaber; rino; scumbucketwallace; sellout; tratior
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To: lewisglad; Slings and Arrows; martin_fierro; MeekOneGOP; Daffynition; Allegra; restornu; ...

21 posted on 04/09/2009 9:36:02 AM PDT by Lady Jag (Hezbollah - Al Qaeda - Obama - Stone Age)
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To: lewisglad

Apologizing for America = soft Anti-Americanism


22 posted on 04/09/2009 9:37:52 AM PDT by lormand (Liberals can all go to hell)
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To: KEmom
He has done nothing that would suggest he loves this country

He's done nothing but TRASH this country!

23 posted on 04/09/2009 9:38:51 AM PDT by Lady Jag (Hezbollah - Al Qaeda - Obama - Stone Age)
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To: lewisglad

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!


24 posted on 04/09/2009 9:40:28 AM PDT by SonnyBubba
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To: SonOfPyrodex

Correct. At top of the board it looks like it says “Power Control.”


25 posted on 04/09/2009 9:40:42 AM PDT by subterfuge (BUILD MORE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS NOW!!!)
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To: lormand

We, the fools of America, taken in by the Left wing of the Democratic party elected a turkey. We must undo his power before he trashes the nation. Work to unseat the Democrat/Rino majority in the House and Senate.


26 posted on 04/09/2009 9:42:34 AM PDT by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll)
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To: lewisglad

because he’s making such a mess of it.


27 posted on 04/09/2009 9:42:47 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: Lady Jag; LucyT; Iowan

Is it me or does she really look like a man? That chin is disturbing.


28 posted on 04/09/2009 9:45:30 AM PDT by Calpernia (Hunters Rangers - Raising the Bar of Integrity http://www.barofintegrity.us)
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To: lewisglad

Because he’s an idiot. Just like more than half the voters who elected him!


29 posted on 04/09/2009 9:48:04 AM PDT by ontap (Just another backstabbing conservative)
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To: lewisglad
Obama is making himself bigger than America.

He puts America down in front of the world and the world will raise him up.

30 posted on 04/09/2009 9:48:58 AM PDT by ryan71 (Time to buy guns and ammo, People.)
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To: KEmom

Question for all of you . . . Have you written the white house occupant to complain about . . . well about whatever you have as a complaint?

I have. You have to give your e-mail address and as I typed it in I could not help but wonder if now I am tracked somehow . . . what sites I visit, etc. AND . . . I never received a response to my complaint.


31 posted on 04/09/2009 9:52:14 AM PDT by RepubRep (God Bless America and may He guard our borders until we WAKE UP and do it ourselves!!)
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To: lewisglad
I can’t figure out why our president is saying sorry to them instead of explaining what makes our country great.

It is only part of Obama's plan to make America a sorry country.

32 posted on 04/09/2009 9:52:26 AM PDT by oyez (People! You're being pimped!)
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To: SonOfPyrodex

Damn, you not kidding. does the 4th block say, “health care”?


33 posted on 04/09/2009 9:54:26 AM PDT by ryan71 (Time to buy guns and ammo, People.)
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To: Calpernia

What if she IS a MAN!!!

There were rumors of Husseins’ sexcapades . . .

Could be part of The Conspiracy.


34 posted on 04/09/2009 9:56:59 AM PDT by Lady Jag (Hezbollah - Al Qaeda - Obama - Stone Age)
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To: lewisglad
Ponders Nicole Wallace, rhetorically...so I can’t figure out why our president is saying sorry to them instead of explaining what makes our country great.

A big part of Marxist Obama's anti-American core beliefs just might arise from simple jealousy.

We citizens of this great and exceptional country all have valid birth certificates...

And Marxist Obama (by many accounts) does not.

.

35 posted on 04/09/2009 10:02:32 AM PDT by Seaplaner (Never give in. Never give in. Never...except to convictions of honour and good sense. W. Churchill)
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To: Lady Jag
What if she IS a MAN!!!
There were rumors of Husseins’ sexcapades . . .

I think you got game on that theory.

36 posted on 04/09/2009 10:06:56 AM PDT by Centurion2000 (01-20-2009 : The end of the PAX AMERICANA.)
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To: lewisglad
Why Is Obama Apologizing for America?

Because his adopted country has done bad things?

37 posted on 04/09/2009 10:17:48 AM PDT by ThanhPhero (di hanh huong den La Vang)
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To: Centurion2000
Check them out going over the paper teleprompter...


38 posted on 04/09/2009 10:26:48 AM PDT by Lady Jag (Hezbollah - Al Qaeda - Obama - Stone Age)
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To: Lady Jag

I don’t think that chin is a rumor. I think that chin is telling.


39 posted on 04/09/2009 10:27:05 AM PDT by Calpernia (Hunters Rangers - Raising the Bar of Integrity http://www.barofintegrity.us)
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To: lewisglad

0bama is selling, no giving, our country away.


40 posted on 04/09/2009 10:29:21 AM PDT by I Hate Obama (Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made- Otto Von Bismarck)
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