Patriotism: Obama V. McCain

Time:

How the candidates define their love of country may help determine the election's outcome. Time asked each for his view of the meaning of patriotism. Here's how they responded:

A Cause Greater Than Self
by John McCain

Patriotism means more than holding your hand over your heart during the national anthem. It means more than walking into a voting booth every two or four years and pulling a lever. Patriotism is a love and a duty, a love of country expressed in good citizenship . . .

A Faith in Simple Dreams
by Barack Obama

When I was a child, I lived overseas for a time with my mother. And one of my earliest memories is of her reading to me the first lines of the Declaration of Independence, explaining how its ideas applied to every American, black and white and brown alike. She taught me that those words, and the words of the United States Constitution, protected us from the brutal injustices we witnessed other people suffer during those years abroad . . .

Read the whole story: Time

Comments

[coba]

they are both patroitic and i wish we would stop questioning peoples patroitism. you cant run for president and go through all this mess with the clinton and not love your country

http://sensico.wordpress.com/2008/06/25/mccain-meeting-with-gay-republicans/

[ann1]

LOL --.you can't run for president and go through all this mess with the Clintons and not love your country. Seems the Cllintons have left a bitter taste for some.....

[bygollymissmolly]

I just admire anyone who would even want to be President, especially now. What a colossal mess the new President is going to have to deal with. He's going to walk in there and say "Oh $hit, where do I start".

Personally I think the Republicans are throwing this election. They don't want to be responsible for cleaning up the mess that Bush has created.

[Gma11]

Incredible. What a difference in "energy" one has reading these two short essays.

As I was reading the first, I thought I was reading the reporter writing about the topic - and was waiting for the contrast between the two candidates. It wasn't until I turned to the second page that I realized the second was being written by Obama and what I'd just read was by McCain! (I'm doing triple-duty here as I read the posts!)

The first is bland - same old, same old . . . The second "grabs" the reader.

Well done, Barack!

And Happy Birthday, America and Americans!

[Binea]

Obama has it right.Defending the constitution and civil liberties..that's patriotism.After all..it is the constitution that separates us from the rest,makes us Americans.Just as the Bible is the authority for Christians ( or should be) the constitution is the authority for all things American ( or should be) .If you start changing it as much as Bush has..it's no longer the same Authority..it's something else"Police state" ?
some living
Patriots...Ron Paul..Obama,Jesse Jackson,Al Sharpton,Naomi Wolf..add to the list

[Phil123]

Obama loses this one. How about: "If you're patriotic, you don't have a hissy fit about wearing an American Flag lapel pin. You just put the damn thing on and shut your mouth."

[Tommygun264]

Yeah, just do as your told even though you know that what's on your lapel has nothing to do with what's in your heart - that's real leadership, eh? That's not being patriotic, that's being a lemming.

[PATina]

Uh... so if... let's say... Rev. Wright would put on a flag pin... he would automatically be considered a patriot????

[Syco]

well he did serve in the military

[Glowcy]

Rev. Wright served with honor in the military

[liberalrebuttal]

Oh Bull.

Besides , it wasn't the pin Barack was objecting to. It was the reasoning behind it. The pin he currently is wearing, came from a real live veteran who requested him to wear it. Obama is wearing that pin for that veteran.

[StacyGA]

If you arte truly patriotic you don't feel the need to use symbolic objects, which may not mean a darn thing. It is what you feel in your heart and mind that counts. Get a clue and use some other excuse to not like Obama. This one does not pass go!

[Syco]

that doesn't sound racist at all.

it's not like the other candidates wear one.