Liberal Bloggers Attempt to Equate McCain and Obama

by Sharon Soon | June 26, 2008 11:42 am

It doesn’t come as a surprise, but liberal blogs – particularly the most rabid – are now assailing John McCain for a harmless, and even meaningful statement he made during an interview with Sean Hannity:[1]

Dan Abrams has uncovered a video of John McCain saying…

“I really didn’t love America until I was deprived of her company.”

This has the potential to upend this campaign. Given the criticism of Michelle Obama’s remarks about pride, how can the right still press the patriotism of the Democratic candidate’s wife when the Republican candidate himself has made remarks that are arguably much worse?

Crying wolf in the name of hypocrisy, these guys are trying to equate McCain’s words to Michelle Obama’s condescending and revealing statements [2]made a couple months ago about being “proud of my country.” This is outrageous when examining the actual statement made by McCain.

Hannity: You spent two years of this five-and-a-half-year period in solitary confinement. What does that do to a person, to spend that much time in solitary confinement?

McCain: I think it makes you a better person. Obviously, it makes you love America. I really didn’t love America until I was deprived of her company, but probably the most important thing about it, Sean, is that I was privileged to have the opportunity to serve in the company of heroes.

I’m disgusted once again to see that the left is just watching and waiting for any reason to pounce, even if their reasoning has no basis. It should be clear to anyone literate that McCain is and was not unpatriotic by what he said; rather, he was explaining that he did not truly appreciate how good he had had it as an American. Once he was away from his country and the privileges it provided, he realized how much he should have valued it. He then proceeded to live out his life as a great patriot who really understood why he loved his country.

Contrast this with Michelle Obama’s statement:

for the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback… For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country, and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change (emphasis added).

Let’s think about this for a second. She made her statement not once but twice. So she meant what she said, despite claims afterward. She also referred specifically to her “adult lifetime”. This implies two things: one, that as a mature woman, she was fully capable of making decisions, and two, that it was likely she had been “proud” of her country before she was an adult but then changed her mind. And if these conditions were true, Michelle was essentially saying that as an intelligent adult capable of understanding, she had made the decision that she was not “really proud” of her country (and if she had been as a child, she had since corrected herself). In other words, as Michelle reflected back on the past 26 years of her life, she could not find or recall any reason to be “really proud” of America. The only difference now, she explains, is that people now want “change”. Ultimately, then, she sees nothing wrong with the fact that she was never proud of her country until it met her own particular criteria.

Without even delving into the shallowness and arrogance of that statement, I’m appalled that the liberals have the nerve to equate McCain’s remarks with Obama’s. And while I personally find it foolish (and possibly even hypocritical) of Fox News to have edited McCain’s interview, leftist blogs should really try to calm down. They don’t have much of a case with their claims like those from the Daily KOS[3]:

While there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with those statements (Abrams even says that they are eloquent) how are they really any different from Michelle Obama’s comments that she was proud of her country for the first time in her adult life?

Actually, they’re worlds different. And if liberals could only understand the real meaning of American patriotism, they wouldn’t insult McCain’s admirable patriotism by making such a lousy comparison.

Cross-posted from Conservatives with Attitude![4]

Endnotes:
  1. assailing John McCain for a harmless, and even meaningful statement he made during an interview with Sean Hannity:: http://www.newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p=952
  2. condescending and revealing statements : http://michellemalkin.com/2008/02/19/what-michelle-obama-said/
  3. like those from the Daily KOS: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/20/102826/097/43/538977
  4. Conservatives with Attitude!: http://www.gopusanj.com

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