From the McCain website, Tucker Bounds (no, really) on Obama’s speech in Berlin:
“While Barack Obama took a premature victory lap today in the heart of Berlin, proclaiming himself a ‘citizen of the world,’ John McCain continued to make his case to the American citizens who will decide this election. Barack Obama offered eloquent praise for this country, but the contrast is clear. John McCain has dedicated his life to serving, improving, and protecting America. Barack Obama spent an afternoon talking about it.”
Sigh.
Is our political culture really this ridiculous? Are there really people who think it makes you a bad American if you consider yourself a citizen of the world? Are we this childish? Can I come up with even more smart-ass rhetorical questions?
It is worth pointing out that one of McCain’s heroes (and, like McCain, a guy who ran for president when he was well over a million years old) used the same phrase in 1982 at the United Nations:
I speak today as both a citizen of the United States and of the world. I come with the heartfelt wishes of my people for peace, bearing honest proposals and looking for genuine progress.
That was Ronald Reagan. The guy who McCain called “that most eloquent, visionary, and steadfast apostle of freedom.”
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Is our political culture really this ridiculous? Yes, it’s very absurd. Nitpicking and inconsistent at that, unless they mean to criticize Reagan too, which, God forbid!
Wow. Anyone notice the formal similarities to this little Hilary nugget:
“I have a lifetime of experience I will bring to the White House. I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience he will bring to the White House. And Senator Obama has a speech he made in 2002.”