This is beautifully done. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) leads Chris Matthews a merry chase:
If we look at the collection of friends that Barack Obama has had over his life, and usually we associate with people who have similar ideas to us, and it seems to call into question what Barack Obama’s true beliefs and thoughts and values are.
And then she names names. Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Saul Alinsky, Father Pfleger… She notes that Michelle Obama is just recently proud of her country. One friend after another calls into question and what Obama really believes. Matthews tried desperately to get her to say that if you are liberal, you are anti-American, but she didn”t take the bait. He couldn’t claim she was wrong and the people she listed aren’t anti-American because in the age of Google, video and audio abound. So all he could do was try to trap her into saying something he could use to dismiss her entirely. And she gave him nothing of substance – she just suggested that a lot of Americans would be very interested in the media actually doing it’s job and exposing members of Congress who have unsavory associates.
Matthew’s Leg Thrillometer pegged into the negative range – enjoy the video!
h/t Marc Ambinder
ADDED: Chris Matthew’s leg just can’t get a break. Matthews does seem a great deal less in the tank for Obamessiah than he was even a month ago. I wonder if Hillary! had a quiet word with him.
ADDED: Ed Morrissey sees this interview quite differently.
LOL! He was soooo twisting in the wind on that. She definitely knew what he was up to.
I listened to an extended interview with Rev. Wright, and he didn’t seem any more anti-American than a number of preachers I’ve heard – he explained that he loved his country (having served in the military and helped treat an ill President, for example), but he was bitterly disappointed in some of the things the country has done. I think he goes too far in many of those things (Hiroshima isn’t something to be proud of, but neither is it something to be ashamed of – perhaps sadness is the only proper emotion), but I don’t see it as anti-American, though I’m sure you can find quotes which will appear that way.
But even if we accept the idea that these people are ‘anti-American’, and that by extension so is Obama, then surely the same applies to McCain and Palin? Palin associates freely with people who believe that Alaska should seceed from the Union (I believe ‘traitor’ might be a good word to use there). McCain said he didn’t love his country until he was in his 30s. Palin says she likes visiting ‘pro-American’ parts of the country, so clearly she thinks parts of this country hate America, and that’s not a matter of association, that’s what she actually says. McCain’s associating with Charles Keating clearly must show that he’s a lying fraudster, right?
Or maybe all of this is a stupid game. Maybe ‘Americanness’ isn’t defined by what you think people should believe, or by what I think they should. Maybe you can be ashamed of some things your country has done and still love it. And just maybe we could talk about issues like the war, the economy, even abortion if you like, rather than questioning who loves their country the mostest.
Paul, screaming “God damn America,” subscribing to the most insane conspiracy theories about her, and his brand of separatist black liberation theology generally, just isn’t consistent, in my view, with loving America. YMMV. I certainly don’t think America is perfect, and that’s not now I assess love of country, but Wright – and Pfleger – are far, far over the top in their rhetoric, and Ayers, Dohrn, and Alinsky are beyond the pale in their actions.
As to the AIP – I’m always amused by the left’s take on that one, like this Huffpo screed which maximizes and distorts AIP history, and minimizes and distorts the truth about the Weather Underground. Here’s the truth, as admitted even by Wikipedia – the AIP was founded by a guy who wanted to secede, and part of the party (described by Wiki as a fringe) would still like to do so. The rest of the platform includes “strong beliefs in Federalism, limited government, and territorial status. It states objectives similar to that of the Constitution Party and Libertarian Party, supporting gun rights, privatization, home schooling, and limited government.” All of which sound pretty good to me, and I bet to a lot of other refugees from the GOP. In spite of that, I disagree with that fringe about seceding, and I wouldn’t have joined. You’re horrified that Todd Palin was a member of that but you give a pass to Obama on Dohrn and Ayers, who actually helped kill people and tried to kill many more – with the ultimate goal of destroying our government? If they were sorry – if they publicly came out and said plainly that they were wrong, if not in their desires AT LEAST in their methods – then I’d lay off. But as recently as 2001, Ayers stood on top of an American flag and declared he’d do it all again; that he wished he’d done more. Obama knew and worked with him at that time. So you’re suggesting Todd Palin, and by extension his wife, are traitorous for wanting something they tried to achieve by perfectly legal and morally acceptable means but Ayers, Dorhn and Obama get a pass? Or do you honestly just find the two situations morally equivalent?
As for McCain – surely you know you’re taking that remark out of context. He didn’t have the deep, abiding love of country that he claims to have now until his thirties. Before then, he pretty much cruised the way far too many people do, taking his freedom and privilege for granted. When he lost that freedom, he realized he was an idiot and smartened up. Contrast this with Michelle Obama, whose pride in her country – along with too many liberals – is apparently performance-based. America finally lived up to her standards! Whoopee! Because liberating France, for example, just wasn’t good enough. Nor do the massive amounts of aid we send – both as individual donations and from taxpayers via the gov’t – move her, or a host of other politically neutral things I could list that ought to stir pride in any rational person. I’d just like to see folks on your side take ownership of the idea that we’re not perfect, but we’re pretty damn good. Is that so hard, really? As for Palin and her “pro-American parts of the country,” duh! Contrast Berkeley or San Francisco’s attitude toward this nation to the kind of grass roots, America is great patriotism and pride you see in, say, Kansas or most “flyover” states. It’s apples and oranges.
As for Keating – really, that’s just sad. John Glenn and McCain were both cleared, and McCain went even further by publicly repenting for his actions:
As for the “stupid game,” I completely disagree. This is NOT AT ALL a game to me; while I’m certainly capable of “gotcha” politicking that is NOT my attitude where love of country is concerned. If a political leader does not unequivocally love his country, he is not fit to lead it. While love of country is certainly not the only criteria, it is at the top of my list; something we *should* be able to take for granted. But decades of associating with people who aren’t just cruising, like McCain apparently did, but who actively run the nation down, is just not acceptable in my view. I don’t like Bill Clinton. I disagree with him vehemently on most political issues. I think he’s a disgusting, selfish, immature womanizer and that his character is weak. But I never once had cause to believe he doesn’t wholeheartedly love America.
“You’re horrified that Todd Palin was a member of that but you give a pass to Obama on Dohrn and Ayers, who actually helped kill people and tried to kill many more – with the ultimate goal of destroying our government?”
No, not in the slightest. Ayers was a terrorist, and I haven’t the slightest idea why he isn’t in prison to this day (COINTELPRO notwithstanding). I’m going to guess that pointing out yet again that Obama was 8 when this was happening, and has repudiated what Ayers did, won’t wash. I’ll further guess that McCain’s connections with G Gordon Liddy (who he says he’s “proud” of), a man who plotted murder, firebombings and kidnappings, aren’t the same thing, because McCain is a Republican. Pointing out that Michelle Obama was using a fairly common phrasing to try to point out how proud she was of her country at that moment, not that she hadn’t previously been proud of it, would be pointless, even though we both understand that a similar construct from McCain clearly meat what he meant it to mean (there’s an ugle sentence!) So let me try a different tactic.
Tell me specifically how Obama’s opinions have been changed by his association with Ayers. What policies has he introduced to further the aims of the Weathermen How does he want the country to change to put an end to the Vietnam War, which is what Ayers was protesting against?
And while we’re at it, tell me how immensely proud you are of America’s long history of slavery, a practice it was so loathe to give up that even when it was indisputably illegal it managed to maintain it de facto until the start of the Second World War? Tell me how you love your country that founded itself on the genocide, planned and accidental, of millions of Native Americans.
Assuming for just a moment that you can’t actually do that, then try to understand that for some people those are still real issues, along with others in more recent times, that they feel shame and regret for even if they had nothing to do with them. Understand that this doesn’t diminish their love of country one iota, but instead makes them more determined than ever not to be blind to such behaviors the next time they happen (as they surely will in any country) precisely because they love their country and what it aspires to be so much. And maybe you’ll realize that people who don’t think the same way as you aren’t automatically wrong, or unpatriotic, or bereft of love for their country. They just don’t accept the injustices that you do, and in turn they don’t see the injustices that you do.
Looking at the many things she’s said, like calling the US “downright mean,” sat in a church for twenty years where “God damn America” was not a shocking statement, etc. I simply do not believe that she didn’t mean exactly what she said – TWICE. It was part of her stump speech – and it went entirely unnoticed by the Obama campaign just how bad it sounded because they don’t find it remarkable. It goes to the mindset.
It’s about character. Obama has not repudiated Ayers, he continues to hide the relationship, aided and abetted by a complicit media, he continues to pretend that Ayers is not a big deal, he continues to act as if he didn’t know who and what Ayers was. And frankly if Obama were that dumb, he ought not to be President anyway – but I don’t think anyone really believes Obama was somehow ignorant of Ayers, his background, and his and his wife’s ongoing anti-Americanism. Are you aware of the fact that several media outlets seem to be sitting on the story that Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn babysat the Obama children? Bernadine Dohrn chose jail rather than testify against her cop killing friends. And Obama was a grown man at that time, not 8 years old, as he continues to disingenuously protest. He’s said Ayers is mainstream, for pity’s sake; it was on his website! That he would say that, knowing Ayers history and that Ayers has publicly, emphatically NOT repented, is frankly shocking.
McCain’s divorce from his first wife was disgraceful – had he not publicly expressed remorse for his actions I would think a great deal less of him for it. (And I’m not a big McCain fan already, for a variety of reasons; I just dislike Obama a whole lot more.) For the two most disgraceful things known about McCain – his divorce from his first wife, and his Keating involvement, McCain publicly repented. Obama has not – in fact, he continues to duck the issues and minimize, minimize, minimize. This is McCain taking responsibility for his actions, and I respect him for it:
As for this:
Yes I am, in fact, proud of ALL of America’s history. I can be proud even of the unsavory parts because we have overcome those things for the most part and we continue to progress. I think it is ridiculous in the extreme that we continue to flagellate ourselves for those things. Look at the history of other countries – people act as though slavery were a uniquely American institution instead of something that occurred regularly throughout all history and CONTINUES TO THIS DAY, unremarked by most people. My sympathy, prayers, and secular charitable donations are for the millions of people enslaved RIGHT NOW. I’d like to see half the energy we put into ending apartheid applied to the Chinese and Arabs, who are enslaving Africans right now.
So the left’s concern about “the next time” seems
a bitextremely hollow to me, given the fact that they spend so much time and energy trying to deconstruct America to atone for past sins, while roundly ignoring pertinent current events.