Is it correct to doubt Barack Obama's patriotism, as Joe the Plumber did?

Ali Frick from ThinkProgress - whose parent fund is linked to the Obama campaign - breathlessly informs us that "Joe the Plumber" apparently just said something we're supposed to be shocked about (link):

McCain has fought and bled for our country, and loves our country. There's too many questions with Barack Obama and his loyalty to our country. And I question that greatly... ...his ideology is something that is completely different than what democracy stands for, so I had some question there. In my opinion...

He really shouldn't have said that, and he might find his campaign appearances curtailed as a result.

However, moving away from the political correctness, it's not that difficult to question the patriotism of many of our leaders due to the fact that, while they go through the proper motions, many of them also appear to be "trading for their own account" and/or basically supporting a globalist agenda rather than a completely U.S.-friendly agenda.

For an example, see George Bush making a pledge to the Mexican government to change the U.S. laws in a way that most Americans don't support. I called him a quisling at that time, and I still would call him that and I'd do it on the TV should I ever be elevated to JTP status. In that case, Bush clearly wasn't putting the U.S. first; he was putting the corrupt elites of the U.S. and Mexico first, but not the U.S. as a whole.

And, to a certain extent a similar argument could be made against John McCain as well over the same issue. Now, of course, the arguments above concern a different field than JTP was discussing, but also of course he can't discuss that for fear of McCain being implicated in the same charge.

In Obama's case, the only problem is that he hasn't yet reached the point where, like Bush, he can fully manifest his own issues with loyalty to the U.S.; he only visited Mexico in college and has yet to make a trip there to try to sell us out.

However, we do have a few data points already. For instance, Obama supports the anti-American DREAM Act, something that would take college educations away from U.S. citizens in order to give them to citizens of foreign countries who are here illegally.

And, not too long ago, Obama was regurgitating reconquista/MEChA talking points.

What JTP said was definitely rough around the edges, but for those who've been following along he's correct in general.

Note also that the ever-classy Josh Marshall offers "Joe the Skinhead" (talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/242050.php), a post that contains no evidence that JTP is a skinhead but simply smears him as such.

Politics · Sun, 11/02/2008 - 16:53 · · Importance: 1