By Laurie Baron
SAN DIEGO─Pop Quiz: Who authored the following? “We … declare that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States.” A.Thomas Jefferson B. A radical anti-colonialist C. Barack Obama D. A and B. Answer: D.
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Clarifying his assertion that he is his own man and not his brother or father, Jeb Bush reiterated, “I’m a Bush not a hedge.”
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In the face of Rudy Giuliani’s charge that President Obama criticizes the United States too much and rarely affirms its exceptionalism like past presidents, foreign leaders have remarked that Obama is unlike most American presidents who were exceptional in arrogantly proclaiming that the United States is exceptional.
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Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has proposed massive cuts in the budget of his state’s university system. While some journalists claim that he is merely proving his fiscal conservatism, others surmise that he is burnishing his anti-union credentials. After all, he never finished college and feels that a Bachelor Degree, like union membership, should not improve a person’s chances for getting a job.
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Baron is professor emeritus of history at San Diego State University. He may be contacted via lawrence.baron@sdjewishworld.com . San Diego Jewish World points out to new readers that this column is satire, and nothing herein should be taken literally.
…”President Obama criticizes the United States too much”
The difference between previous presidents apparent arrogant comments is that they were making an effort to focus on the positive, not the negative. America, despite its problems, has much to offer and many good aspects.
President Obama, on the other hand, does not like America. He has spent his pre-presidential years being anti-America, and his presidential years being even more anti-America.
Above all, he has lied to the people of America more than any former president. Far too many lies to even go into here.
I, like so many other Americans, had high hopes that Obama, with the support of a liberal Congress, would help unite Americans, and would help end corruption in government. Alas, it has been worse instead of better. During the time that republicans did not control Congress, much good *could* have been accomplished. But instead, it was business as usual, turned up a few notches.
Re: Above all, he (Obama) has lied to the people of America more than any former president.
“President John F. Kennedy declared in 1961 that “I have previously stated, and
I repeat now, that the United States plans no military intervention in Cuba.”
Ronald Reagan told Americans in 1986, “We did not, I repeat, did not trade weapons or anything else [to Iran] for hostages, nor will we,”
Bill CLinton: But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I’m going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never.
George W. Bush: The Iraqi regime has violated all of those obligations. It possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons…. Surveillance photos reveal that the regime is rebuilding facilities that it had used to produce chemical and biological weapons. Every chemical and biological weapon that Iraq has or makes is a direct violation of the truce that ended the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Yet, Saddam Hussein has chosen to build and keep these weapons despite international sanctions, U.N. demands, and isolation from the civilized world…. Iraq could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists. Alliance with terrorists could allow the Iraqi regime to attack America without leaving any fingerprints.”
Regarding criticism in wrongs committed in the past and present, I like Al Franken’s quote: There’s an appeal to the American sense of exceptionalism, that we’re morally superior, as way to not be self-critical. I think that’s a bit dangerous.