Patriotism or Political Expediency

Absent right-wing public attacks on Senator Obama's patriotism, doesn't it seem a tad peculiar, indeed suspicious, that a serious presidential candidate has felt the burning need to convince Americans of his patriotism? Historically, it is simply unprecendented.

In part, perhaps the following may explain the Senator's motivation in this regard: his close association during his prep school years in Hawaii (1975 - 1979) with mentor and father-figure, Frank Marshall Davis, a member of the Communist Party USA whose first name Sen. Obama very warmly mentioned in his book, Dreams from My Father; his nearly 20-year close association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a now well-known racist and adherent to a virulent Marxist Black Liberation Theology whom the Senator only recently--and reluctantly--disavowed; his long association with unrepentant domestic terrorists, William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, neither of whom he has, so far, renounced; and the political endorsements he has received from the Communist Party USA, the Democratic Socialists of America, Move-On.org and Hamas, a terrorist organization.

Given this extraordinarily unique background for a presidential candidate, is it really so difficult to understand why the Senator so zealously and noisily proclaims his patriotism? (Indeed, is it any wonder why his handlers clearly prefer the carefully scripted teleprompter performances over the impromptu townhall medium?)

In our headlong rush to replace an unpopular Republican president with a Democrat--any Democrat--we may be getting a lot more than we ever bargained for.

Clear-eyed Americans not yet spellbound or consumed by Sen. Obama's messianic socialist rhetoric, "hope-and-change" flimflam, ever-changing positions and shameless pandering should continue to be thoroughly circumspect. And, yes, alarmed. Very alarmed.

("Doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a favorite device of persons with something to sell." H.L. Menchen)

("Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." Samuel Johnson)