Obama doesn't hate America. No, really. Please believe me.

[HankB]

That's the gist of a column by "conservative" Michael Medved, printed in the Wall Street Journal, the Austin American Statesman, and elsewhere.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704364004576132631175113322.html

Medved refers to a prayer by John Adams regarding his hope for all future Presidents:

"I pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof." 

He goes on to say that even though previous Presidents fell short of Adams' ideal, none of them hated America, and that it's " . . . almost perfectly imbecilic . . ." as a political strategy to ascribe malice to Obama's actions, as more and more people (Medved mentions Rush Limbaugh) are doing.

I don't know . . . a while back in this forum I mentioned that it was getting difficult for me to view Obama's actions as simply disagreeable like those of Carter, Clinton, etc. , and that they were starting to look malicious. And now it seems that others are starting to see the same pattern emerge. (It's harder and harder to keep making excuses for Obama.)

It's interesting that this viewpoint is gaining enough traction that someone like Medved has decided he needs to dubunk the notion.

[MicroBalrog]

Why do we even care what Medved has to say about anything?

I happen to agree that Obama doesn't literally hate America, but Medved is such a steaming pile of fail, I wouldn't let him p*** on me if I was on fire.

[KD5NRH]

I happen to agree that Obama doesn't literally hate America, but Medved is such a steaming pile of fail, I wouldn't let him p*** on me if I was on fire.

Can we test that?

[griz]

What has he done that makes you believe he hates America?  I am not a fan of his, but I see him as misguided, not an enemy of the country.

[charby]

What has he done that makes you believe he hates America?  I am not a fan of his, but I see him as misguided, not an enemy of the country.

I agree I think he is a lot like LBJ in that he thinks he can make our country more of a utopia for everyone. This being done on the backs of the most financially productive people of course.

[MechAg94]

I can see him hating capitalism or the seeming dominance of some groups in this country, but I don't know.  I don't think he needs to hate the country in order to try to destroy our economy and set up a socialists/communist state.

[longeyes]

Medved has a lot of listeners, and on many topics he can be very illuminating.  Unfortunately, he also is a wobbly when it comes to recognizing not only the gravity of our current situation but, more specifically, who is behind it.

If we apply rules of circumstantial evidence to the Obama agenda, we can certainly draw the conclusion that Obama means ill to not only America but the West.  It is impossible, given his reputed intelligence and the "brilliance" of those that surround him, given the criticisms focused on what he's doing, that he does not realize the consequences of his actions; therefore, we must assume what he is doing is being done deliberately.

My personal view, from the beginning, is that Obama views himself as the champion of the Global Underclass, including minorities inside the U.S.  I have seen nothing in two years to make me modify my position.  Obama's agenda is predicated on payback and the means of payback is to transfer wealth and hollow out the once affluent middle and upper-middle class.  If one notes that most of those most afffected happen to be white, you will be excused if you find this other than coincidental.

[longeyes]

I don't think he needs to hate the country in order to try to destroy our economy and set up a socialists/communist state.

No, setting up a state where individual freedoms and rights are quashed will be done with a warm heart and a flashing smile, you're right.  No bad feelings there, just the milk of humankindness.  Uh-huh.

This man in the White House is ANGRY.  Let me repeat that.  ANGRY.

At us.  At the Founders of this nation.

[charby]

HA HA

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/02/15/obama_drops_s-bomb_at_presser_on_budget.html

[AJ Dual]

No, setting up a state where individual freedoms and rights are quashed will be done with a warm heart and a flashing smile, you're right.  No bad feelings there, just the milk of humankindness.  Uh-huh.

This man in the White House is ANGRY.  Let me repeat that.  ANGRY.

At us.  At the Founders of this nation.

It's never easy to be a fence-sitter, but I'll do my best to explain, and defend my position. It starts with something similar to Occam's Razor, "Never ascribe to malice, what you can to incompetence."

On the flip-side, I do believe that anti-western-civ thinking colors Obama's actions. He even lays much of it out in "Dreams of my Father".

And his formative years in Indonesia, as an "in-between", not one of the high-class American/British ex-pats in the oil industry due to his Indonesian step-father, but still seen as an "American" by the Indonesians themselves, due to his step-father's oil-job which made them part of the small "middle class" there... probably magnified those feelings greatly.

Fortunately, once back in America, being the token black with white family, who got carried along with the growing wave of affirmative action and political correctness from the 1970's through to Harvard... have made him a bit of a lazy dilettante, ultimately fit for nothing but being a "community organizer"... or a politician.

So while I do think Obama holds disdain for America and Western Civ, if he outright hated it, he'd be doing a better job of destroying it.

[SADShooter]

AJ, I agree with your point, except to point out you conflated Occam razor  with Hanlon's.

[TommyGunn]

I don't think Obama "hates" America, I think he wants to turn it into something he "loves," though.  AJ Dual brought up a good point concerning Obama's father and "Dreams of my Father" which I think explains the genesis of the problem.  This was expanded in a book by Dinesh D'Souza, The Roots of Obama's Rage.
His policies are going to hurt America, IMHO, and this will I believe be further evidenced as we progress in time.  
Franklin Delano Roosevelt used to sit in his office in the White House cursing the "industrialists" who he believed were conspiring against him, thus nullifying the beneficent affects of his economic policies, which without their interference would have had wondrous affects boosting the shredded economy of the Great Depression.  In this way FDR was deluded, and much like him, Obama is also deluded.  Obama has embibed his own Kool-Aid.  
Don't expect him to "see the light."  He is quite unable to do that.

[French G.]

I don't think that he wakes up everyday with a hand wringing Monty Burns hate for all the little people. Maybe Michelle, but I digress...

Maybe you could excuse Carter or Johnson as hick politicians who earned their bread on populist drivel. Not Obama, he is not a politician. He was installed as a state senator, stayed in the U.S. Senate long enough to start his campaign, now here he is. That's not a very normal career path, he was picked out early. He is a Constitutional Law scholar by his admission, in reality meaning a member of the great left body of thought that looks at those faded words and tries to figure out how to run through, over, under, or around them. He knows exactly what he is breaking. So yeah, he hates the America I see in my head.

[MechAg94]

One thing you have to remember is that Medved rarely if ever takes the extreme view on anything.  I would not expect him to do say Obama hates the US or anything similar. 

Medved also defended McCain as being basically conservative, and he is probably right at least on most issues, however, it depends on who is defining what a conservative is.  Not to mention that there are other reasons to not like McCain.

[Perd Hapley]

What has he done that makes you believe he hates America?  I am not a fan of his, but I see him as misguided, not an enemy of the country.

Hatred isn't motivation or emotion. It's action. Obama's actions (like those of any left-wing Democrat), demonstrate his hatred of America. If he doesn't want to be known as an America-hater, he should start showing us some love.

[longeyes]

Unpretty is as unpretty does.  Yes, Obama's living out his father's "dreams."  But Dad was a Marxist and an anti-colonialist who like another Obama got a degree at Harvard.  If Obama has to hack and pound and twist America into something he can love, we are just playing semantic games here, because Obama's beloved land will be something unrecognizable to the rest of us.

[Balog]

I agree it's a semantic game. Obama doesn't hate "America" as in the physical land. He hates free market capitalism, national sovreignity, "the rich" (which I think he defines as white people who've succeeded through hard work), white folks in general (Rev Wright anyone?), and of course Jews. As has been pointed out already, his father was vehemently Marxist and Obama is just following his dreams.

[seeker_two]

One thing you have to remember is that Medved rarely if ever takes the extreme view on anything.  I would not expect him to do say Obama hates the US or anything similar. 

Medved also defended McCain as being basically conservative, and he is probably right at least on most issues, however, it depends on who is defining what a conservative is.  Not to mention that there are other reasons to not like McCain.

Medved is as much a conservative as McCain, Schwarzenegger, and Bloomberg.....I have him set on my "automatically disregard" button on my radio....

[MicroBalrog]

The problem with Medved is that he's as fanatical about his moderate views as any radical. To him, people who are not as moderate as he is are enemies.

[griz]

Hatred isn't motivation or emotion. It's action. Obama's actions (like those of any left-wing Democrat), demonstrate his hatred of America. If he doesn't want to be known as an America-hater, he should start showing us some love.

No, the definition of hate is not an action.  You cannot redefine a word just to portray all your opponents as evil.

Definitions aside, I think you are missing the point of the article.  He is saying that it’s counterproductive to try and sell the undecided voters on the idea that one party is actively trying to destroy the country.   They might understand that those actions are a bad idea, but when you attribute their actions to hate, you come off sounding rabid instead of rational.

[roo_ster]

He is saying that it’s counterproductive to try and sell the undecided voters on the idea that one party is actively trying to destroy the country.

Medved obviously can't remember back to 2006 & 2008.

[French G.]

I agree it's a semantic game. Obama doesn't hate "America" as in the physical land. He hates free market capitalism, national sovreignity, "the rich" (which I think he defines as white people who've succeeded through hard work), white folks in general (Rev Wright anyone?), and of course Jews. As has been pointed out already, his father was vehemently Marxist and Obama is just following his dreams.

Obama and race. Hmmm, I don't think he sees things in the traditional racist view. He may hate rich white as the "establishment" But if his life is to indicate, he is pretty much rich white establishment . Best word I can think of is synchophant. He certainly surrounded himself with people we can suspect of racism like Wright, arguably his wife. He doesn't have the experience of growing up "black" and I think part of him wants to fit in with that crowd. He needs a mentor, yes, I think we have a guy with daddy issues holding nuke keys...

Anyway, my well educated wife, degreed up in American Studies fields, including everything you never knew about the history of race relations, gets a chuckle out of the "first black president" banner that hangs on him. Actually, a chortle. She argues, quite rightly I think, that "black" in America has little to do with melatonin and everything to do with collective experience. In that view the Nigerian immigrant who came here 3 years ago has little claim to the burden of being black, nor does Obama, who essentially grew up removed from the traditional racial tension that in the past defined black America.

I want to distinguish myself from the "not black enough" crowd that attacked Colin Powell and Condi Rice. Hmm, Rice grew up in Birmingham in the '60s, no strife there right? Powell too didn't exactly burst from privilege. Yet the racists attacked them because they did not play the whole "Look, I'm one of you!" game. The supported evil white men. Uncle Toms donchaknow. I don't give a flip if Obama is purple or Muslim, I just resent the fact that he can come into pretty much any circle(except bitter clingers) and say My People, I have arrived, I am you! The reality is that he is none of the above. I'd say he should be himself, but I feel he has a pretty conflicted sense of self.

[longeyes]

It's contagious: Dennis Prager just came on this morning echoing Medved's remarks.  Maybe the memo went out...

Both Prager and Medved are too clever by half sometimes.

[MechAg94]

The problem with Medved is that he's as fanatical about his moderate views as any radical. To him, people who are not as moderate as he is are enemies.

yeah, but Medved would never call them anything so extreme as "enemies".   

[MechAg94]

No, the definition of hate is not an action.  You cannot redefine a word just to portray all your opponents as evil.

Definitions aside, I think you are missing the point of the article.  He is saying that it’s counterproductive to try and sell the undecided voters on the idea that one party is actively trying to destroy the country.   They might understand that those actions are a bad idea, but when you attribute their actions to hate, you come off sounding rabid instead of rational.

This is probably closest to what I have heard Medved say.  He is looking more toward getting Obama out of office and getting a Republican in.  It is less about what he or you personally think so much as what is the best rhetoric to use to motivate independents and undecided voters to vote for "our" guy.