Comments on: Thoughts on Barack Obama’s ‘A More Perfect Union’

by: Hawise

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:23:01 +0000

I think the eight flags behind him covered the patriotic message but the comments are towards the perception that R.E. Silvera had that Obama was implying that his personal story was only possible in America and that there was some resentment towards the insularity of that reasoning.

by: Original Lee

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:50:22 +0000

Oh, and BTW, I lived in Germany for a while when Reagan was President. I caught a lot of grief for the U.S. doing something so amazingly blockheaded as electing an actor, of all people, to one of the most powerful positions in the world. Many Germans I knew were extremely worried about what Reagan would do, because they felt his lack of education would lead him into making what they called cowboy decisions. (They had difficulty explaining to me what they meant by this, but I believe they meant that diplomacy should be subtle.)

So maybe our foreign partners should contrast and compare Obama’s fairly mildly patriotic statements with Reagan’s rhetoric if they’re getting worried.

by: Original Lee

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:40:43 +0000

Hawise: I was taking the “only in America” comment with relation to becoming POTUS, which I thought was a very lawyerly way of saying something completely true while saying something that sounds very patriotic. If Obama had not been born in the U.S., he would not be able to become POTUS. And he needed to say something patriotic-sounding in that speech because of all of the flack he’s been getting about not being patriotic enough.

by: Hawise, Dame of Deep Fried

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:09:09 +0000

history mom- I was mostly responding to louise’s problem with the ‘kvetching’ that started with a comment by an international reader/commenter. In the era of global communications the insularity of national politics can be misinterpreted especially in an election cycle that is bound to have a major impact outside American borders. The candidates are already talking about changing international treaties, making changes to an international war and that is going to make international observers nervous about how they view such things as race relations, religious diversity and international commerce. This is a national election for the candidates but it will have a major impact on American policies for the near future and that makes the rest of the world concerned about details that Americans may not perceive as important.

by: history_mom

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 02:01:00 +0000

Hawise: On the one hand, I get where you and others are coming from re: “only in America” but I also think you are reading way too much into the comment. It is a national election for the highest office in our country– candidates are going to say things that are meant solely for American ears and to evoke their national pride in order to make them feel good about electing that particular candidate. He was not speaking to the rest of the world about how his administration will interact with other nations. I see no reason to take this comment as indicative of his attitude about the rest of the world.

I do think that that HIS story and HIS success could only happen for HIM in America and he hopes others will feel that same hope in their own lives. It’s a lame comment (IMHO) but I don’t think it is nearly as exclusionary as y’all seem to think. Of course, given the American tendency to promote the exceptionalism myth as truth, I can understand why it would come off poorly.

by: Hawise, Dame of Deep Fried

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:53:40 +0000

I don’t think any country is the best in the world and the shining city on the hill has been showing a lot of potholes recently. I have heard back and forth that remains good natured but I have also heard some serious resentment from international visitors especially from South America and North Africa. I think that there are other ways to express national pride in such an important speech and especially when we know that the world is keeping a tight eye on this election.

by: cpp

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:25:41 +0000

louise- if the next POTUS is to fix America’s reputation in the world than the ‘only in America’ remark and the reaction outside the borders is important.

But bear in mind that John Kerry advertised his attractiveness to world audiences and it played out as “John Kerry wants to be the POTUS that French people like rather than the POTUS that American people want.” And Obama has already acknowledged on several occasions that he intends to work hard on restoring America’s relationships with other nations.

I think Obama nailed it even with the nationalistic language, because he deliberately used it to evoke what our grade schools had been saying to all of us in our youth (America is special and is (well, was) seen as a beacon of hope around the world) and link the pride Americans *want* to feel about their country with the need to address our racial differences head on.

by: louise

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:28:38 +0000

Hogwash.

by: Kristen

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:11:41 +0000

if the next POTUS is to fix America’s reputation in the world than the ‘only in America’ remark and the reaction outside the borders is important.

Come on…you mean you don’t think your country is the best in the world? It’s like USC fans saying they have the best football team or a state citizen saying they have the best people. My Canadian co-workers are always talking about how much better Canada is than the US. I’m always talking about how much more awesome Hawaii is than Maryland. My husband constantly refers to how much better the Red Sox are compared to every other team in the history of teams. It is not a serious intellectual discussion…its a rah, rah moment where you acknowledge your national pride. Sure the good ol’ U.S.A. has serious problems and fails at a whole lot of things - but does that mean you can’t think positively about it over all?

by: Hawise, Dame of Deep Fried

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:50:00 +0000

louise- if the next POTUS is to fix America’s reputation in the world than the ‘only in America’ remark and the reaction outside the borders is important. America is not alone in its rotten race relations, just a different historic path. The sense that Americans just don’t get it is a large part of why it will be an uphill struggle to fix its international standing.