In how many languages can Senator Obama insult America?

More words of wisdom from Anointed one, this time on the topic of languages:

You know, I don't understand when people are going around worrying about, "We need to have English- only." They want to pass a law, "We want English-only."

Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English -- they'll learn English -- you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language.

You know, it's embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say [is], "Merci beaucoup." Right?

You know, no, I'm serious about this. We should understand that our young people, if you have a foreign language, that is a powerful tool to get ajob. You are so much more employable. You can be part of international business. So we should be emphasizing foreign languages in our schools from an early age, because children will actually learn a foreign language easier when they're 5, or 6, or 7 than when they're 46, like me.

There's any amount of mockery that could be heaped on that statement - Americans aren't as mono-lingual as his stereotype implies, international business is done in English, the focus of the "English-only" movement is to emphasize the importance of integration, etc. - but that just seems like a waste of time. I'm still on the whole "questioning their patriotism" thing.

So, before he won the nomination, America never provided care for the sick. It never provided good jobs for the jobless. His wife has never been proud of her country in her adult lifetime, until he started winning primaries. He decided not to wear a flag pin, choosing instead to define patriotism as "tell[ing] ... people what ... will make this country great." He wants to remake the country. And it's "embarassing" that Europeans speak English while Americans don't speak French, German, Dutch, Italian, Polish, Czech, Russian, Spanish and Greek, etc. He spent 20 years as a member, and brought his children to be taught, in a church defined by a senior pastor who thinks that saying "God damn America" is more appropriate than "God bless America." He wants to force high school and college students to "voluntarily" perform community service.

But we can't question his patriotism.

A commenter at Tom Maguire's has the best reaction:
"Somebody ought to ask BHO if there's anything about the U.S. that he likes."

If someone can legitimately ask that question (and frankly, how can you legitimately ask anything else?), then putting aside all questions of competence and experience, is this really a legitimate candidate for the Presidency of the United States?

Could John Edwards be right about something?

Maybe there are really two Americas, but I don't agree with the way that he defines them. I've located some notes from an America that's very different than mine...

The Democrats in Seattle's 43rd district meet:

There was some time to kill as multiple tallies of the delegates and alternates were done, and when the time-killer of taking audience questions had run its course and the idea of teling jokes had been nixed, someone suggested doing the Pledge of Allegiance to pass the time...At the mere mention of doing the pledge there were groans and boos. Then, when the district chair put the idea of doing the Pledge of Allegiance up to a vote, it was overwhelmingly voted down. One might more accurately say the idea of pledging allegiance to the flag (of which there was only one in the room, by the way, on some delegate’s hat) was shouted down.

But don't even think of questioning their Patriotism!

A different Michelle, a different attitude

A different Michelle:

Like Michelle Obama, I am a “woman of color.” Like Michelle Obama, I am a working mother of two young children. Like Michelle Obama, I am a member of the 13th generation of Americans born since the founding of our great nation.

Unlike Michelle Obama, I can’t keep track of the number of times I’ve been proud — really proud — of my country since I was born and privileged to live in it.

...

I’m just seven years younger than Mrs. Obama. We’ve grown up and lived in the same era. And yet, her self-absorbed attitude is completely foreign to me. What planet is she living on? Since when was now the only time the American people have ever been “hungry for change”? Michelle, ma belle, Barack is not the center of the universe. Newsflash: The Obamas did not invent “change” any more than Hillary invented “leadership” or John McCain invented “straight talk.”

We were both adults when the Berlin Wall fell, Michelle. That was earth-shattering change.

- Michelle Malkin

A must read...

Proud to be an American

There's buzzing about the comments in Wisconsin from the wife of Presidential Candidate Barack Obama on the fact that, apparently, the only thing that's ever made her proud of America is people "hoping" for Barack to win the Presidency.

What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I've seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues, and it's made me proud.

It is, of course, both easy and obvious to, as John Podhoretz has done, list some of the things that have happened in Michelle Obama's "adult lifetime," and question the fact that none of them gave her any pride.

Forget matters like the victory in the Cold War; how about only things that have made liberals proud — all the accomplishments of inclusion? How about the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1991? Or Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s elevation to the Supreme Court? Or Carol Moseley Braun’s election to the Senate in 1998? How about the merely humanitarian, like this country’s startling generosity to the victims of the tsunami? I’m sure commenters can think of hundreds more landmarks of this sort. Didn’t she even get a twinge from, say, the Olympics?

Many others have done that, too. And it's all correct.

It's interesting to ask, however, what the source of the current "pride" is. Obviously, one would expect that she's proud of her husband. But that isn't what she said. She said that she's proud of her country, and that it's the first time. I assume, frankly, that it is campaign trail hyperbole. But what possible kind of mindset could produce that particular hyperbole? According to Podhoretz,

it suggests the Obama campaign really does have its roots in New Class leftism, according to which patriotism is not only the last refuge of a scoundrel, but the first refuge as well — that America is not fundamentally good but flawed, but rather fundamentally flawed and only occasionally good.

Jeanne Kirkpatrick, in addressing the Republican National Convention in 1984, said of the Democrats (who had recently held their own National Convention in San Francisco) that "they always blame America first."

That's who Michelle Obama is, and that's where that attitude comes from.

It's apparently who her husband is, too. This is a minor thing, but he is currently refusing to wear the American flag pin. Not just not wearing one - actively not wearing one. "I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest. Instead, I'm going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great. Hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism." So for Barack, telling people what "will make this country great" is patriotism.

Memo to Senator Obama: This country is great already. It doesn't need you to make it so. It was great before you were born, it will (hopefully) be great after you are gone. It will be great in January of 2009 whether you are elected in November or not. The American people already have greatness - they don't need you telling them how to do it.

W.S. Gilbert had the Obama's number over a century ago, when the Lord High Executioner's "little list" included "the idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone, every century but this and every country but his own." Every human institution, by virtue of being a human institution, is flawed. The United States is not perfect, and I'm not aware of anyone that would argue that it is. But it would be tough to make a reasonable case that it is not the greatest country on the face of the earth, a country of which its citizens should be proud. It is indicative of an unpleasant mindset that that appears not to be the case for either of the Obamas.