True Patriotism

Careful readers will remember that when Senator Obama was asked why he didn't wear a flag pin (BTW, does he or doesn't he?) he talked about how true patriotism didn't involve anything prosaic as sporting the nation's colors on his lapel. Real patriotism, he said, was "speaking out on issues."

So, I guess doing the job you are being paid to do as a Senator from Illinois is not real patriotism. Neither is weighing in on a trillion dollar bailout of the financial system. These, I'm afraid, are mere "distractions" (Senator Obama LOVES that word and applies it quite discriminately: it means any idea or argument he finds inconvenient) from the real patriotism of "speaking out on the issues" through campaign appearances and 30-second attack ads.

Has anyone broken the news to Senator Obama that the presidency and public responsibilities involves something other than writing memoirs? And, that if you want to write memoirs that other people want to read, you have to do interesting and important things like doing some of the hard intellectual and leadership work involved in teasing out whether we are on the precipice of a new Great Depression and if so what can we do to prevent it?

I've got just the title for him, "Dreams From My Candidate".