2008 Woodie Awards
Presidential Patriotism: Candidates contend with public opinion, each other
Julie Pace
Issue date: 8/26/08 Section: Campus News
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Critics have questioned Obama's patriotism for months, whispering about why he didn't wear a flag pin on his lapel and contending he didn't put his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance. Republican rival John McCain has asserted that Obama has placed his political self-interest ahead of his country's.
"Behind all of these claims and positions by Sen. Obama lies the ambition to be president," McCain said this week during a speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention.
From Abraham Lincoln to George W. Bush, the Republican Party long has put a premium on patriotism. But it's a quality that is often ill-defined. There's the patriotism of military service and national security, and the patriotism of believing the U.S. can live up to its ideals and be a better place.
"The Republicans have taken that first type of patriotism, that muscular, military, 'rockets' red glare' type of patriotism, and driven that as a wedge against people they see - Democrats, liberals - as weak on national security issues," said Leonard Steinhorn, a professor of politics and media at American University in Washington.
Michael Dukakis' 1988 presidential campaign often serves as a cautionary tale for Democrats. Republican George H.W. Bush turned the Pledge of Allegiance into a campaign issue, criticizing Dukakis for vetoing a bill, as Massachusetts governor, that would have required teachers to lead public school students in the pledge at the start of the school day. Dukakis said he supported the pledge but vetoed the bill because a state Supreme Court opinion said it was unconstitutional.
Another strategy has been to paint anti-war candidates as unpatriotic. Even decorated military veterans have fallen prey.
During the bitter 2002 Senate race in Georgia, Republicans questioned the patriotism of Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, a Vietnam veteran who lost both legs and an arm in the war. The GOP ran ads with pictures of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein that blamed Cleland for hampering President Bush's plans for a Homeland Security Department. Cleland lost the election.
Still fresh in the minds of many Democrats is John Kerry's defeat in the 2004 presidential election. Like Cleland, Kerry served in Vietnam with distinction. He was attacked by the Republican-funded group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The group ran ads questioning Kerry's war record and criticizing his anti-war activities.
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