journey obama

Sen. Barack Obama journeyed to Middle America on Monday to lay out his vision of patriotism, conceding that he has learned in this presidential campaign that "the question of who is -- or is not -- a patriot all too often poisons our political debate."

"Throughout my life, I have always taken my deep and abiding love for this country as a given," Obama said in the 29-minute address to about 1,150 people crowded into a gymnasium at the Truman Memorial Building, named for former president Harry S. Truman. "It was how I was raised. It was what propelled me into public service. It is why I am running for president. And yet at times over the last 16 months, my patriotism has been challenged -- at times as a result of my own carelessness, more often as a result of the desire by some to score political points and raise fears about who I am and what I stand for."

... Obama has built his candidacy on the promise of change in a year in which a vast majority of Americans think the nation is on the wrong track. But he has repeatedly been forced to address false rumors that he will not recite the Pledge of Allegiance, place his hand over his heart during the national anthem or wear an American-flag pin on his lapel.

... Obama tried to take the offensive on Monday, saying that he "will not stand idly by" while his patriotism is questioned.

Former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), a key Obama adviser, said by e-mail: "At times in the past, Democrats have given the impression that they would rather not have the debate. Barack would prefer to engage in the debate. I am pleased that he is."


Mr. Obama arrived here in Independence, the home of President Harry S. Truman, to open a weeklong patriotism tour. He sought to explain and defend his American ideals to ward off skepticism and silence persistent rumors about his loyalties to the nation.

“I will never question the patriotism of others in this campaign,” Mr. Obama said, speaking over the applause of hundreds of supporters. “And I will not stand idly by when I hear others question mine.”

... Mr. Obama sought to place his criticism into a broader context of American history, pointing out that Thomas Jefferson was accused by the Federalists of “selling out to the French,” and John Adams was derided for being “in cahoots with the British.”

“The use of patriotism as a political sword or a political shield is as old as the Republic,” Mr. Obama said.


[Barack] said that today's debate over patriotism is rooted in simplistic caricatures from the 1960s culture wars, and he defined patriotism instead as "loyalty to America's ideals."

... Turning back from the daily sniping, Obama concentrated most of his address on an appeal for Americans to come together for the good of the country behind the nation's ideals, with a readiness to sacrifice and serve.

"In the end," Obama said, what "best describes patriotism in my mind" is love for and faith in the American people, because all that America is results from "the energy and imagination of the American people; their toil, drive, struggle, restlessness, humor and quiet heroism."

"That is the liberty we defend … that is the equality we seek … that is the community we strive to build."
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says Harry Truman, the common sense everyman from Missouri, was one of his favorite presidents. On Monday, he took a few minutes on the campaign trail to soak up some Truman history.

After Obama delivered a speech on the meaning of patriotism at an auditorium in the Truman presidential library complex in Independence, Missouri, he strolled over to Truman’s old house a few blocks away.

He stopped to visit well-wishers along the way, shaking hands and joking with supporters, who poured out of neighboring houses to say hello and stopped on the street to cheer him.

... Once he reached the Truman house, where the 33rd president lived from 1919 until his death in 1972 (except for the years when it served as the summer “White House”) he received a tour from Norton Canfield, a gray-haired, bearded park ranger with a braided ponytail.

When he saw a portrait of Truman’s daughter, Margaret, he sympathized with the president’s threat to punch a newspaper critic who had panned her singing.

“I would have done the same thing if someone had said something mean about my daughter,” Obama said.

... When Canfield showed Obama a hat and coat belonging to Truman hanging beyond the foyer, the Illinois senator sounded positively nostalgic for the days when he could wander the streets without a tailing crew of media and security.

“The thing that I envy most about Truman was that when he was in the White House, he could go out and take a walk. He could put on that fedora and take a stroll, without someone following him,” he said — as the milling crowd outside waited to swarm him when he left the house.