Associated Press
Obama yesterday in Grand Junction, Colorado.
It's no longer an everyday smear, but for years, Republicans have attacked President Obama for his insufficient celebration of American exceptionalism. As the argument goes, the president isn't just lacking patriotism, he rejects national greatness altogether.
As Mitt Romney claims, Obama thinks "America's just another nation with a flag."
It's always been an ugly, baseless smear -- Obama has emphasized his support for the principles of "American exceptionalism" explicitly, a fact more than a few observers acknowledged, even on the right -- but it's interesting to see the president work this into his stump speech.
"Now, understand, there are no quick fixes or easy solutions to some of these challenges. But here's the thing that I constantly am reminded of wherever I travel across the country: We have the capacity to meet any challenge, because we've still got the best workers in the world. We've got the best entrepreneurs in the world. We've got the best scientists and researchers in the world, and the best colleges and the best universities in the world. We're still a young nation, and we've got the greatest diversity of talent and ingenuity and people who want to come here from every corner of the globe.
"And so no matter what the naysayers tell us, no matter how dark the other side tries to make things look, the fact is there is not another country on Earth that would not gladly trade places with the United States of America."
Politico called the rhetoric "hyperbolic" -- there are countries that would resist trading places with us -- but it's far more interesting to me that the rhetoric is being made in the first place.
Obviously, there need not be a connection between GOP attacks and reality, but it's a little trickier for Republicans to say Obama doesn't even like the country when the president is on the stump emphasizing American greatness.
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why do you need to talk about exceptionalism, when you are the first Black President of the United States?
exceptionalism proven
We clearly don't have the best workers in the world but we DO have the best educational system despite the latest headlines about some third world nation scoring higher than us in some worldwide testing that keeps appearing each year.
Yeah - Don't let the facts get in the way of your meme.
S/He hasn't yet...
Because test scores don't mean anything...right banned? All the students in all those countries that beat us just filled in the third oval for every answer and got lucky.
You're almost as persistent in your need to pee on fire hydrants as Pooper242 is. Are you taking lessons from him?
Yes American parents particularly the rich ones who have a choice are knocking down doors to get their kids into schools outside the US meanwhile our schools are practically empty of the foreign born.
Glad we cleared that up.
bb,
Wrong again. But you usually are.
you mean they're not coming here to go school or we're going there?
Truly amazing after watching the Mars mission accomplished by Americans and by those who came here to go to school and stayed here to work, that we still have to hear the ridiculous idea that we're somehow behind other nations.
US students behind in math/science:
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-08-25/us/students.science.math_1_math-and-science-fourth-and-eighth-graders-math-scores?_s=PM:US
This is middle school and high school. Which means trouble for American student's ability to get into Universities in those subject areas.
Now, oh over inflated ego of a troll:
At the COLLEGE level:
Majors in science, math, chemistry have a larger percentage of foreign students than American students.
Those foreign students are also taking those jobs in science and technology, etc. that American students should be getting.
And those foreign students are not the best and brightest in their home countries, either: so in other words: the smartest students get into their universities in their home countries, while the less than brightest are still smarter than the American student.
But that doesn't figure into your troll logic.
Guess what, if they go to school here and stay here, you know what we call them? Americans just like your ancestors and my ancestors. You know what their kids will be called? Americans as well. If the only measure of US student aptitude was the native born, our technological achievements as a society would rival Spain, and we would only measure success by what the WASPS were doing in school.
"so in other words: the smartest students get into their universities in their home countries, while the less than brightest are still smarter than the American student."
Maybe you should ask the Chinese then why US companies have to fork over their techonology as the cost of building factories there.
http://www.npr.org/2010/11/22/131520776/china-s-technology-transfer-draws-ire
At least this time Donna you brought some game.
Exactly what do you achieve by calling me names other than making yourself look very limited?
Moving the goal posts a bit further, aren't we?
Answer: because they don't. They tend to leave this country and go back to their homeland. And your lame answer still doesn't address the fact that American students are the ones falling behind the rest of the world.
Your ignorance is showing here, bb:
Answer: while foreign students are at a University, their work is awarded patents on the technologies that they create, and other countries, like China will have to pay for if they want to use it. Which yet again, does not address the fact that American students are falling behind the rest of the world.
And: too bad you don't have any game. But since you mentioned it, you can shove that last comment up your ass.
"American Exceptionalism" used to mean that we, the United States of America, had a special mission to spread freedom and democracy around the world.
Now, apparently, it means we should be able to bomb any country that looks at us sideway, torture anyone we want, and be "except-ed" from the Geneva conventions and any other agreements that would divert us from our greedy selfish crybaby world view.
As usual, we are debating an issue based on different definitions and context. In this case, it's giving a different definition to a term previously defined and so used, "American Exceptionalism". At best, matters are confused. But if we can't agree on language, then no communication is taking place on all these shows without arguing definitions and meanings first. And this is just a small yet significant piece of it all.
Both the "special mission" and the "gunboat diplomacy" aspects are really just facets of the same thing: what Kipling referred to as "the white man's burden."
Oh, wait ...
Go Amerika...
Go Rafalka... We're number 28!
It might be tricky to complain about this, but I am confident the Repubs will find a way. They are exceptional in that way!
Why is it that people can't be proud of their country and its accomplishments without crossing over in to a superiority complex? And you wonder why the world hates us, part of it is that "superiority complex."
To be fair, the whole world doesn't hate you and certainly not all the time.
As a foreigner who until very recently lived in the US for 6 years, my theory is that Americans (at least the conservatives I knew) don't suffer from a "superiority complex" but in fact, an inferiority complex. It explains a lot to my way of thinking. Like the fact that it isn't sufficient for one to love America, they must love EVERY SINGLE thing about it, NO exceptions. No room for doubt, no room for wishing she could do better, no room for admiration for other countries, other cultures, other ways of seeing the world. It's WORSHIP America obsessively or get the heck out.
That's one reason, I think, why conservatives hate liberals so much. Most liberals are more complex thinkers, can see the rationale in doing something different ... or at least talking about maybe thinking about doing something different. This freaks out conservatives who only understand that one must WORSHIP America or get out. They simply can't allow themselves to question any single thing or it creates massive cognitive dissonance.
That's my outsiders theory anyway.
WHY DO YOU HATE THE FLAG? LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT! USA! USA! USA!...etc.
There. This thread has been pre-emptively trolled.
@80sGirl--you're right, up to a point. Criticism is only allowed from inside the club. So if you're a card-carrying conservative, you can have arguments about which candidate is the most conservative, etc.
But if you don't belong to the NRA, or don't drive an American car (let alone being a Librul or a G.D. Furriner, fer Chrissake!) then your comments are not welcome in their circle.
Well put 80sgirl. Out of curiosity what country are you from? Also are conservatives in your home country as nationalistic as they are here?
Mike, you're right about that, my Democratic friends and I would discuss in-depth the problems the US faces but we always kept quiet when our GOP-friendly friends were around.
Maria, I am Canadian now back in the motherland, eh? :-) Our conservatives would be considered radical leftists by the new GOP/Tea Party standards. We Canadian liberals have our issues and complaints about our Prime Minister (a conservative from oil-rich Alberta) but it's not nearly as scary nor as interesting as US politics. Though, isn't the ancient curse "may you live in interesting times"?
An interesting story to illustrate my point (the names may have been changed to protect the goofy). A friend of ours (an ex-US Navy guy) told me once during a discussion of the concept of American Exceptionalism, that all other Navy's in the world "dip their colours" to US ships out of respect and deference to America greatness. It never occurred to him until my husband (Canadian Navy) pointed out that the "rules of the road" require that the ship with the higher ranking Captain be saluted in this way. As our friend was usually on aircraft carriers, always commanded by an Admiral, the other ships, usually smaller, were not saluting the US ship in recognition of US superiority but because their Commander was of lesser rank. He assured our friend that if he'd been on a US frigate and had come across a UK aircraft carrier, the US ship would have saluted the UK ship. His response: "oh". We laughed quite a bit about that one!
As Roesann Roseannadanna so succinctly put it, "Oh, Never mind!"
pauly
That would have been Emily Litella not Roseann Roseannadanna. But both were characters created by the late great Gilda Radner on SNL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3FnpaWQJO0
Oh, for f#@&'s sake. Politico, you are hereby cordially invited to STFU. You can Google "politico american exceptionalism" and yes, the first hit is the aforementioned article wherein Donovan Black displays the kind of self-awareness normally reserved for pet rocks. Because the next 8 hits are all articles from Politico hammering the rightwing meme that Obama doesn't believe in American exceptionalism. But when it turns out he does, it's just hyperbole.
Seriously, Politico, long walk off a short pier. Take it.
We're not that exeptional,there are many nation's that fix election's and have bought and paid for government's.
But thanks to Citizens United, we'll soon be doing it better than any other country in the world! USA! USA!
/sarcasm off/
Nobody's politicians cost as much as ours do, though. Which proves that they're the best.
Just like our healthcare!
Well, of COURSE we are Number One!
-Unless Obama says it, then, who the H does he think he is????????????
Yeah, that Obama - what a snob!
I eagerly await Politifact labeling Obama's comments about American exceptionalism "pants on fire," to be followed by Romney accusing the President of being a liar with cover from Politifact, despite the fact that what they're accusing the President of lying about is labeling America the greatest country in the world with the greatest entrepreneurs, scientists and universities...
Sure laugh now, cringe later, when it happens.
Someone should ask Romney why he and none of his children have served in the military. That should put an end to Romney's challenging Obama's patriotism and flag waving as an election topic.
I wholeheartedly endorse American Exceptionalism. The best American TEAM in this year's Olympics just won gold. Congradulations to the U.S.A. Women's Soccer TEAM!!!
I totally agree! Watching the U.S. Women's soccer team was more exciting than any of the other events for me. GREAT matches!
The president is one of our very best examples of American exceptionalism. If you don't understand that, then you don't understand what "American exceptionalism" is.