President Obama said during his State of the Union speech last night, that democracy “doesn’t work if we think that our political opponents are unpatriotic.”
Over commerce and foreign relations. Over the meeting — meaning of liberty, and the imperatives of security. But Democracy does require basic bonds of trust between its citizens. [Applause] It doesn’t work — if we think the people who disagree with us are all motivated by malice. It doesn’t work if we think that our political opponents are unpatriotic. Or trying to weaken America. Democracy grinds to a halt without a willingness to compromise. Or when even basic facts are contested, or when we listen only to those who agree with us, our public life withers when only the most extreme voices get the attention.
However, as a presidential candidate in 2008, Barack Obama ripped former President Bush for adding $4 trillion to the deficit, saying it was “irresponsible” and “unpatriotic.”
“The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars for the first 42 presidents — number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.”
It was a comment that less than one year ago, the White House refused to back off of.
FOX NEWS REPORTER ED HENRY: He said that the president, I’m paraphrasing this part, had added about $4 trillion to the debt and then he said, quote, “that’s irresponsible, that’s unpatriotic.” I see a difference from Giuliani because he’s talking about an issue. But nonetheless, questioning the patriotism of the president of the United States.
WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY JOSH EARNEST: I think that what the president was doing was he was questioning the specific wisdom of that decision and questioning whether or not that was in the best interest of the country.
HENRY: He didn’t say it was unwise, he said that’s unpatriotic.
EARNEST: Right, but again, he was talking about that, he wasn’t talking about a person.
Except he did. The quote is: “The way Bush has done it over the last eight years … it’s unpatriotic.”
Watch the exchange in which the White House refuses to apologize for calling Bush unpatriotic below:
Now go back and watch the first clip of Obama saying that referring to political opponents as “unpatriotic” is not what democracy is about.
Comment: Is Obama a hypocrite for saying people shouldn’t be portraying him as unpatriotic? Is President Obama unpatriotic? Tell us your opinion below.
