Obama Fiercely Defends His Patriotism

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Obama Tries to Answer Questions of Patriotism

Barack Obama is on a weeklong patriotism tour, trying to reassure voters about his commitment to the country. Obama says his own patriotism has been questioned for the first time during this campaign.

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But he was quick to say the '60s-era protesters did their part to bring on those charges "by burning flags, by blaming America for all that was wrong with the world, and perhaps most tragically, by failing to honor those veterans coming home from Vietnam, something that remains a national shame to this day."

And he tried to put the issue of patriotism into his own, unusual biography, which took him as a child from Hawaii to Indonesia, from a home headed by a single mother to one led by grandparents.

"For a young man of mixed race, without even a father's steadying hand, it is this essential American idea -- that we are not constrained by the accident of birth but can make of our lives what we will -- that has defined my life, just as it has defined the life of so many other Americans," he said. "That is why for me, patriotism is always more than just loyalty to a place on a map or a certain kind of people. Instead, it's also loyalty to America's ideals, ideals for which anyone can sacrifice, or defend, or give their last full measure of devotion."

When controversy exploded over the fiery sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., his former longtime pastor, Obama proved he could blunt a political threat when he challenges it head-on. His speech on race, given in Philadelphia in March, was hailed for its candor and eloquence, and in the days that followed it, he quickly moved back to the central themes of the primary campaign: the economy and the Iraq war.

But just as Wright has not disappeared from the political landscape, no one expects the patriotism question to be quelled with one speech. This time, campaign aides say, Obama will stick with the theme of patriotism through this Fourth of July week, when he will travel to conservative-leaning regions of eastern Ohio, the Mountain West and the Northern Plains.

"I give him credit. He is taking this very seriously," said presidential historian Robert Dallek, who compared Obama's travails to those of John F. Kennedy, who was plagued by whisper campaigns about the divided loyalties of the would-be first Catholic president.

Those anti-Catholic whispers were a real threat to Kennedy, Dallek said, but they were not abetted by the stubborn, unruly Internet, nor were they stoked by the undercurrent of race that Obama faces.

Kennedy went on the offensive in 1960, charging that his Republican opponent, then-Vice President Richard M. Nixon, had been weak on Cuba and had allowed a "missile gap" to develop with the Soviet Union.

Democrats appear to be taking a page from the Kennedy playbook. Jon Soltz, the head of the anti-Iraq-war VoteVets.org, joined in, writing on the Huffington Post Web site, "While we should all honor Senator McCain's service, that doesn't mean we should necessarily honor it by putting him in the White House to take up George W. Bush's third term."

McCain's campaign moved quickly to counter the criticism.

"If that's the kind of campaigning that Senator Obama and his surrogates and supporters want to wage, I understand that," McCain said. "It doesn't reduce the price of a gallon of gas by one penny. . . . It doesn't help an American stay in their home they're afraid of losing. I expect to discuss in this campaign the challenges we face."

The campaign convened a "truth squad" of half a dozen men who had served with McCain in the military to defend the senator on an issue that many believe to be the one unassailable piece of the Republican's résumé: his status as a war hero and as a military expert.