Patriotism in Presidential Politics

Candidates in the 2008 Presidential campaign are subject to rumors, accusations, and ridicule from the media, the public, and their opponents, but aside from the issues, some petty and often trivial attacks can make headlines and prove important in the race for the White House.

Patriotism has been a major part of the image of the candidates, and Barack Obama has come under fire from conservatives and Republicans saying that he is unpatriotic. However, the lack of “patriotism” they are citing is not love of the state, about which Obama says “that I owe everything I am to this country”. But instead the attacks are related to Obama not putting his hand over his heart during the national anthem, him not wearing an American flag pin, and his possible Muslim background, which has been debunked.

Attacks come from every angle for a presidential candidate, and a recent attack was made about a $200 campaign contribution to his 2001 Illinois senate race from a founder of a group with possible connections to bombings of the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon in the 1970s. But the bombings occurred forty years ago when Obama was 8 years old.

Other ridicule has been directed at him because of comments his wife made about only being proud of the U.S.  for the first time recently. Obama explained “She simply misspoke. What she was referring to was [that] this was the first time she has been proud of politics in America.” He went on further to say,

“That’s true of a lot of people who have been cynical and disenchanted. And she’s spoken about how she has been cynical about American politics for a very long time, but she’s proud of how people are participating and getting involved in ways that they haven’t in a very long time.”

Candidates are constantly under the scrutiny of the public and their opponents, and beliefs of patriotism affect their images as well as the image of the country. The U.S. needs a leader who is strongly patriotic, and citizens as well as the media will always point out the shortcomings or mistakes of a candidate for president. Patriotism in U.S. society is a requirement for political leadership, and the national politics of presidential races brings up all sorts of candidates’ characteristics. Patriotism in our nation and society is a major factor in elections, and it also affects the image of the U.S.; therefore it is an essential part of American politics.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/24/obama.patriotism/index.html?iref=newssearch

“The War of Ideas”

Regarding to the last post from the CNN article on Al Qaeda’s use of the Internet, I believe that this has been a lesson to U.S. government, and Glassman is well-qualified to head public diplomacy. A better image is what the U.S. needs for its own citizens and on a global level. Also, it is interesting to that Al Qeada, although not a state itself, is so good at publicizing its ideas and winning over people through digital resources. The comparison of Al Qaeda’s success versus the U.S.’s is telling of how the U.S.’s spirit of freedom can lose in a digital race to Al Qaeda’s ideals of jihad and radicalism. Future U.S. policies will test whether a nation’s public image can change from conqueror to liberator and win over the radical beliefs of Al Qaeda in the “War of Ideas” on the Internet and through all forms of communication.

U.S. needs to get more online friends than Al Qaeda

 CNN reports that James Glassman, nominated to head public diplomacy at the State Department, said that Al Qaeda is proving more effective at gaining support through the internet than the Bush Administration.  “Our enemies are eating our lunch in terms of getting the word out in digital technology,” said Glassman. Glassman is chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors and he operates radio, television and Internet broadcast networks paid for by U.S. taxpayers including the Voice of America, available in dozens of languages, and Arabic language Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said  “Public relations was invented in the United States, yet we are miserable at communicating to the rest of the world what we are about as a society and a culture, about freedom and democracy, about our policies and our goals”.

“Glassman said the United States must overturn a misconception in the Muslim world that it is a military threat, that it wants to weaken and divide the Muslim world and spread Christianity.

One member of the committee, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-New Jersey, asked Glassman, “Do we broadcast what people want to hear or what they need to hear?”

Glassman replied, “We have to be honest. If we tell them lies they are going to figure that out very quickly.”

Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Connecticut, introduced Glassman to the committee, saying the public diplomacy post is “the closest thing to a supreme allied commander in the war of ideas and one of the most important posts in Washington.”" -Charley Keyes, CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/30/internet.pr.failure/index.html?iref=newssearch

Semester Topic

Our topic for this semester will deal with the public image’s a of state to its people and to people in other countries around the world. Political freedom, equality, justice, military use, imperialism, and government policies are among some of the factors we will use in our comparison of states and the public relations and images of nations to their own people and to other countries.

Kingdom Watcher

An amazing website that compares Bible scriptures and Biblical theories to economic development in predominantly Christian countries. Everything from government to political strategies.