Sowell: Obama’s patriotism should have been questioned earlier

Candidate Barack Obama’s promise to “fundamentally change the United States of America” hardly suggests love. Nor did his international speaking tour in 2009, telling foreign audiences that America was to blame for problems on the world stage.

President Obama’s record has been more of the same. Among his earliest acts were offending our oldest and closest allies, Britain and Israel, and betraying the country’s previous commitments to provide anti-missile defenses to Poland and the Czech Republic.

Obama’s refusal to let Ukraine have weapons with which to defend itself from Russian invasion was consistent with this pattern, and consistent with his whispered statement — picked up by a microphone that was still on — to tell “Vladimir” that, after the 2012 election was over, he would be able to “have more ‘flexibility.”‘

‘Anti-American’ policies

Conceivably, these might all have been simply blunders. But such a string of blunders would require someone very stupid, and Barack Obama is by no means stupid. The net effect is that in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, America’s allies and America’s interests face far more setbacks and dangers today than when Obama took office. His policies have been publicly criticized by two of his own former secretaries of defense and two retired four-star generals who served during his administration, and a retired four-star admiral who also served in the Middle East during the Obama administration has called his policies “anti-American.”

Some people who are denouncing Giuliani seem to be saying that it is just not right to accuse a president of being unpatriotic. But when Barack Obama was a senator, that is precisely what he said about President George W. Bush. Where was the outrage then?

If all else fails, critics of Mayor Giuliani can say that a man is entitled to be considered “innocent until proven guilty.” But that principle applies in a court of law. Outside a court of law, there is no reason to presume anyone innocent until proven guilty. It is especially dangerous to presume a president of the United States — any president — innocent until proven guilty.

Whoever is president has the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans, and the fate of a nation, in his hands. It is those millions of people and that nation who deserve the benefit of the doubt. We need to err on the side of safety for the people and the country. Squeamish politeness to an individual cannot outweigh that.

We need to keep that in mind for the next president, and for all future presidents. We might have been better off if the question of Obama’s patriotism had been raised before he was first elected.