Is Barack Obama an American?

[baldguy]

Look at this steaming pile of rancid horseshit:

This is not another tiresome treatise on Barack Obama's birth certificate. He was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen.

Byron York writes in the Washington Examiner about a new biography of the president soon to be published by David Mariness, a Washington Post reporter. York describes a brief time in the early 1980s when the future president lived in New York after graduating from Columbia University. Obama at the time was questioning whether he was an American in the way he viewed the world and followed politics.

The sense of Obama's rootlessness with his own country is perhaps understandable, given his biography. He was born of a Kenyan father and an American mother and had spent part of his childhood in Indonesia where he had become absorbed in the local culture.

But the ambivalence Obama felt and might still well feel toward his American identify also seems to have informed his politics. In a now infamous speech in Strasbourg, France, Obama seemed to lecture his own country by accusing it of having "shown arrogance" toward the views of other countries, particularly in Europe, according to the U.K. Telegraph. As Austin Bay adds, Obama also was dismissive of American exceptionalism, stating, rather sarcastically, "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism."

more:
http://news.yahoo.com/barack-obama-american-184000861.html

That imagined "ambivalence" that somehow makes him an alien in the eyes of RW morons is merely the acknowledgment of the fact that the real world exists outside of our borders & that we have to deal with it on it's own terms. Such a view makes him A BETTER President because - given his background - he can really understand what the great majority of Americans (the 99%) actually goes through in their daily lives.

Better than that clueless aristocratic twit the GOP is putting up against him.

[Enrique]

1. yes it is

This is not another tiresome treatise on Barack Obama's birth certificate.

Yes it is.

[bluestate10]

2. Those esteemed experts, the Baggers, want to try President Obama for treason.

Can't argue with experts, President Obama has to be a citizen to be tried for treason.

[Solomon]

7. Well played.

Do Americans really lack the capacity to see when and where we are arrogant. Apparently only foreigners can see that.

Idiot.

[backscatter712]

3. Well, I'm questioning whether Mitt Romney is actually human.

I ain't voting for no skinjob!

[Cali_Democrat]

4. Some people (conservative teabaggers) would consider it to be a bad thing

I actually like his background. He definitely scores extra points with me on this.

[cynatnite]

5. This was nothing but a steaming pile of...

Well, you get the idea.

[malaise]

6. Isn't Byron York Canadian? n/t

[Spider Jerusalem]

8. If "not being an American in the way one views the world and follows politics" means being objective

and having some awareness of and sensitivity toward sincere differences of opinion, then American public life could use more people like that, not fewer. And, come on: Anyone with the slightest recollection of the run-up to war in Iraq could hardly deny that the Bush administration, and a lot of the American public, showed quite a great deal of arrogance to the opinions of the governments of our allies France and Germany. And "American exceptionalism"...the idea that the US is somehow unique and destined to be a leading global power...isn't really any different to the way the British thought in the days when the sun never set on the Empire; it's nothing more than the arrogance of power saying "this is clearly the way things are meant to be".

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. The full 'exceptionalism' quote:

Ed Luce, from the Financial Times. Where's Ed -- there he is.

Q Thank you, Mr. President. In the context of all the multilateral activity that's been going on this week -- the G20, here at NATO -- and your evident enthusiasm for multilateral frameworks, to work through multilateral frameworks, could I ask you whether you subscribe, as many of your predecessors have, to the school of American exceptionalism that sees America as uniquely qualified to lead the world, or do you have a slightly different philosophy? And if so, would you be able to elaborate on it?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism. I'm enormously proud of my country and its role and history in the world. If you think about the site of this summit and what it means, I don't think America should be embarrassed to see evidence of the sacrifices of our troops, the enormous amount of resources that were put into Europe postwar, and our leadership in crafting an Alliance that ultimately led to the unification of Europe. We should take great pride in that.

And if you think of our current situation, the United States remains the largest economy in the world. We have unmatched military capability. And I think that we have a core set of values that are enshrined in our Constitution, in our body of law, in our democratic practices, in our belief in free speech and equality, that, though imperfect, are exceptional.

Now, the fact that I am very proud of my country and I think that we've got a whole lot to offer the world does not lessen my interest in recognizing the value and wonderful qualities of other countries, or recognizing that we're not always going to be right, or that other people may have good ideas, or that in order for us to work collectively, all parties have to compromise and that includes us.

And so I see no contradiction between believing that America has a continued extraordinary role in leading the world towards peace and prosperity and recognizing that that leadership is incumbent, depends on, our ability to create partnerships because we create partnerships because we can't solve these problems alone.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/news-conference-president-obama-4042009

Damn fine answer. It's not 'sarcastic'; he goes on to give reasons why he does think the US's 'core set of values' is 'exceptional'. But he also admits it's imperfect, and emphasises that this is not to put down other countries; and that the US needs others to work with.

And, since this was shortly after Dubya, and the question refers to previous presidents, it's also an indication that the "with us or with the terrorists" attitude, at its lowest in the treatment of France over Iraq (this speech was in France) is over.

[Mc Mike]

10. His '08 opponent was born in the Panama Canal Zone. NT.