Obama: “America is no longer what it once was”; Update: Rush reacts
posted at 11:25 am on August 7, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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When presidential candidates answer questions from children about why they want the job, most will give an answer that uplifts the child and the candidate. Not Barack Obama. At a campaign stop in Elkhart, Indiana, a seven-year-old girl asked the Democrat why he wants to be President — and he told her that America has gone downhill:
“America is …, uh, is no longer, uh … what it could be, what it once was. And I say to myself, I don’t want that future for my children.”
Sound familiar? Michelle Obama sounded similar themes earlier in the campaign:
“Sometimes it’s easier to hold onto your own stereotypes and misconceptions. It makes you feel justified in your ignorance. That’s America.”
“Let me tell you something. For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country, because it feels like hope is making a comeback.”
Everyone feels that we can improve ourselves, but we don’t usually cast it in terms of the country no longer being what it once was. Coming from the Obamas, that doesn’t even make sense. They have talked about how difficult it was to break through barriers, not without some justification, to reach this point in their lives and American history.
Doesn’t that speak to the point that we continue to grow and to learn? And if not, which “good old days” did Obama mean? The 1980s? I doubt it, and if he means the Clinton era, then why did he run against Hillary in the first place?
Once again, Obama got off the teleprompter and put his foot directly in his mouth. He’s not selling Hope, he’s selling Despair, and himself as the snake oil that will cure us of all our ills.
Update: Maybe that seven-year-old was just another John McCain proxy.
Update II: Rush says it all in this clip:
LIMBAUGH: Alright, now here’s he’s brought it home. He had trashed his country in Germany, he has seen the result of that in his plummeting poll numbers. And now he does it again in Elkhart, IN. A 7 year old little girl. You’re running for President Sen. Obama, a little girl asks you a question, “Why did you start running for President?”
It’s a 7 year old Senator. Ya tell her because you love the country. You tell her because this is the greatest place on Earth. That we’ve got challenges, but you want to help the country through it. You don’t tell a 7 year old that her country isn’t what it once was. You do not lie to 7 year olds and tell them that your country sucks. You just don’t do it Senator.
America’s no longer what it could be? What it once was? How the Hell would you know Sir? Your experience has only been in one part of America. Elite, leftist academia.
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And yet Mary Mitchell would never consider herself a bigot…
Think_b4_speaking on August 7, 2008 at 12:16 PM
Ya know, America used to be a country of individuals that thought they could run their own lives, instead of having a permanent ruling class. A people who thought they knew what was better for themselves, rather than people who live someplace else, that they’ve never met. It used to be that people went to the federal capital a few years, did their part and retired, peacefully ceding power to the next guy instead of making a career out of it. America used to take the Constitution and the Bill of Rights seriously, believing it was the most perfect outline for government imperfect Man could come up with. Americans used to be Americans first, and something else came a distant second. It used to be a place where people from all over the world spent their last penny, or their lives, for a chance to come here, to add their ideas to it, struggling to overcome the cultural/language barriers in order to earn the enviable title “American.”
.
Now America seems to becoming a patchwork of special-interest groups who want their share of the pie before its gone, of whinny babies who cry “Ism-du-jour” to mask their inability to take care of themselves. A group of people jealous of other people successes, and wanting the successful to pay for their failures. It’s losing its exceptionalism, instead becoming just like everyone else, because who are we to be a better place to live. So, I think Obama has a point, just not the one he meant.
artlover on August 7, 2008 at 12:17 PM
Yep. “Racism is okay for me but not for thee.”
Django on August 7, 2008 at 12:20 PM
America isn’t what it once was??
Of course not. We’ve become better, and will become even more better.
America isn’t what it once was? Guess he misses seeing those fire hoses turned on men, women and children in Birmingham. Guess he misses hundreds of thousands of kids in iron lungs due to polio. Guess he misses the “whites only” signs across a quarter of the nation. Guess he misses the riots. Misses the rampant real racism. Misses a segment of our population counted as 2/3’s of a white man. Ya, know, there is so so much to miss…the nostalgia is overwhelming at times. /s
But, to tell a young kid, who probably was thrilled to death at being able to ask such a celebrity a question, in public, on the air waves and cable…in front of millions, to tell that young kid that her America, her country, her nation, are now vile and dispicable…and we must return to that “ole ‘merika” where lynchings were as common as bol-weivels and Klan cross burnings…
Bet she’ll never wish to ask any adult any questions in public ever again.
Obama is parroting nearly word for word what his mentor in Hawaii wrote in poetic screeds forty and fifty years ago…and people are taking it as some sort of new hope-y change-y promise of a new day?
coldwarrior on August 7, 2008 at 12:20 PM
This is the issue: who do you want to be president, someone who is ashamed of this country or someone who suffered torture to defend this country. I am not a McCain fan but the contrast between candidates is blinding. If the media would stop protecting Obama, voters could also easily decide who represents them.
trs on August 7, 2008 at 12:21 PM
.
Ignoring the totally inept sentence structure from this ‘brilliant man’, the logic is also flawed. America is no longer what it could be? WTH does that mean? America is no longer what it once was? I’m pretty sure that goes without saying - not that that would stop the messiah…
Think_b4_speaking on August 7, 2008 at 12:22 PM
A socialist schooled in Marxist Black Liberation Theology wants to make America better? Horror film to follow.
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“America is …, uh, is no longer, uh … what it could be, what it once was.
Does this mean no reparations? Everybody’s cool now?
.
Please explain this one to me B. Hussein…pretty please? Without a teleprompter or written notes!
shooter on August 7, 2008 at 12:23 PM
I am reminded of old school MSMer Roger Mudd:
I don’t listen to Hewitt’s show, but I imagine he’ll be having fun today, thanks to some seven-year-old Mudd.
Karl on August 7, 2008 at 12:24 PM
He threw America under his bus!!
becki51758 on August 7, 2008 at 12:25 PM
He might as well say today is yesterday’s tomorrow, which actually makes sense, but is equally vacant to “America is no longer what it could be”. It’s just silly nonsense. I hope it’s not the same kind of answer he gives when his daughters ask him a heart-felt question; if it is, they’re going to grow up very confused.
Paul-Cincy on August 7, 2008 at 12:25 PM
+10 point for you
Corsair on August 7, 2008 at 12:27 PM
No, AMERICA is not what it once was… If it was B.HUSSEIN would not have been able to run for SENATE in Illinois, let alone aspire to be POTUS… Granted things are a little rough in our GREAT LAND at present… However, I can’t think of a better place on this PLANET I would rather live…
pueblo1032 on August 7, 2008 at 12:29 PM
He’s partially correct. America is no longer what it once was because of liberal policies and politicians that have invaded the body politic since the turn of the 20th century.
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on August 7, 2008 at 12:30 PM
One thing is certain . . . if they elect this dolt America will never be the great nation that it once was.
rplat on August 7, 2008 at 12:34 PM
Obama will be a cross between LBJ and Carter. Increased welfare state and weak foreign policy which will hurt us for decades to come.
Paul-Cincy on August 7, 2008 at 12:37 PM
Today is yesterday’s tomorrow, today is worse than yesterday’s tomorrow, and the future tomorrow is worse than yesterday’s today.
Buy Danish on August 7, 2008 at 12:38 PM
Not particulary pleased by the Republican choice, my wife and I were considering sitting this election out. After the European tour, the “we can inflate ourselves out of this energy problem” comment and now this, it is painfully evident that Obama is not only stupid, but a dangerous egomaniac. So McCain it is! That’s two more votes in John Boy’s column and I’ve got a feeling that I’m not the only conservative Republican out there that feels the same way.
sdd on August 7, 2008 at 12:39 PM
If America was what it once was Obama wouldn’t even have the opportunity to run for President. All these great things have happened in his life and he still sees the glass as half empty.
People don’t like pessimists, how did his campaign go from “hope and change” to this. Oh I know he can’t have Axelrod to write every thought for him.
roux on August 7, 2008 at 12:40 PM
His children are missing all that good Trinity Church ‘hate whitey’, old timey stuff.
He really blew that kid off…..
Hening on August 7, 2008 at 12:41 PM
Yes this a real quote and this how liberals think.
I don’t know if it is brain damage or just a lifetime of MSM brainwashing taking full effect…but either way they should have their right to vote immediately revoked.
SaintOlaf on August 7, 2008 at 12:41 PM
LOL
We must return to yesterday’s tomorrow, to begin the journey to what was once the tomorrow of all yesterdays.
Hope-change! Hope-change! Hope-change!
Django on August 7, 2008 at 12:41 PM
Their idea of America is not my America.
I like my America just the way it is, thank you very much.
Kini on August 7, 2008 at 12:45 PM
If the Anti-American/Pro-Jihadi Democratic Traitor Leftists think that America is no longer what it once was; just wait until the “Taqiyah“-practicing Marxist-Muslim Messiah, Barack HUSSEIN Obama (PBUH)(SAW)(SWT) gets into office..
Dale in Atlanta on August 7, 2008 at 12:45 PM
Politics of fear and loathing
Kini on August 7, 2008 at 12:46 PM
Artlvr = artful post.
I’m sick to death of these two chumps slamming the US. Go back to “organizing” poor communities into poorer communities.
marklmail on August 7, 2008 at 12:48 PM
What “future” is Obama talking about? His referent is to what America “once was.” So, if it was better in the past, what exactly is “that future” he wants for his children? Forget the down on America stuff, the One, off teleprompter, it utterly incoherent. Is Obama evedencing early onset Alzheimer’s or is he simply schizophrenic. Therpeutically speaking, that response was certainly a word salad.
marybel on August 7, 2008 at 12:49 PM
Yes.
freevillage on August 7, 2008 at 12:49 PM
Obama speaking to large crowd of Obamaniacs:
“Today is yesterday’s tomorrow!”
Crowd goes wild.
Obama speaking to large crowd of conservatives:
“Today is yesterday’s tomorrow!”
Dead silence and blank stares.
Somebody in the back says under his breath, “The Emperor has no clothes”. The guy next to him grumbles, “You got that right”.
Paul-Cincy on August 7, 2008 at 12:51 PM
Judging from the snippets of BHO’s understanding of the US Constitution that we have been privy to, it’s pretty obvious that BHO never had any clue what America ever was.
It is, also, certainly true that America had never before had a major party candidate (assuming that BHO still makes it through the convention) who was as incompetent and stupid as BHO and his band of America-hating, anti-capitalist idiots. Not a change for the better. But, this is what happens when affirmative ation becomes deeply rooted in society.
progressoverpeace on August 7, 2008 at 12:52 PM
He (and his wife) talks to his daughters like this everyday. “That is why Mommy and Daddy are out there clean up the America and Saving the World.”
Sir Napsalot on August 7, 2008 at 12:55 PM
Obama is just being Obama. He just happens to be selling what those consumers are buying. Worry more about huge number of people of a liberal mind-set that are zealously enthusiastic about supporting, spinning and defending the product. The larger problem is that they may get exactly what they are paying for, and the rest of us will be stuck with a lemon.
Yoop on August 7, 2008 at 12:58 PM
Was America ever what Obama thinks it should be for his children? Probably not.
His campaign has tried to distance him from Rev. Jeremiah Wright but he continues to demonstrate exactly where his perspective of AmeriKKKa comes from.
Tie all these comments from Obama and Michelle together and the point one direction -> Wright -> Cone. They blame America.
There should be an ad stating that.
shick on August 7, 2008 at 12:59 PM
Obama speaking to large crowd of Obamaniacs:
LOL.
Buy Danish on August 7, 2008 at 1:01 PM
Keep talking Barry, keep talking…
Wyznowski on August 7, 2008 at 1:01 PM
Possibly those who are so disillusioned with this country could find another locale to be so disillusioned in?
I will be glad to donate the first $20 toward an appropriate exit ticket.
irongrampa on August 7, 2008 at 1:02 PM
We’ve financially facilitated massive birth rates of irresponsible people. It was only a matter of time till they had sufficient “numbers” on their side to grab everything we have.
marklmail on August 7, 2008 at 1:03 PM
Any singular is bigger than the whole. Didn’t you know that?
Listen to Obama’s speech, that one waitress’ misery IS the misery of the whole nation. Because, you know, the whole isn’t real. That ‘waitress’ in his narrative is a REAL PERSON.
Sir Napsalot on August 7, 2008 at 1:05 PM
Heh. The tyranny of the anecdote.
progressoverpeace on August 7, 2008 at 1:09 PM
This is Obama’s way of speaking to the bitterness held by those Midwestern voters (many of whom had probably just come from clinging their guns and Bibles).
Outlander on August 7, 2008 at 1:11 PM
If he doesn’t like this Great Nation, he should move his damn family to Iran.
Let’s see if he changes his mind about how good we True Americans really have it.
Ass!
madmonkphotog on August 7, 2008 at 1:12 PM
Obama: “America is no longer what it once was”
So lets make it better by electing Mugabe lite!
elduende on August 7, 2008 at 1:14 PM
Well, Obama just proved once again why his handlers won’t let him near a townhall-style, off-the-teleprompter debate with McCain.
My gawd, Obama’s incoherent. If McCain said anything like this, the MSM would be ready to send him to a nursing home instead of the White House.
avwh on August 7, 2008 at 1:14 PM
Oh we’re playing this silly game again? Wellll….
“I’ll admit to you … that it’s tough in some respects,” John McCain when asked by a questioner at a town hall meeting how to be proud of the country.
“I didn’t really love America until I was deprived of her company”-John McCain
crr6 on August 7, 2008 at 1:16 PM
I was doing pretty well till the donks took over Congress. I could live with $2 gas, but $4 is a bit much. And, getting that steroids thing in baseball was affecting my welfare a lot. Glad they got that cleared up, and I also think Murtha’s support of our Marines during war has been a godsend.
a capella on August 7, 2008 at 1:27 PM
Is HRC on the horizon?
Black Adam on August 7, 2008 at 1:29 PM
““Sometimes it’s easier to hold onto your own stereotypes and misconceptions. It makes you feel justified in your ignorance. That’s America.””
Is it racist to say “Pot, meet kettle”?
exhelodrvr on August 7, 2008 at 1:31 PM
And,
gettingthat steroids thing in baseball was affecting my welfare a lota capella on August 7, 2008 at 1:32 PM
” uh, is no longer, uh … what it could be,”
Was America ever what it could be?
exhelodrvr on August 7, 2008 at 1:35 PM
Nice try. Think about how you don’t know how good you have something until you don’t have it anymore, then revisit this quote.
Grafted on August 7, 2008 at 1:39 PM
Obama is the last public figure in America who wants the country and its populace to be (more like) what it was: free, individualist, self-reliant, capitalistic.
He is conservative in the wholly negative sense, since he wants to preserve the socialist status quo of the past 40 years, to the extent he is unable to move it more in that direction.
JDPerren on August 7, 2008 at 1:40 PM
Great question. Maybe the next time his flux capacitor powered Delorean touches down he can tell us just what part of our past he thinks our future needs to go back errrr forward to.
RW_theoriginal on August 7, 2008 at 1:46 PM
it all went horribly wrong starting during the “summer of love”
viahj on August 7, 2008 at 1:49 PM
Do I hear a campaign death knell ringing in the distance?
Dusty on August 7, 2008 at 1:49 PM
Here’s another thought: Is this going to be Obama’s “reminiscent of Genghis Khan” moment?
Dusty on August 7, 2008 at 1:52 PM
“Mr. Obama, you are certainly not Ronnie Reagan” ~ ~ President Reagan
Entelechy on August 7, 2008 at 1:52 PM
He won’t take questions from say, little ol’ Sean Hammity, but he will take a question from a 7 year old girl.
When I have to pick up my daughter from school every day, and have to go into major debt to pay for our son’s education at a state university, I realize that this country is not the country I grew up in…As far as race relations are concerned, I’ve found that it’s the black extremists who are muscular in their ignorance and bigotry. They would rather be eternally angry that they didn’t take the opportunities offered to them in this country and blame it on whitey, it’s far easier.
I’m afraid to watch the Michelle clips. But we all know the answer to this question: “Is it racist to say “Pot, meet kettle”?” Does Michelle project her racist mindset on us? You can bet your bippy she does!
Christine on August 7, 2008 at 2:01 PM
McCain has honored his country and served it most of his life. He loves what it stands for and wants to continue serving it as our President. I may not always agree with his positions, but at least I know where he stands on this issue. Barry bashes America, associates with people that hate the country (in the worst way), and always talks about how terrible things are. He and his family have more than most in this country, has mobs of followers, has received the best education at the highest level (and best schools) — but he continues to criticize the country in which he was given these opportunities? Oh, and his platform is all about changing everything this country stands for.
Rick on August 7, 2008 at 2:13 PM
There’s a picture of Michelle on my milk carton.
TheBigOldDog on August 7, 2008 at 2:18 PM
To all the whiners in here who always complain bout McCain…this is ur messiah.
Chudi on August 7, 2008 at 2:18 PM
just stick a mic in this guys mush and stand back. no need to say a word. never interupt your opponent when they are in the process of detroying themselves.
obama is making the mondale and dukakis campaigns look brilliant and well managed by comparison. just who the hell is axelrod?
DrW on August 7, 2008 at 2:20 PM
Great link, thanks - I was not familiar with that story.
Buy Danish on August 7, 2008 at 2:22 PM
Anyway, since Hillary suspended her campagin, she must have been laughing herself silly every night going to bed nowadays.
Out of the spotlight, people tend to forget how much they dislike her and Billy.
Sir Napsalot on August 7, 2008 at 2:38 PM
Keep talking OBLAHBLAH, because you’re babbling yourself right back to being a street organizer…liken to your buddies Jesse and Al.
byteshredder on August 7, 2008 at 2:40 PM
I want somebody to research just how much racial preferences Obambi got in his schooling. How could somebody so illiterate get through all those prestidgeous schools and colleges?
TimothyJ on August 7, 2008 at 2:47 PM
With two parents like B. Hussein and lovely Michelle those Obama kids must have a very distorted view of America and life in general.
UnEasyRider on August 7, 2008 at 2:55 PM
The exploitation value of these words is almost self-made.
Show Obama saying:
“America is …, uh, is no longer, uh … what it could be, what it once was.”
Cut to stock film of:
KKK riding and lynching
race riots of the 60’s
gas lines from the 70’s
American hostages in Iran
Announcer:
“Thank God that America isn’t what it used to be.”
Keith_Indy on August 7, 2008 at 3:33 PM
I’m sorry but things have gotten a lot better in this country. A black man is running for president and actually has a lot of people believing in him.
Those two are bitter and have a negative view of the world. My parents told me about how blacks sat in the back of the bus. “Colored” signs above the bathrooms, water fountains, etc.
You bitter a******* can get the f*** out if you don’t like it. I love my country. Being an American is never anything to be ashamed of. This is the greatest country in the world. I have traveled the world. Several friends of mine have served. One got blown up in Iraq and spent a year and a half recovering at Walter Reed. He lost an eye, and is disabled for life. Another was a Marine that did two tours in Iraq, one in Fallujah. They all say the same thing as well. This is the greatest country in the world.
USA… USA… USA… USA… USA…
Corey Wayne on August 7, 2008 at 3:33 PM
Travis: Your message of
was spot on except that OhBummer should have called the little girl Sweetie, not Honey.
onlineanalyst on August 7, 2008 at 3:36 PM
Mmmmmm, that`s some good malaise for my sammich. :)
ThePrez on August 7, 2008 at 3:51 PM
He’s right! Only he sees it as worse and we see it a better!!!!!!!!
Dread Pirate Roberts VI on August 7, 2008 at 3:59 PM
Just keep in mind that while OhBummer has been jet-setting around on the campaign trail, he has been seen clinging to the book Post-American World. He really does not value America’s exceptionalism and its being a force for good.
onlineanalyst on August 7, 2008 at 4:13 PM
Hussein is a tranny. He’s white when he needs to be and a brutha when it suits the moment.
leftnomore on August 7, 2008 at 4:43 PM
Obama wants to be America’s Mechanic, he wants to tune us up and check our tire pressure. We got to many highway miles on U.S. Amercia is 232 years old, how did we survive this long without a 47 year old, what is he today “hope or change” Mr Lowered Expectations. I think he wants to get under America’s hood and tinker with it ;)
Dr Evil on August 7, 2008 at 5:06 PM
too many highway miles
Dr Evil on August 7, 2008 at 5:07 PM
I’d take that mechanic analogy a bit further. Obambi wants to be the mechanic and the dealer and the computer under the hood. He wants to control every aspect of how the engine runs, when it runs, where it runs, if it runs and when the computer fails lets you know it’s a dealer part and the replacement can only be had on his terms and by the price he sets. Nanny-state Marxist pure and simple.
viking01 on August 7, 2008 at 5:15 PM
An olde soldier, not as proud as I once was…
Executive manipulation and obfuscation to engulf us in a despicable, illegal, attack on a sovereign nation.
A sorry, arbitrary war of convenience, to expand American influence in the Middle East.
Abu Ghraib prison atrocities; an insult to our humanity as individuals and as a nation.
Cavalier outing of covert operatives for purposes of political payback.
Like Senator Obama…Yes; I indeed, am not as proud as I once was.
J_Gocht on August 7, 2008 at 5:19 PM
Leave it to someone like B.O. or Mama Michelle to uplift the spirits of the youth of America.
Poor kids are now probably going to have nightmares for weeks.
pilamaye on August 7, 2008 at 5:19 PM
Sure. Why do you think “people from all over the world spent their last penny, or their lives, for a chance to come here” in the first place?
aengus on August 7, 2008 at 5:49 PM
Theories and Dreams:
I think it can be traced to a dramatic perversion of this quote from the closest thing to a God the left has:
Now, just as Islam has been perverted by terrorists (who demand the destruction of civilization and the murdering of innocents as a means of accomplishing their conversion of the world) I believe this statement by RFK was also twisted from it’s original meaning.
This is nothing new, Kerry did it too — only as we get farther our from the original quote (JFK, RFK) we end up getting less nuanced on the issue.
David
LifeTrek on August 7, 2008 at 6:02 PM
[I just got back home and have read no comments above...]
I’d hit The Obamboozler by going back a bit further…and say that Obama’s loose words show such a low regard for the United States that he could just have well said he was expressing a longing for those long, lost days of his grandparents’ contemporaries, as they quenched their thirsts from segregated water fountains and rode in separate busses…that that is how Obama seems to think of America - in other words, in what CONTEMPT Obama holds America.
For me, this displays even more clearly The Obamboozler’s disrespect and disqualification for the Presidency.
Lockstein13 on August 7, 2008 at 6:03 PM
I’m not much of a Rush fan. Definitely not a ditto head. Haven’t listened to Rush in years. [Does that make me a bad Conservative? /s]
But, his rebuttal of Obama in Elkhart was dead on target!
coldwarrior on August 7, 2008 at 6:11 PM
I think Hillary sees an opening it is more then a crack, it is an ever widening gap. Btw the Obama Campaign Machine and the rest of America, they are living in a “Far Left Echo Chamber” it is being amplified by the MSM!
This isn’t in anyway, shape or form, a positive message of hope or change. What is going on? They can’t keep him on his own talking points?
Dr Evil on August 7, 2008 at 6:19 PM
My question to Rush would be…
“How the Hell would you know Sir? ”You managed to sit out your generation’s war with a “painful Pilonial cyst” along with President Bush doin’ “blow” in the TANG.
Chickenhawks!
J_Gocht on August 7, 2008 at 6:20 PM
Good.
davidk on August 7, 2008 at 6:24 PM
I’d be really interested in what he thought America “used to be”. I’ve been around a lot more years than Obama and I have no idea what he’s talking about!!
jeanie on August 7, 2008 at 6:31 PM
Rush certainly does explain it to Mr. Glass Half Empty. I’ll still give Barack the benefit of the doubt and say he’s been hanging with the likes of Ayers, Dohrn, Wright, etc, for much too long, though I’m coming more to the conclusion he has been his own bird for much longer and he was just seeking his flock when he moved to Chicago.
Good on ya, Rush.
Dusty on August 7, 2008 at 6:40 PM
I’ll plunge…before 2000 AD.
J_Gocht on August 7, 2008 at 6:41 PM
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