Clintons’ New Talking Points: Obama Not Patriotic

On Friday, both Hillary and Bill Clinton signaled the Clinton campaign’s new strategy — to question Barack Obama’s patriotism. First Hillary called Obama “unAmerican” because he has not supported her calls for a revote in the Michigan Democratic Primary. Next, Bill Clinton had this to say at a VFW Hall in Charlotte, North Carolina:

“I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country. And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics.”

We all know that the former president is a master of the English language. Careful listeners and readers will note his use of the modal verbs would and could: “I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved their country… people could actually ask themselves…” Since he must believe his wife loves her country, he must be saying that Obama does not. Or else he would have phrased his comment this way: I think it is a great thing… where you have two people who love their country…” But alas, he did not.

Naturally, the campaign trotted out Bill’s spokesman Matt McKenna to do damage control. “Actually, as is indicated by the quote itself, President Clinton was talking about the need to talk about issues, rather than falsely questioning any candidate’s patriotism.”

Perhaps Mr. McKenna needs to brush up on his English grammar. He might start with lesson number one from the master: “It depends on what your meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”

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