Last week the former mayor of New York City and wannabe teabagger, Rudy Giuliani, publicly stated that he didn't believe President Obama loved America. It was a racist and idiotic statement, and Giuliani immediately tried to back justify it. The most ridiculous of his justifications was that he couldn't be a racist since President Obama's mother was white.
It's fairly easy for me to write off the statement by Giuliani, because he's always shot off his mouth before thinking about what he saying and he's been trying to win over the GOP teabaggers for a while now (possibly for a future presidential run?). But the results of this poll are not so easy to dismiss. It seems that about a third of all Americans (and almost two-thirds of Republicans) agree with Giuliani.
That's rather shocking. It's one thing to disagree with the president (or any other politician) about policy issues -- but it's quite another to accuse anyone of not loving their country (the country they were born and raised in).
This kind of accusation hasn't been made against any other president, no matter how unpopular the president or his policies and actions. The right-wing hated President Clinton, and even tried to impeach him, but they didn't accuse him of not loving his country. And those of us on the left had no love for President George W. Bush and his failed policies, but it never occurred to us to accuse him of not loving his country. An accusation like that is just beyond the pale.
So why would such an accusation be hurled at President Obama? What makes him different than all our past presidents (many of whom were unpopular during their term)? Could it be race? That's the only reason I can think of -- because his actions and policies certainly have not been that extreme. In truth, he's pretty moderate (and has been a disappointment both to the right and left because of that).
That 35% of Americans should be ashamed of themselves for even considering such a heinous belief. They need to check themselves, and make sure there isn't some racism lingering in their dark hearts.
The chart was made from a recent Rasmussen Poll -- done on February 22nd and 23rd of a random national sample of 800 likely voters, with a margin of error of 3.5 points.