Obama, Miles High on the past.
In his coronation speech at Denver’s Mile High stadium on Thursday night, Barack Obama tried to wrap himself in the mantle of the Democrats of past generations.
Trouble is, the coat doesn’t fit. The internationalism of the old Democratic party has vanished.
Obama summoned the memory of Franklin Roosevelt. But FDR understood the importance of standing up to Hitler, beating back America’s traditional isolationism. He did not believe that “tough, direct diplomacy” would work against a thug like Adolf Hitler.
And then there’s Harry Truman, who brought Americans to realize that even after the burdens of fighting World War II, they had to provide leadership in a world that faced the second behemoth of Soviet Communism.
And of course, John Kennedy, who promised to bear any burden to protect liberty in the world.
The current Democratic candidate has turned his back on this tradition. His pollsters have told him that the economy is his strong suit. And certainly foreign policy is not a trump card for a politician from Chicago’s South Side.
So in the attempt to mask his weak suit, the senator chose to deliver what must, however reluctantly, be called an isolationist speech.