Question for KSFO's Sussman: Did Reagan's self-description as a “citizen ... of the world” make him the Antichrist, too?

KSFO's Brian Sussman said of Sen. Barack Obama's Berlin speech: “As I was watching that speech, I could have sworn he was running for Antichrist.” Sussman later added, “He's giving this speech in Europe -- he's talking about us being citizens of the world. I got news for you, dude. I'm not a citizen of the world. I live on this planet, but I'm a citizen of the United States of America.” However, in his speech, Obama characterized himself as “a citizen -- a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.”


On the July 28 broadcast of KSFO's The Lee Rodgers Show, guest host Brian Sussman said of Sen. Barack Obama's July 24 speech in Berlin, Germany: “As I was watching that speech, I could have sworn he was running for Antichrist.” Sussman added: “He seemed as if he wanted to lead the world. He wants to unite the world. He wants the world to come together. He's giving this speech in Europe -- he's talking about us being citizens of the world. I got news for you, dude. I'm not a citizen of the world. I live on this planet, but I'm a citizen of the United States of America. I don't take my marching orders from any world government or world entity or world leader. I'm a citizen of the United States of America who happens to reside on Planet Earth. That's it. Not a citizen of the earth -- of the world.”

In addition to smearing Obama, Sussman falsely suggested that Obama had not also characterized himself as a “citizen of the United States of America,” as Sussman put it. But Obama did, in fact, refer to himself in the Berlin speech as “a citizen -- a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world,” as Media Matters for America has noted. Sussman also did not mention that President Ronald Reagan characterized himself using similar language in a June 17, 1982, speech to the United Nations General Assembly, saying, “I speak today as both a citizen of the United States and of the world.”

From the July 28 broadcast of KSFO's The Lee Rodgers Show:

SUSSMAN: What was your take on the big speech Friday? I saw it while I was traveling. I went down to Texas. I was in Bush country, Waco, Crawford.

OFFICER VIC: Really.

SUSSMAN: Yeah, I really was.

OFFICER VIC: Oh, you gotta talk about that.

SUSSMAN: JetBlue has -- you know, you can watch all sorts of television programs on JetBlue, and I was watching the Barack speech. What was your, you know, shoot-from-the-hip take on it?

OFFICER VIC: Again, more vapidity. He's stealing some Reagan-esque kind of things, the “tear down this wall” bit.

SUSSMAN: Yeah. Yeah.

OFFICER VIC: You know, the -- kind of borrowing from that.

SUSSMAN: I didn't like the citizens -- fellow citizens of the world.

OFFICER VIC: No. No, no, no, no. I would like him to be a candidate for president of the United States, not emperor of the world.

SUSSMAN: You know, emperor of the world. You hit it on the head, my man. Now, I will wax religy for just a moment. As I was watching that speech, I could have sworn he was running for Antichrist. He -- it was really amazing. He seemed as if he wanted to lead the world. He wants to unite the world. He wants the world to come together.

He's giving this speech in Europe -- he's talking about us being citizens of the world. I got news for you, dude. I'm not a citizen of the world. I live on this planet, but I'm a citizen of the United States of America. I don't take my marching orders from any world government or world entity or world leader. I'm a citizen of the United States of America who happens to reside on Planet Earth. That's it. Not a citizen of the earth -- of the world.

OFFICER VIC: Well, it's clear that he wants the European Union to take the lead in a lot of issues. For example, over the weekend, he said it would be -- he made some announcement to [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad. He said it would be in your best interest to take on the European Union's treaty that they're basically forwarding, or their initiatives with respect to their -- Iran's nuclear ambitions. He says, well, take the lead of the European Union before the election. And there are a number of examples of him saying -- you know, the European Union is the way to go. The United Nations is the way to go. The European Union is everything.

SUSSMAN: Oh, yeah. Yeah, the European Union is basically the old Roman Empire, and I guess that's -- they've even got a president now, and he really seems as if he wants us to become one world, and akin to the European Union, intertwined in so many ways. I mean, this is a guy, during the course of his speech, he talks about we're going to break down the walls between Islam and Judaism and Christianity.

OFFICER VIC: Uh-huh.

SUSSMAN: OK.

OFFICER VIC: Good luck on that.

SUSSMAN: That's a religious figure. He's running as a religious figure.

OFFICER VIC: Interesting.

SUSSMAN: But I go back to that citizen of the -- of the world thing. Here we have -- just looked this up here -- we've got a definition of citizen: a native or naturalized member of a state or nation, which owes allegiance to its government, and is entitled to its protection. See, I -- I'm not going to give my allegiance to the government of the world.

OFFICER VIC: No. No, no, no, no. That's not going to work.

SUSSMAN: An inhabitant of a city or town, especially one entitled to its privileges or franchises. Again, I'm not beholden to any privileges or franchises of the world. I'm a citizen of the United States of America. I pledge allegiance to its government. This government protects me as a citizen. This is just weird, and it sort of flew over everyone's head.

OFFICER VIC: Yeah. And there are more examples of this. He's -- he has said that he wants to end world poverty, and this goes along with a U.N. world tax -- tax on the United States -- to end poverty around the world. You know, this is not what we're looking for in a president of the United States.

SUSSMAN: No. This is what we're looking for in terms of the Antichrist. That's what he's running for, in my opinion. Now, when we come back, OV, we've got to talk about this Obama poverty plan.

Nathan Tabak is an intern at Media Matters for America.