Right-wing media attack Obama over Memorial Day plans
Conservative media have attacked President Obama, claiming that his plans to attend a Memorial Day ceremony in Chicago while allowing Vice President Joe Biden to lay a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery are disrespectful to the military. However, previous presidents -- including Ronald Reagan -- allowed others to lay the wreath at Arlington to honor fallen troops.
Media conservatives slam Obama's Memorial Day plans as "offensive" to soldiers
Beck criticizes Obama over wreath laying, says he is "sick and tired of people believing the lie" that Obama "has respect for the soldiers." Glenn Beck stated, "Obama is skipping out on a Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington Cemetery because he'll be in Chicago on vacation. I'm sorry, I don't ever, ever question the president's vacation. I didn't under Bush, I didn't under Clinton, I don't under Obama." He later stated: "I have no problem with the man taking a vacation. But I am sick and tired -- sick and tired -- of people believing the lie that this administration has respect for the police or has respect for the soldiers of our country. I'm tired of it." [Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Program, 5/25/10]
Erickson: "Obama skipping the Tomb of the Unknowns this weekend for Chicago is offensive." In a Twitter post, CNN contributor and RedState blogger Erick Erickson wrote: "Obama skipping the Tomb of the Unknowns this weekend for Chicago is offensive. Chicago can wait. The Commander-in-Chief has a job to do."
Malkin guest blogger: "Boy, I'm starting to think that West Point speech wasn't from the heart." On MichelleMalkin.com, guest blogger Doug Powers wrote: "President Obama went to Arlington Cemetery to lay the wreath last year, but this year Obama's handing the wreath to Plugs and heading off to the more welcoming political climes of Chicago." Powers later added: "Obama will however make it back to Washington in time to honor Paul McCartney next week. Boy, I'm starting to think that West Point speech wasn't from the heart."
JammieWearingFool: "Obama Blows Off Arlington Visit on Memorial Day," in a "slap in the face to our veterans." Right-wing blogger JammieWearingFool wrote that Obama's plans for Memorial Day are "[a]nother slap in the face to our veterans." He also stated: "Poor baby needs some rest, so he's going to Chicago. Will probably take in some relaxing fundraising and golf or something."
Obama to honor troops in Chicago ceremony while Biden attends Arlington ceremony
AP: Obama "scheduled to participate in a Memorial Day ceremony" in Illinois; Biden to lay wreath in Arlington National Cemetery. A May 24 Associated Press article reported that during a "long holiday weekend in Chicago," Obama "is scheduled to participate in a Memorial Day ceremony at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Ill." The article further reported, "Vice President Joe Biden will participate in the customary wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington."
Previous presidents have allowed others to lay wreath at Arlington Cemetery to honor troops
1983: Reagan attended summit meeting; Defense Department official Thayer laid wreath at Arlington. Deputy Secretary of Defense W. Paul Thayer laid a wreath at Arlington Cemetery during the Memorial Day ceremony in 1983, according to a May 31, 1983, Washington Post article (accessed via Nexis). The AP reported that President Reagan attended a "summit meeting in Williamsburg, Va., with leaders of the industrialized democracies."
1992: George H.W. Bush allowed VP Quayle to lay wreath. In 1992, Vice President Dan Quayle laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, according to a May 26, 1992, Boston Globe article (accessed via the Nexis database). The Globe reported that President George H.W. Bush attended a wreath-laying ceremony and made brief remarks at an American Legion hall in Kennebunkport, Maine, where he also played a round of golf.
Veterans Day 2007: Cheney attends ceremony to pay tribute at Arlington as Bush remained in Texas. On November 11, 2007, the AP reported that "President Bush honored U.S. troops past and present at a tearful ceremony Sunday for four Texans who died there." The AP further reported that "Vice President Dick Cheney went to Arlington to pay tribute to Iraq veterans."
It's not a rejection of the Arlington ceremony - it's him embracing his hometown, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Does every presidential recognition of veterans have to be limited to those buried in Arlington? Are veterans buried elsewhere somehow less deserving of the honor of a presidential visit? Why do right-wingers hate veterans who aren't buried at Arlington?
You make a very good point. There is nothing disrespectful about Obama's Chicago visit. More nuttiness from those who dump on him for the stupidest things.
That has to be the Conservative equivalent of President Johnson losing Walter Cronkite (and hence middle America.)
Great post though, I agree 100%.
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Plus - it's one thing that WE call BS on these fools. But to have conservative posters doing it - on a LIBERAL site? I still think that exraordinary.
What fools who think that their thumbs down mean something!
(and your therapist)
These thumbs down mean nothing! I must, therefore, complain!
DD, the thumbs down would mean even less if you'd stop letting 'em get to you. You're being manipulated by people who laugh at your little fits. Take your own advice for once and just let it go.
They ONLY mean something about the people who MAKE them.
And I'm NOT complaining. I'm MOCKING those who MADE them.
But you already know this, and WE already know that YOU only come out of the woodwork when you need to defend RightON. I already outed you by posting ALL your suck-up posts for him a month or so ago when you last poked your head out of his butt and gasped for air! I listed post after post after post from you that were of that type.
The thing that needs to be let go of and the person who needs to do it would be YOU letting go of your buddy's you-know-what.
They ONLY mean something about the people who MAKE them.
Whatever. If they meant nothing TO YOU (hey look! caps for emphasis!), you wouldn't throw all these hissy fits over them. I think they're meaningless, period, but you don't. To you, they are cause for much gnashing of teeth. As noted previously, that's why you're so easily manipulated by the anonymous thumbs-down types. You always do exactly what they expect you to. THEY'RE LAUGHING AT YOU, STUPID. (more caps for emphasis! neat!)
I already outed you by posting ALL your suck-up posts for him a month or so ago when you last poked your head out of his butt and gasped for air! I
Ooo! I have a stalker! How could I have missed that? I guess I just don't hang on your every word. But then, who does? Oh, that's right - NO ONE. (caps again! woo hoo!)
I have to say, on one level, I understand the anonymous thumbs-down people. It's very amusing watching you slide from mere narcissism into genuine paranoid lunacy. You complain about personal attacks, yet you make a TON of them, but hey, IOKIYADD. Don't flatter yourself, though - your childish taunts don't upset me, as they only leave you looking like [more of] an idiot. I want honest debate, so get your head out of so-and-so's butt and let go of his you-know what! If you had even the slightest capacity for honest self-reflection, you'd see how stupid and self-contradictory that is.
I definitely get the sense that you have no real friends and no real life. Otherwise, you wouldn't get so worked up about all this nonsense in the virtual world.
If YOU had any substance to your assertion that they meant something to me, you'd be able to show HOW that's the case.
But EVERY TIME I discuss them, EVERY TIME, I mock those who think it means something!
I don't "throw hissy fits" over the thumbs down, liar. But thanks, for once again exposing that YOU have your head firmly inside RightON's butt! I love it when you guys destroy your OWN credibility without ANY help from me - well, I DO aid and abet you doing it, because I get you so doggone frustrated that you can't HELP but come to his aid!!!!!!! Don't you SEE how incompetent that makes you - that your urge to make a personal attack on ME is SO great that you can't stop from making a fool of yourself?
And yeah, capitalizing a word DOES emphasize it. It works well - I guess you're just jealous that I thought of it first?
The thumbs down ARE pretty meaningless, but CLEARLY many trolls think that they aren't.
And THAT fact deserves mocking!!! You making the point that I make all the time, that the thumbs down ARE pretty worthless and meaningless, MAKES MY POINT, doofus! I swear, you guys are SO freaking clueless that you don't understand that YOU writing that they're pointless works AGAINST your argument!!! Hilarious!
You can KEEP bogusly claiming that I get all upset over them, and EVERYONE ELSE can keep reading that I NEVER get upset about them. Now, SOME people do seem to get irked by inappropriate thumbs down. Not me! But keep making bogus personal attacks - see where THAT gets you. I can tell you that EVERYONE who hitches their wagon to RightON's is sorry later on, but go for it if you must.
And no, you didn't "miss it", you liar. But pretend all you want that you weren't outed - no one believes you. But no, you don't have a stalker - you denied your role as RightON's favorite aide, and I documented that in fact, you are almost EXCLUSIVELY posting here SOLELY to back him up! You made a few posts in support of the ending of DADT I believe, and besides that, nothing else but mindless troll support from you.
And again you lie. I don't freak out or whine about personal attacks - I MOCK those who think that personal attacks are valid arguments. Everyone knows THAT too!
And clearly YOU and RightON are terribly frustrated by my effective destruction of your credibility here on this site. Again, everyone knows that.
I don't post here "exclusively to back him up." I post here almost exclusively to point out your endless stupidity, self delusion and hypocrisy. You're a ridiculously easy target. Believe me, it could be a full time job if I chose to make it so. You are a very objectionable person. This is why you have no friends, except for a tiny handful of anonymous posters here. If you had a life, you wouldn't be ranting and raving here all the time.
It turns out that just in the last 30 years, there have been a LOT of Presidents missing in action from Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day!
George H W Bush didn't attend a SINGLE event at Arlington. Ronald Reagan was away 4 times in 8 years (one time he was still recovering from being shot).
And contrary to Greta Van Susteran's assertion the other day, George H W Bush doesn't get a pass to do anything he wants to on that day just because he was a fighter pilot who was shot down in WW II. The holiday is to honor fallen vets - if President Obama has an obligation to appear there, then so did HW.
And who showed up EVERY year? Yes, folks, that'd be Bill Clinton!
I wish what my parents used to tell myself and my siblings about lying when we were growing up would happen to these rw liars. They told us our tongues would fall out if we told lies.
He spoke "movingly" at the Republican Convention a few years of flying over Arlington Cemetery in a helicopter many times and how meaningful the rows of crosses were to him.
The only problem is that there are not rows of crosses at Arlington.
It doesn't ever matter what Obama does or doesn't do, what he says or what he doesn't say. They will attack him over nothing, they will create a story that isn't there. They've done this time and time again, they are not journalists. A small part of me wishes that Beck's asinine conspiracy about the president trying to silence Fox News was true. I'm all for a balance of opinions, but they are not operating on any plane of reality. You cannot reason with these people when their only goal isn't the prosperity of this nation, but the destruction of an administration. And to even compare this to what liberals did to Bush is complete bunk because with the Bush administration, you actually HAD scandals, abuses of power, back room deals and borderline treasonous behavior.
And that is Obama is going to honor veterans on Memorial Day; specifically those buried in Abraham Lincoln Cemetery, a veterans' cemetery south of Chicago. He will be paying his respects there on Memorial Day.
I guess that doesn't count. It must be filled with phony soldiers: Info about the fly in the Right Wing Talking Point ointment
Losers. Sore ones at that.
Gets old.