Obama Believes In American Exceptionalism More Than Any Other President Ever

The right-wing meme that liberals in general — and President Obama in particular — don’t believe in “American exceptionalism” because they’ve never said that exact phrase can now be put to bed once and for all. President Barack Obama is the only president on record (records having been kept for 82 years) who has uttered the phrase “American exceptionalism.” Thanks to Robert Schlesinger at US News, we now have the facts.  On April 4, 2009, Obama said the phrase that pays during a news conference in Strasbourg, France. Asked about American exceptionalism, he said:

I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism. I am enormously proud of my country and its role and history in the world. If you think about the site of this summit and what it means, I don’t think America should be embarrassed to see evidence of the sacrifices of our troops, the enormous amount of resources that were put into Europe postwar, and our leadership in crafting an alliance that ultimately led to the unification of Europe. We should take great pride in that.

And if you think of our current situation, the United States remains the largest economy in the world. We have unmatched military capability. And I think that we have a core set of values that are enshrined in our Constitution, in our body of law, in our democratic practices, in our belief in free speech and equality that, though imperfect, are exceptional.

At the time Obama said this, he was criticized for saying that Americans believe in exceptionalism just as citizens of other countries think their countries are exceptional, i.e., claiming we’re no more exceptional than other countries. Of course these Obama- and liberal-haters forgot the rest of what he said. George H. W.  Bush never said “American exceptionalism.” George W. Bush never said it. Neither did Ronald Reagan.  Barack Obama said it. Thus, given the reasoning of the conservatives who have been critical of him for not saying it, (a) They’re wrong, and (b) Barack Obama loves his country more than any other president ever did.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.