Obama defended

In his May 18 column, “Qualities for a New President,” Larry Anderson states, “I can’t think of one time when [President Obama] has spoken emotionally for his love of the country that elevated him to the highest office in the land.”

Mr. Anderson, meet Mr. Google … and a small sample of similar Obama quotes from a two-minute search:

“I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible. Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation … our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago ….’ That is the true genius of America.” – 7/27/2004

“The United States has been one of the greatest sources of progress that the world has ever known.” – 6/4/2009

“We keep our eyes fixed on that distant horizon knowing that providence is with us and that we are surely blessed to be citizens of the greatest nation on Earth.” – 9/6/2012

“I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being.” – 5/28/2014

Mr. Anderson is entitled to express contempt towards the President in the Forum on a regular basis. But as fact checker Glenn Kessler wrote of Rudy Giuliani’s near-identical patriotism attack (NYT, February 22, 2015), “he has no business claiming something that is so factually incorrect— or easily disproved.”

Dan Smith

Maryville