Michael: maybe not antiAmerican in that extreme manner, but there is a clear difference between most conservatives and liberals in defining “American” or “anti-American.” For conservatives, the view tends to be that America is a great country, always was, still is, and forever shall be…but there are improvments needed around the edges. Liberals tend to be far more critical to the point of seeming that they feel core change is needed, and that doesn’t play well with conservatives.

I remember hearing about a stump speech Obama made where he said something (which was probably just a gaffe, but still to conservative ears it sounded like a Freudian slip)…it was something along the lines of “We live in the greatest country in the world…now I ask you to join with me to change it.” That pretty much sums up the way that Obama’s ‘anti-Americanism’ comes across to people like myself- they want sweeping, fundamental changes rather than just fixing what’s broken.

It seems he uses his own internal GPS (“he’s an Education professor concerned about inner city kids and their education”) and that tends to dampen any sense of how the American public might view a guy posing for a picture standing on the American flag or a guy who in a previous life blew up government buildings and now thirty years later isn’t wholly apologetic but instead says “we didn’t do enough”.  We went through this same process with Rev. Wright.  The difference now is that Mr. Ayers is not now going before the national media and forcing Sen. Obama’s hand.  Fortunately for Sen. Obama,  Bill Ayers is staying quiet.

I think it’s pretty clear he doesn’t subscribe to their anti-American views.