Wasting more space
in today's NYT's opinion real estate, is another broadside swipe at the presumptive Democratic nominee by
the illustrious William Kristol.

Kristol took his magical monocle and applied it to the commencement speech given by the pinch hitting Obama at Wesleyan University. Now, you know that Kristol isn't reading Obama's speech as an exercise in fair mindedness. Or to learn something. Or to better appreciate Obama's character. No, no, no dear reader! Never that! He reads his speech and then thinks: How can I turn this speech into a political attack that emphasizes the developing right-wing memes regarding Obama?

After offering obligatory praise on the substance of the speech, and the effectiveness of its delivery, our hero Billy discovers a horrible oversight in Obama's laundry lists of avenues to service. That's right folks! William “Bloody” Kristol-- the man who has never deigned to serve his community or his country in uniform, finds it downright unseemly that Obama should neglect to mention military service in his much vaunted list! Oh, the shame! Obama just can't help hating our troops, even when giving a commencement speech at an “elite”school.

Kristol goes on to bloviate about what a wasted opportunity it was for Obama to broaden the horizon's of the commencement class by failing to propagandize military service. Perhaps Obama didn't want to push the idea for military service since it would include participation in an illegal and morally bankrupt war in Iraq? Or maybe, just maybe it didn't register as the sort of service that Obama was reaching for—community service, which is traditionally understood as doing acts of goodness for your community in your community. But of course, in the bizarro world inhabited by Kristol, being an occupying force in a foreign nation and maintaining peace at the point of a gun is community service.

Obama's speech on service focused specifically on helping those in America—in communities hard hit by poverty or natural disaster, or job loss, etc. Although he does speak of the “Peace Corps” which isn't specifically domestically oriented, the gist of Obama's call to service is domestic based. Here's a sample of Obama's remarks:

“It’s because you have an obligation to yourself. Because our individual salvation depends on collective salvation. Because thinking only about yourself, fulfilling your immediate wants and needs, betrays a poverty of ambition. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential and discover the role you’ll play in writing the next great chapter in America’s story.”

There is much more of the same in Obama's speech. He's talking about NATIONAL service. That is, service to this nation, in this nation, beginning in one's community. This is a “sin” of omission to the likes of Kristol, who of course, sums up his political attack masked as opinion by casting aspersions on Obama's patriotism:

“Obama failed to challenge — even gently — what he must have assumed would be the prejudices of much of his audience and indulged in a soft patriotism of low expectations.”

That's right. In Kristol's universe, a speech about humanitarian based local community service must include military service. To fail to do so is implicitly unpatriotic.

Kudo's to Kristol for taking a speech on a call to national service, and making it an argument for how Obama's unpatriotic. Way to go!