Barack Obama pushes patriotism

Sen. Barack Obama said today that no candidate should use patriotism as a “political sword” in the presidential race, vowing to push back against any charge that he is not fervent about his country even as his supporters questioned the military expertise of his Republican opponent.

Speaking against a blue backdrop adorned with four large American flags, the presumptive Democratic nominee said that his political opponents have unfairly sought to stoke fears about his devotion to the U.S.

He wore a flag pin on his lapel, an increasingly common Obama accessory.

“I have found, for the first time, my patriotism challenged – at times as a result of my own carelessness, more often as a result of the desire by some to score political points and raise fears about who I am and what I stand for,” Obama said.

In making patriotism a focus, Obama seemed intent on offering skeptical voters reassurance on this score. He is running against Sen. John McCain, who was held captive during the Vietnam War for 5 1/2 years after his plane was shot down on a bombing run. Polls have shown that some Americans believe Obama shares the values of his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., a caustic critic of U.S. policies in past sermons.

“I will never question the patriotism of others in this campaign,” Obama told a cheering crowd of 1,150 in the city where former Democratic president Harry S. Truman was raised. “And I will not stand idly by when I hear others question mine.”

After a tour of Truman’s home, Obama spoke briefly about why he chose the location for his speech: “It’s a place where I think there’s not a lot of pretense or fuss or trying to use patriotism in ways that divide us. So I thought it was an appropriate site.”

Patriotism and national service have become a running subtext of the general election clash between Obama and McCain.

Obama’s first TV ad of the contest, released June 19, is titled “Country I Love.”

An Obama campaign supporter on Sunday took direct aim at what is often considered to be McCain’s greatest strength as a candidate: military acumen.

Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that McCain was “untested and untried” and hadn’t held “executive responsibility.”

When host Bob Schieffer said that Obama, unlike McCain, hadn’t been shot down in a fighter plane, Clark said: “Well, I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.”

McCain often jokes about getting shot down in North Vietnam at his campaign town halls as a way to downplay effusive praise from voters about his heroism and service.

He uses the laugh line “I would remind you it doesn’t take a lot of talent to get shot down. I was able to intercept a surface-to-air missile with my own airplane” frequently, and the comment appears on his own website in a news story about a Tyler, Texas, campaign stop.

But he in a news conference today in Harrisburg, Pa., McCain struck back against Clark’s comments.

“I think that that kind of thing is unnecessary,” said McCain. “I am proud of my record of service and I have plenty of friends and leaders who will attest to that.”

On a conference call with reporters, McCain supporters – calling themselves the “truth squad” – accused the Obama campaign and its surrogates of denigrating McCain’s service as a naval aviator.

Col. George E. “Bud” Day, a Medal of Honor recipient who was McCain’s cellmate in North Vietnam, said Clark’s “backhanded slap” was “one of the more surprising insults in my military history.” Day was a member of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that led a campaign to denigrate 2004 presidential candidate John F. Kerry’s military service.

Day rejected a comparison between the efforts of that group and the recent comments by Obama’s surrogates about McCain’s record. “The swift boat, quote, ‘attacks’ were simply a revelation of the truth; the similarity does not exist here,” Day said.

In a statement, Kerry said Day’s comments “only further highlight the McCain campaign’s disregard for a new kind of politics.” He noted that McCain had denounced the 2004 attacks on Kerry as “dishonest and dishonorable” and called on him to condemn Day’s remarks.

McCain’s campaign sought to link comments by Clark to those by Gen. Merrill A. McPeak last week to the Washington Times. The former Air Force chief of staff, who is supporting Obama, told the newspaper McCain was “skinny” after his release from prison in Hanoi but had “done very well at the dinner table in Washington.”

McCain’s spokesman Brian Rogers said: “It’s clear it is a pattern, and if Barack Obama wants to make that part of his campaign, that’s his right. But let’s also dispense with the notion that Sen. Obama stands for a new kind of politics.”

In his speech here, Obama sought to define patriotism, suggesting that military service is not the only criteria for patriotic feeling.

He mentioned that his grandmother worked on bomber assembly lines during World War II, while his grandfather served in the Army.

As a 4-year-old living in Indonesia, he said, his mother would read “me the first lines of the Declaration of Independence.”

“That is why, for me, patriotism is always more than just loyalty to a place on a map or a certain kind of people,” he said. “Instead, it is also loyalty to America’s ideals.”

 peter.nicholas@latimes.com

 maeve.reston@latimes.com

Times staff writer Robin Abcarian contributed to this report.