Lots to be proud of

Michelle Obama, wife of Democrat Presidential Candidate B. Hussein Obama said that this is the first time in her adult life that she has been proud of America.

Michael Kinsley quipped that a gaffe is when a politician says what he really thinks. In this case, it’s what happens when an elite Democratic politician’s wife says what a significant portion of the party’s base really believes to be the truth: America is more a source of shame than pride.

And after decades of finding nothing in America worthy of pride, it was her husband winning some primaries that finally inspired pride in Michelle Obama?

Personally, I am proud of America and proud to be an American on a daily basis. There is a lot to be proud of as an American:

• America won the Cold War and brought down the Soviet Union without firing a shot.
• America built the Space Shuttles and flew them a hundred times or so, landed rovers on Mars, and studied the reaches of the universe with the Hubble telescope.
• The Berlin Wall fell, due in large part to American pressure.
• Michelle has lived through decades of peaceful election cycles under the rule of law, which have brought about change, both good and bad.
• Michelle has witnessed and benefited from unbelievable advances in technology, communications, science, and medicine pioneered by American entrepreneurs.
• Patients lives have been improved and extended by American pharmaceutical companies which have flourished under the best economic system in the world.
• What about every Memorial Day? Every Veterans Day? Every Independence Day? Every Medal of Honor ceremony?
• Has Michelle never attended a welcome-home celebration for our troops?
• Does her liberal disdain for the military prevent her from taking pride in the honorable service of our soldiers and the sacrifice they make around the world to bring freedom to those who are oppressed by evil tyrants like Saddam Hussein?
• Has Michelle never attended a naturalization ceremony where hundreds of new Americans raised their hands to swear an oath of allegiance to this land of liberty, embracing the opportunity that America offers?
• Did Michelle not find any reason to be proud when millions of Americans rallied to help victims of the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia?
• Or when citizens rushed to their churches, the Salvation Army, and the Red Cross to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina?
• How could America's response to the attacks of 9/11 not make her proud? Only a heart of stone could be unmoved by the strength, valor, and determination displayed in New York and Washington DC after that horrific attack.

Michelle Obama's own success is evidence of the opportunity available to every American, which ought to be another source of price. Michelle has achieved enormous professional success, political influence, and personal acclaim in America. Ivy League educated, she has been recognized by Essence magazine as one of the 25 World's Most Inspiring Women, and named one of the "Harvard 100" most influential alumni. She has had an amazingly blessed life, which flies in the face of her ungrateful rhetorical claim that America does not offer opportunity.

Anyone who has trouble finding numerous reasons to be proud of America has no business in the White House.

If you are reading this, please leave a comment telling me why YOU are proud of America.