Mediaboss Marketing

No major Republican leaders have condemned former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's comments that President Obama does not love America.

When Rudy Giuliani told a roomful of Republican heavyweights that President Barack Obama doesnt love America, he got more political blowback than hed probably expected, including feature-length resurrections of his failed marriages and his dead-in-the-water 2008 presidential nomination, as well as a scolding of sorts from Fox News, of all places.

For the most part, the nation yawned. Been there, done that, got the Obamacare.

On the right, however, the message played like the Sermon on the Mount, confirming a Gospel truth: Obama isnt one of us, and the president is a fraud. Not a single Republican leader stepped up to condemn Giulianis stinkbomb, and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin the guest of honor at the dinner and a would-be presidential candidate would only say Hizzoner speaks for himself.

Andra Gillespie, a political science professor at Emory University, says the lack of GOP condemnation is simple to explain, and it goes a few steps beyond racism. Like the fabled World War II enemy soldier marooned in a deserted cave, she says a segment of the right refuses to believe that this particular battle in the broader culture wars is over.

[READ: Criticism of Obama Reaches New Level]

There is a subset of the American population that has never fully accepted the legitimacy of the Obama presidency, Gillespie, who specializes in race and politics, told Whispers in an email interview. Another subset of the American population acknowledges that Barack Obama is the legitimate president; however, they so strongly disagree with his policies that they will view any critique of the president even the most outlandish and insulting as legitimate.

Then, she says, theres a third subset who feel Obama doesn't respect or believe in American exceptionalism, even though hes said he does. Repeatedly. That segment, Gillespie said, is really anxious about social and geopolitical changes and worries that Americas in danger of losing its lone-superpower status.

Their reaction is to try to affirm American exceptionalism at all costs, and they are concerned when they perceive that the president doesnt take every opportunity to declare America great, Gillespie said. Giuliani can rally a following in all three groups by charging that the president is not a patriot.

[ALSO: Republicans Like Scott Walker Still Try to Other Obama]

Original post:
Last Call: By Throwing Bombs at Obama's Patriotism, Giuliani Illuminates Right's Anxieties