Obama bares teeth in Orlando

Finally, the senator realizes that sometimes he will need to show a bit of anger if he wants to win this thing.

Published August 19, 2008 3:37PM (EDT)

Barack Obama has seemed, at times, too unwilling to throw a punch. Maybe that is changing. In the same Orlando, Fla., speech to the annual conference of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in which he tantalizingly dropped Joe Biden's name, Obama opened fire:

"For all of his talk about following Osama bin Laden to the Gates of Hell, Senator McCain refused to join my call to take out bin Laden across the Afghan border. Instead, he spent years backing a dictator in Pakistan who failed to serve the interests of his own people," he said.

And later:

"Let me be clear: I will let no one question my love of this country. I love America, so do you, and so does John McCain."

That's the stuff. More, please.


By Thomas Schaller

Thomas F. Schaller is professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the author of "Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South." Follow him @schaller67.

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