Obama at VFW
You can read the prepared remarks and see the video of the speech Obama gave today to the Veterans of Foreign Wars here, the day after McCain spoke to the same crowd and went back again to questioning Obama's patriotism in his views on the war. Obama responded directly to that charge, and TPM's Greg Sargent says:

Obama declared that it's time for McCain to "acknowledge" that Obama genuinely wants to serve America's national interest. It'll be interesting to see what McCain says if and when he's asked directly by reporters whether he's prepared to acknowledge this -- and how hard the national press corps will grill him for a direct answer to the question.

I don't think this is a positive development. We don't need more and more news cycles of asking John McCain if maybe, just maybe Obama only loves his country slightly less than he does, rather than much less. Why give in to the offensive notion that McCain is the proper judge of who loves the country enough?

When I complain that Obama is not hitting back hard, I'm not wanting stuff like this. I'm wanting him to hit McCain over what he would do to the country with his horrible ideas. I don't want the press corps asking about Obama's patriotism; I want them asking why continuing this war with no end in sight - and against the wishes of the American people - at $1 Billion/month - is worth it? McCain is distracting attention away from his policies, which the majority of voters disagree with.

McCain is not the arbiter of love of country. Don't explain that you love it. Show it, in your passion and your agenda. And accuse McCain of reverting to a politics of division that is trying to hide his agenda beneath scurrilous attacks. After 8 years of Bush, we need an infusion of character in our politics, and sanity in our policies. McCain currently offers neither.