Photo by Barbara Wingate
This is a story that will have a lot of people talking around WNY. Local developer Carl Paladino has gotten complaints from a few of his customers at Thrifty Rental Cars (Yes, Carl owns one of those, too.) Apparently, Paladino had anti-Obama bumper stickers placed on the rental cars.
The stickers said Vote for the American, an apparent reference to the belief by some that Obama is not an American citizen. Paladino says this is not what he meant...
“I'm not a birther, I'm an American,” he declared. He said he was “fed up” with Obama after the attack and murder of four Americans at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11. He said the president is not telling the truth about what happened and that Obama defies basic American precepts and has weakened the country.
“For that reason, I don't believe he is an American. I don't think he fosters the American ideals,” Paladino said. “I could care less where Obama was born. I don't feel he is an American with American values doing the best for America.”
While one can argue whether Obama is a good President or a lousy one, I don't understand the questioning of his patriotism. I wasn't a huge fan of George W. Bush and am not a huge fan of Obama, but I've never viewed either as being anti-American.
It will be interesting to see if the ultra liberals oppose Thrifty or the ultra Conservatives flock to use it's services. The whole thing reminds me of the Chick-fil-A restaurant down South, which became a rallying point for the Conservative movement after the owner spoke out against gay marriage. In any event, Carl always keeps things interesting...
Paladino puts anti-Obama bumper stickers on rental cars*
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