Election a study in U.S. patriotism

By Matthew Bigg

ATLANTA (Reuters) - The U.S. presidential election presents a sharp contrast between two types of patriotism: John McCain stands as a war hero. His rival Barack Obama calls Americans back to the can-do spirit of the nation's founders.

In November the candidates will find out which style appealed more to voters in this time of war and economic uncertainty.

Unlike other democratic countries, patriotism, though a fuzzy concept, plays powerfully in U.S. elections, when Americans are often reminded of their country's revolutionary roots and politicians tap into a sense of national pride.

Democratic candidate Obama has made patriotism a core theme of his campaign, seeking to inspire voters to overcome divisions of race and party and using his own story as a child of a Kenyan father and Kansas mother as an example of opportunities available only in America.

But on the campaign trail, audiences also applaud Republican McCain's tales of his experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam which embody qualities he seeks to project as a candidate.

As a Navy pilot, McCain was shot down over Hanoi in 1967. He was stabbed, beaten, tortured and imprisoned for more than five years, including two years in solitary confinement.

The appeal of that biography, encapsulating triumph over adversity while serving one's country, was apparent on Saturday in televised interviews with each candidate by a leading pastor, Rick Warren, at his megachurch in California.

Asked to describe the hardest decision he ever made, Obama talked about his decision to oppose the Iraq war.

McCain recounted how he decided to refuse early repatriation from a Hanoi prison even though he was injured, because he did not want to jump the line -- a story that visibly resonated with the audience.

Nothing in Obama's life story can match those experiences and they reinforce McCain's slogan of "Country First," said Richard Kohn, professor of history at the University of North Carolina.

"For McCain, not only does it (patriotism) arise from his very being, his identity, but it plays a dual role of emphasizing a national security part of the campaign and the contrast between him and Obama," he said.

McCain retired from the Navy in 1981 and entered politics. He stresses his war years in questioning Obama's foreign policy credentials and readiness to be commander-in-chief.

For his part, Obama praises McCain's patriotic service but has made unswerving opposition to the Iraq war a pillar of his campaign and vows to pull U.S. combat troops out of Iraq.

"SUSPICION"

Obama grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, an island far from the U.S. mainland. As a result, he could be vulnerable to the charge that his background and values are unfamiliar.