I find that people who go out of their way to claim they’re more patriotic than you, that they love our country more than you, that they love the troops more than you, that they love God more than you – usually don’t. In fact, people who wear their “love of” on their sleeve usually have some sort of problem. Normal people don’t need to publicly extol their own love of country, family, or faith. They show it – they don’t crow it, as it were.

Hagel and Reed returned to the United States from Jordan, while Obama continued on to Israel, Germany, France and Britain.

“At that point, it was a political trip for Sen. Obama,” Hagel said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “I think it would have been inappropriate for him — and certainly he would have been criticized by the McCain people and the press and, probably should have been — if, on a political trip in Europe, paid for by political funds, not the taxpayers, to go essentially then and be accused of using our wounded men and women as props for his campaign.”

Hagel also lit in to McCain for, as host Bob Schieffer put it, stating that Obama’s views on Iraq were based on political expediency, “that he chose — and these are Sen. McCain’s words — ‘a political path that would get him the nomination.'”

“I think John is treading on some very thin ground here when he impugns motives, and when we start to get into ‘You’re less patriotic than me, I’m more patriotic,’ ” Hagel replied, adding: “John’s better than that.”