Larison points me to this sentence by Michael Gerson:
A president is expected to be a patriotic symbol himself, not the arbiter of patriotic symbols. He is supposed to be the face-painted superfan at every home game; to wear red, white and blue boxers on special marital occasions; to get misty-eyed during the most obscure patriotic hymns.
When will be rid of this neurosis? The desperate need to prove and re-prove and demonstrate and re-demonstrate one's love of country is not a form of patriotism. It's a form of insecurity. All the way down to underwear.