Speaking of criticizing the president and how that relates to patriotism and freedom, a past U. S. President once had something to say about that.
Theodore Roosevelt wrote the following when he was no longer president. This passage was published almost a decade later, in 1918, during Woodrow Wilson's presidency. (Roosevelt was President from 1901 to 1909. And I checked my dates this time, ahab. 
)
In the quoted passage, the emphasis is mine.
The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.And to those who would say that it's different in a time of war, note that Mr. Roosevelt made these remarks during the United States' involvement in World War I.
—Theodore Roosevelt, in an editorial written for the Kansas City Star, May 7, 1918
Take that, Bill O'Reilly.
Source: http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/life/quotes.htm
[That's all, folks]
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