Richard Warnick‘How can I vote for a president who won’t wear a flag pin?’
The lowest point of the abysmal ABC debate, hosted by George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson, came when they inserted a patriotism smear against Barack Obama. Because the smear would have sounded petty and stupid if asked by the moderators, it came instead in the form of a short video featuring Nash McCabe, a Pennsylvania Obama-hater.
Gibson claimed that the issue of whether Sen. Barack Obama wears a flag lapel pin “comes up again and again when we talk to voters” and “is all over the Internet.” Yet, coincidentally(?) McCabe is the same voter quoted in a recent New York Times article.
“How can I vote for a president who won’t wear a flag pin?†Mrs. McCabe, a recently unemployed clerk typist, said in a booth at the Valley Dairy luncheonette in this quiet, small city in western Pennsylvania.
Mr. Obama has said patriotism is about ideas, not flag pins.
“I watch him on TV,†Mrs. McCabe said. “I keep looking for that lapel pin.â€
If only a lapel pin could confer enough good judgment, intelligence and courage to make a successful chief executive. It sure doesn’t work for President Bush.
Related One Utah post: Bush Desecrates American Flag (July 27, 2007)
April 18th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
I think this issue is huge. How can I know who is the most patriotic candidate if they are not wearing a giant flag on their shirt? I’m still holding out for a candidate who drapes him (or her) self in the flag.
April 18th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
It’s sad that while GW is the human embodiment of all that ‘Old Glory’ symbolizes, he can no longer be our one true leader after this cycle. Much as I shed tears at the beginning of baseball games, just before they say, “Play ball”, my reverent regard for Him, and His Cohorts will need a lot of assaugementing and re-edumacation. No, life, without this Grand Old Party will be different, (I hope)!
April 18th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
hey, your guy Obama has been sporting a flag pin lately. Not to mention all the flags he had draped behind him during his “I don’t agree with reverend Write even though I have attended his church for 20 years” speech.
I don’t think it’s a good idea to have a flag on a doormat.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
My flag pin is so tiny you can barely see it, but by god, it’s there for a fact, and I ain’t backin’ down till something stands up!
April 18th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
But I’ll autograph your flag if you bow to me.
April 18th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Liberals have their symbols too. It wasn’t too long ago that everyone in Hollywood had to wear a red ribbon or they didn’t care about AIDS.
April 18th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Liberals are totally wrapped in the Flegg! We cain’t even get near it any more!
(I suppose that’s cause we got so far from it!)
April 18th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
I’ll let Bill Moyers speak for me in this wonderful comment about flag pins from just before the illegal occupation of Iraq.
He got in a huge amount of trouble for this commentary and, if I’m not mistaken, lost his “NOW” program on PBS shortly after because of disputes with corrupt Bush administration crony Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, who violated the law, and replaced Moyers with a short lived program featuring right wing hack Tucker Carlson.
So you see, flag pins REALLY ARE important!
April 19th, 2008 at 5:02 am
How many ‘bars n stars’ will the flag of the global new world order have on it? I sense it won’t be near as pretty as ‘Old Glory’. Surely it’ll have more red on it than we presently do - representing ‘collateral’ bloodshed.
April 19th, 2008 at 5:26 am
My lapel pin says. “No more GOPervs”. It’s all red white and blue and everything.
April 19th, 2008 at 9:11 am
That’s a very weird picture of Bush standing on the flag. Did he symbolically wipe his feet on it moments after the picture was taken.
April 19th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Sadly, I don’t think Mrs. McCabe is unique in her concern for the lapel pin. I’ve seen a number of conservative email forwards worried about the same thing, and talked to a number of people here in Utah who express the same sort of reservation. How sad that they are so concerned with such a superficial matter. I’ve discussed it several times on my blog. Wearing a flag on one’s person (or car, or house, etc) doesn’t make one patriotic any more than slapping a fish on one’s car or wearing a cross (or CTR ring) makes one Christian. But all too many just can’t see that.
(And just for the record, I don’t wear pink ribbons, red ribbons, yellow ribbons, or any other sort of issue paraphernalia. Nor do most liberals I know or have seen)
April 19th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Ms. McCabe has something in common with all the TV talking heads I’ve seen slamming Obama for not wearing a flag pin all the time. She wasn’t wearing one.
April 19th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
That photo (above) has to have been photo-shopped. No way our Commmander in Chief would treat that wonderful symbol in the manner suggested. Just did NOT happen!
I suppose he just didn’t see it laying there…
(wingnut flip-flop)