Obama Will No Longer Wear American Flag Pin
Taylor Marsh: “All this over a flag pin on his lapel? It illustrates the length and breadth of group think now holding sway in the Republican party.”
Ed Driscoll: “Thus winning the eternal support of Katie Couric, her fellow newscasters, Hollywood, and other compassionate head-tilters.”
Michelle Malkin: “Can you imagine the Obama-approved presidential seal should this moonbat win the White House? (Yes, I’m having fun goofing off with the Photoshop spraypaint brush. It’s just one of those days.)”
Atlas Shrugs: “Talk about pandering to the radical base, he ought to run against Ahmadinejad.”
Daimnation!: “It’s one thing to make the (perfectly valid) argument that politicians shouldn’t wrap themselves in the stars-and-stripes, but using one’s refusal to wear a flag pin as a sign of virtue seems no better.”
Jackalope Pursuivant: “Senator Obama is really just rolling out the old ‘dissent is patriotic’ line, as if we’re supposed to be impressed by that extremely tired rhetoric. Or is this how Democratic senators still talk?”
Roger L. Simon: “The banality of his observations on this matter boggle the mind. What kind of ego is it that feels we must listen to this blather?”
Little Green Footballs: “I’m now beginning to put some credence in the idea that Barack Obama is nothing but a stalking horse for the Hillary Clinton campaign, because nobody could really be this stupid.”
Seth Leibsohn @ The Corner: “You wanna destroy the Obama campaign right now? Right now? HRC, and frankly every candidate, ought to be wearing the pin flag starting RIGHT NOW.”
Stop the ACLU: “Speak your ideas with the pin or without, Obama. They are still socialist insanities either way around. I could care less if you wear a pin on your lapel or not.”
The Carpetbagger Report: “It’d be easy for Obama to simply wear the pin and avoid the question, but instead he articulated a more important point about ideas carrying more weight than symbols. It was a small gesture, but it’s an admirable one.”
Captain’s Quarters: “If the presidential campaign can manage to rid us of that plague of color-coded caring, it might be worth something. In the meantime, wearing a flag pin on his lapel wouldn’t convince me to vote for Obama, and a bare lapel on a candidate who matches up with my point of view best won’t stop my support.”
Gateway Pundit: “Because nothing shows your patriotism like stuffing that US flag pin in the drawer!”
Hot Air: “All hail our moral superior, who for the second time in as many weeks dresses up a cynical political gesture in the rhetoric of high ideals and ‘change.’”
So what will O. Hussein Obama be wearing on his lapel ?
A crescent moon and star?
These guys are right. He should have refused to answer the question. He should have punched the reporter in the face instead. That would have made more sense. Wow, I’m impressed with their capacity for critical thought.
Nice. Gates should pass down the orders through the military branches to remove those “substitutes” from soldiers uniforms… since the flag is just a cheap substitute now.
And this guarantees he will never be President.
When asked why he instead wears a pin with the Mexican flag on it, Obama explained, “You racist bigot!!! Xenaphobic trout!! Redneck!!! Minuteman!!! Babyhater!!! FamilySplitter!!! Gardener hater!!! Restaurant-eating selfish Republican!!! Cultural ignoramous!! Hillbilly!!!”
I typically don’t lurch to the perjorative, but Obama is an idiot.
Can anyone explain to me how not proudly wearing the symbol of our country better demonstrates his patriotism?
In case you didn’t get it, this is intended as a slam against those proud of the flag and hold it in honor.
If I were HRC, I wouldn’t ask this freak to share the ticket with me.
I stopped watching “Network” news when the Anchors didn’t think it was appropriate to wear the Flag Lapel Pin. I won’t have anything to do with Osama er, Obama for the same reason.
Bush should use some of his toilet paper with the Constitution written on it, coming out of his suit pocket — real fancy like.
Someone is giving presidential candidate Obama very bad advice. I balked at his choice of foreign policy advisor. Now this. This is the kind of thinking that characterizes Michael Moore with his grinning, immature rebellion against bourgeois symbols. Why does PC Obama choose to react against those Americans who consider the manifestation of the flag as a legitimate expression of their pride in America?? Someone should ask him exactly what he means by this gesture. Maybe he didn’t think it to its rational conclusion before he decided to take off the pin.
I can’t put this in any simpler terms:
What a crock!
I initially thought this story was perhaps an Onion.com piece. Can Obama indeed be this stupid? Truth is often stranger than fiction. Who does he think is being impressed? I’m just flabergasted. This is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard in my life.
This is one he can’t blame on Tony Rezko.
If I am a reporter at the next rally, I ask him..”ok, now should we remove the flags from this podium..this building?”
What Obama should have done is seen the question for the bait it was, at best, or the glaring symbol of how little there actually is to report about this absurdly long campaign at worst, and ignored the question.
That said, for those who don’t like the guy, I really hope they can come up with a better reason than that he doesn’t wear a flag pin. If he started wearing two flag pins, a yellow ribbon, and a banner that said, “US is best, F*** all the rest,” would you start to like him better?
After all is said and done, when he said, “the American flag lapel pin. . . has become a substitute for ‘true patriotism’ since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks,” he was absolutely correct.
If you measure your patriotism or that of others by what’s on their lapels, you’re taking what should be a noble idea and making it shallow and petty. You’re putting patriotism on the same level as pinching people for not wearing green on St. Patty’s Day, regardless of how much they eat, drink, and make merry.
Can’t we judge candidates by, oh. . . I don’t know. . . what they propose or what they do, instead of what they wear?
Should the Catholic Church start choosing popes by the size of the gold crucifixes around cardinals’ necks?
@Garrett – Exactly.
Who is more patriotic: someone who puts a made-in-China flag ribbon magnet on their Hummer, or someone who eschews stars-and-stripes adornments but rides a US-made bicycle to work?
Now I’ve had a chance to read Mr. Obama’s words, and I will assume the quotes I read reflect the sense of what he said. If that’s true, then he is describing the same action some people take when they come to the realization that they are headed for a divorce: they take off their wedding rings.
The reason people are all het up and uncomfortable about what he has done is that they understand the guesture, and his words have confirmed that taking off the lapel pin meant what they thought it meant. He’s trying to hide behind some sort of intellectual purity argument, but he could still let his patriotism show by his words and actions, and still keep his commitment to national unity. But, he views those two goals as being inconsitent with one another.
As far as I am concerned, he can wear any piece of jewelry, or none. But because he meant the act of taking off that lapel pin to convey the divorcee’s message, I will not vote on any ticket with his name on it. He would not represent the union of all the people.
Pride in our nation demonstrated through displaying the flag is not a new phenomenon. I am 60 and grew up in a household which always flew the flag on specific holidays like Flag Day, 4th of July, VE day, Pearl Harbor Day and others. My brothers and I have tried to continue the practice somewhat with our families. Three of my sons are in the Army; two currently are serving in Iraq. Our flag symbolizes the sacrifice of our service men and women who have fought beneath it in many wars. To them it is an important symbol. What does it say that a candidate for Commander-in-Chief publicly eschews this symbol of past and present determination to preserve and protect the American flag?
C’mon everybody! Let’s sing it together with Comrade Barak in the lead:
Arise, you prisoners of starvation!
Arise, you wretched of the earth!
For justice thunders condemnation:
A better world’s in birth!
No more tradition’s chains shall bind us,
Arise you slaves, no more in thrall!
The earth shall rise on new foundations:
We have been nought, we shall be all!
‘Tis the final conflict,
Let each stand in his place.
The international soviet
Shall be the human race
‘Tis the final conflict,
Let each stand in his place.
The international working class
Shall be the human race
Proud GOP senator poses with lapel pin.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/graphics/packageart/mugshots/larrycraigmug4.jpg
Great Reader, KIM Jong IL, on Patriotism (PLATE-RIOTISM) and the Wearing of a Flag (FRAG) Pin
Meanwhile, just Norf of the 38th Parallel, we find Great Reader KIM Jong IL on a mega-flone/crowd-speaker with the bidness-end pointed towards the Souf, across the DMZ, at our US Forces)
KIM- Rett me makie one thing perfwectly queer… I’m Great Reader and mine wearing or not wearing of da Norf Korean Frag on my lapel is up to me, and ownree me! You scandalous G.I. hawks-of-chicken dong! I’m knows all abrout you guys air-wade-ing villages and killing saw-billions! I’m know it true! Obama himself say so! Code Prink say so! The Great VietNam War Hero and
Round-Eyed Plate-riot John Kerry say so! Bird-Turd Kernal and EX Marine Jack Murfa say so! Dick Turban (D-Oprahville) say so! Harry Weed (D-Wost Vegas) say so! Your Momma-san Nanny Pelosi, say so!
EBBERYBODY SAYS SO!!!
There’s floor, you have no rights to questioning of my plate-riotism or serendipity! I’m not kick yur ass…I’M KILL YOU ASS! I’m got wockets! Now as to mine twenty-seven sons/baby-sans…they serve the Glorious DPRK by drinkin an dancing in downtown Pyongyang Disco, plus on payroll beclawz they support my DickTatertorial run for life! They all wear uniflorm of DPRK People’s Army, unrike Mitt Romknees kids!
Mitt Rom-knees boyz ain’t shit next to mine!
Jus see You Tlube for proof!!!
***I’m KIM Jong Il and I’m applove of dis messag-ie!!!***
Ruv Yoo Loong Time!
Great Reader KIM Jong IL
DPRK 90210
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BfMlJPkDqO8
The U.S. Flag Code permits only TWO ways to “wear” the flag: one is in the form of a flag patch, and the criteria is highly specific and excludes most of us. The other way is by wearing a flag lapel pin, which includes ALL of us. Now I don’t think badly of anyone who doesn’t wear a flag pin because that’s a personal decision, just like flying a flag at your home.
But to politicize the flag is wrong. Obama has chosen to make a political “statement” with his NOT wearing a flag pin. So be it. He probably won’t get to wear that jacket with the Presidential seal either.
How someone of so little substance can actually be considered a viable candidate for President of the United States is truly frightening.
Fontessa, it seems to me that what Obama did was reject the politicization of the flag pin. If the flag pin were an apolitical symbol of patriotism, none of the comments in this thread would be here.
The fact is that we, conservatives especially, no longer care what someone is going to do for the country or even whether or not his ideas fit with any set of principles – we only want to see the right symbols and hear the right rhetoric from the right people.
As I said before, it doesn’t matter what Obama does. If he had started wearing a bigger flag pin, the same people criticizing him now would be criticizing him for politicizing the flag pin or for hiding behind the flag.
Don’t forget, never forget that the flag is a symbol of the United States, not the US itself. I would hope that no one ever fought and died for the flag, but rather for what the flag stood for.
When we see people wanting to outlaw flag-burning or deciding that a Presidential candidate is unfit for office because he’s not wearing a flag on his lapel, what we’re seeing is the same kind of idolatry that informs monarchies. If the flag is the thing, what’s the use of the freedom and other ideals for which it stands? Why don’t we just do what the flag tells us to?
If it is actually America that we care about, why don’t we choose our leaders based on what they’ll do for the country rather than on what they wear.
He probably threw his flag pin away in a ceremony, or rather threw someone else’s flag pin away. He’ll keep his own in a frame on his Senate office wall. It’s the Democratics’ way.
This is pathetic and just shows how low the level of public discourse has sunk.
Who cares if he wears a flag pin or not???
Are we going to have congressional investigations about it next?
All of the people who think Barack Obama is stupid are very badly mistaken. He is very smart, very intelligent and very calculating .
He is the Muslim stealth candidate.
He knows his constituency and what he believes in.
Obama is simply telling us that he wore a flag pin as an alternative to patriotism. He is merely convicting himself.
Obama is not qualified for President. He has never led an organization in his life. Further, he has no concept of economics. Finally, he does not have the will to confront life, he struggles with the abstract.
The sound of flatulence? Barack!!!!!!!
His speeches have the same aroma.
He can go not wear the US flag in Africa or whatever country hes from.