He Was For It
Before he was against it, before he was for it again. Obama takes umbrage over anti-flag smear, notes that he used to say the Pledge of Allegiance in grade school. With kudos for the exemplary IBSD* reportage, here’s ABC:
“This is a phony issue,” Obama said. “So let me address it right now.”
ABC News’ Sunlen Miller reports that the lanky Illinoisan said that “folks have been sending out these emails trying to make it out like I am not a patriot and I don’t salute the flag and I don’t pledge allegiance and this and that and the other. This is all phony. This is not true. You know, I’ve been saying the pledge of allegiance since I was what, four? Four years old. I lead, when I’m presiding in the Senate, I lead the pledge of allegiance, as the presiding officer of the Senate, when I open up the Senate, so it’s been on C-SPAN.
“There are two places where this rumor started,” Obama said. “All right? Number one, we were at an event in Iowa and the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ was being sung by a woman and the camera caught me, not, I didn’t have my hand over my heart while I was listening and singing along with her, not out of disrespect, just because I was listening to her song and thought, ‘Boy, I was getting into the song.’ Now, I acknowledge the mistake of not having put my hand over my heart during the singing of the ‘Star Spangled Banner,’ although anybody who’s watching — I’m gonna look at all of you at a ball game one time and see if you always get it right, ’cause sometimes, we all, I just want to point that out, so that’s point number one.
“And the second thing, the way this has come up is the fact that I don’t always wear a flag pin. Now I don’t know if any of you who don’t have flag pins consider yourselves unpatriotic. I think you’re patriotic. The reason that I don’t always wear a flag pin is not that I disrespect the flag, it’s that when I started wearing a flag pin after 9/11, I gotta admit that sometimes I would misplace it and so I didn’t always put it on.”
Obama then referred to the time last October, when a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, TV reporter asked him why he didn’t wear a flag pin.
“Then I was asked about this in Iowa,” Obama said. “And somebody said ‘Why don’t you wear a flag pin?’ I said, well, sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. I said, although I will say that sometimes I notice that they’re people who wear flag pins but they don’t always act patriotic. And I was specifically referring to politicians, not individuals who wear flag pins, but politicians who you see wearing flag pins and then vote against funding for veterans, saying we can’t afford it.”
Well, as it happens I’m a sort of amateur scholar of Obama pinnage, maybe more of a recreational Obama pinnage collector, and given his spiritual advisor’s antipathy toward AmeriKKKa (Goddamn …. etc.), I’m also enthusiastic about any sighting of Obamist patriotism. We can all review and decide who is a liar:
April 15, 2008: Pin-Spotting
Oct. 6, 2007: Pinheads
Oct. 5, 2007: Flagging Enthusiasm
Here’s the damning detail from that last post:
I don’t walk around wearing an American flag pin. I don’t particularly care if pols or TV anchors do. But making a political point about one’s patriotism with its removal seems a little … I dunno … unpatriotic. Dawn’s early light shines on Obama, after mikejockey notices our flag is not there:
An eagle-eyed reporter for the ABC affiliate in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, noticed something missing from Democratic presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama’s, D-Ill., lapels.
“You don’t have the American flag pin on. Is that a fashion statement?” the reporter asked, at the end of a brief interview with Obama on Wednesday. “Those have been on politicians since Sept. 12, 2001.”
The standard political reply to that question might well have been, “My patriotism speaks for itself.”
Instead the Illinois senator answered the question at length, explaining that he no longer wears such a pin, at least in part, because of the Iraq War.
“You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin,” Obama said. “Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest.”
Let me get this straight. Flag is a substitute for true patriotism. True patriotism is not the flag, it’s Bush lied people died. Flag, in fact, is a symbol of Bush lied people died. Turns out Iraq is exactly like Vietnam after all. Great saying back in the day, I’m not sure it applied till now: America. Love it or Leave It.
Here’s another internationalist who finds flag-waving icky.
More scholarship on the latest flag flap:
LGF: Obama calls bloggers liars for accurately reporting his words, goes back to eating waffles.
Hotair: Obama’s stupid flag dust-up turns stupider yet.
Protein Wisdom: Pinorecchio
Ed at Hotair: He was for Roberts when he was against him.
On the other side of the ledger, the Carpetbagger is pained that some people think lies and disparagement of people who actually respect their country and its symbols are serious matters. With thanks to Memeorandum on the roundup.
* Noticing who turned this up in the first place, I just want to say that ABC’s pin reportage in this campaign has been exemplary. Who says TV news is vapid and irrelevant? If they gave out Pulitzers or Emmys or Peabodys or whatever for seemingly incidental bullshit detection … and they should … ABC would be stiff competition for CBS and its Hero of Tuzla debunk, and pretty much anything the major print organizations have managed. I’d have to give it to ABC, because this issue was not raised by a blatant spouting of absurd nonsense, or accomplished by a simple review of archival B roll. Rather an observant reporter’s initiative and pressing on a seemingly obscure point, which when you consider how things have turned out in the Jeremiah Wright affair, is nothing obscure at all but a significant revelation. On the other hand, we all knew Hillary, much like her husband, was a big fat bare-faced liar, we just didn’t know she could be such an entertaining one.
Another thought on this. You know how they say patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel? Certainly there’s some truth in that, though I always thought it disparaged people who love their country, are willing to defend it, and consider the expression of all that entails a serious matter. There are a lot of ways of doing that. Some like to wear flag pins. Not unlike the Rev. Wright, I like expressing my sentiments by taking note of the history and actions the flag stands for. OK, somewhat unlike the Rev. Wright. But in the case of Obama, given his evolution from flag-saluting schoolboy to pew-sitter in AmeriKKA-hating church and pinnage disparagement, to his new patriotism, I think we have to go not with a strict read of Dr. Samual Johnson but with a modified H.L. Mencken** take in Obama’s case. It is the first and last range of a fool, who is a scoundrel if he thinks people are stupid enough to fall for blatant lies.
** see Bartleby “last refuge” link above.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:37 am on Sunday, April 27, 2008
3 Responses to “He Was For It”
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April 27th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
The narrative of anti-America hatred goes far beyond the Pledge and a pin.
April 27th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
If Katie Couric keeps inadvertently blurting out the truth, she’s going to be without a job before long. So good on you, Jules, for encouraging her to keep talking.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:06 am
“Then I was asked about this in Iowa,” Barack Obama said. “And somebody said ‘Do you want a flag pin, or a chest to pin it on?’ I said, well, sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. I said, although I will say that sometimes I notice that they’re people who wear flag pins but they don’t always act patriotic. And I was specifically referring to politicians, not individuals who wear flag pins, but chicken breasted politicians who you see wearing flag pins and then vote against funding for veterans and shit, saying we can’t afford it., Typical freak’n white people and did you notice on barackobama.com I look like Che Guerava? I said, well, I am Mojo Jojo Barack Obama Democratic Senator of Illinois.. People shall call me Mojo Jojo Barack Obama, not Mojo Jojo Barack Hussein Obama or Mojo Jojo Barack Osama . And it is I, Mojo Jojo Barack Obama, whom they shall be addressing when using the name, Mojo Jojo Barack Oboma President of the God Damned United States, HAHAHAHAHAHA”