While I write in jest, that may, very well, be where this ante gets raised to, before the general election campaign begins.
We had this yesterday;
Obama on Those Who Say He Doesn’t Respect the Flag: ‘It’s a Lie’
At a town hall in Kokomo, Ind., Friday a woman told Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., that her mother wasn’t going to vote for him because he didn’t “address the flag.”
“This is a phony issue,” Obama said. “So let me address it right now.”
And address it he did.
After a lengthy, two, or three-point detailed answer, Obama called it for what it is;
Obama continued, saying “so I make this comment. suddenly a bunch of these, you know, TV commentators and bloggers (say) ‘Obama is disrespecting people who wear flag pins.’ Well, that’s just not true. Also, another way of saying it is, it’s a lie.”
Amen!
Steve Benen, over on The Carpetbagger Report offered good support;
I’d just like to ask these folks who purport to care whether they mind if Hillary Clinton’s or John McCain’s lapels are flagless. Whether they minded that Ronald Reagan, JFK, Eisenhower, and FDR didn’t wear pins. Whether they think George W. Bush was unpatriotic before 9/11, when his lapels were bare. I doubt it.
I doubt Obama would do this, but I can imagine a town-hall meeting in which this comes up and the senator asks everyone in the room wearing a flag lapel pin (probably made in China) to raise their hand. When a small fraction of the crowd does, Obama can ask them, “Do those of you who didn’t raise your hand love the country as much as those who did?”
Since I’ve been following politics closely and especially since I moved back to the DC area to work in the industry (more or less), one of the things I have never understood has been the liberal/Democratic reluctance to call something a lie. When Al Franken wrote his book Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them, I am certain that the forthright way in which he called out something as a lie was a pivotal element of its success. In 2000, and especially 2004, Al Gore and John Kerry drove me batty with their constant rhetoric that something was “a falsehood” or that someone “misled”. They just never came out and said George Bush and the Republican party and the conservative noise machine were just filthy liars.
And, of course, the inhabitants of the RWFS just have to keep pumping this up, gripping on it like a dog, gnawing on a juicy bone … You can see them here, here and here, all polishing their own lapel pins of stupidity
When it comes time for the general election debates, against Stumblin’ Bumblin’ John McCain, and if he could get away with it (just think how the RWFS would explode if he did!), as satire, as a statement, Obama should wear the Hamas Flag Lapel Pin.
I’d bet more then half of the nitwits wouldn’t notice.
Bonus Lapel Links
Barry Crimmins: The ABC/HUAC Democratic Inquisition
Boy, And We Thought Russert and Williams Sucked
When I run for office, I’m gonna make and wear a lapel pin that has the text of the Constitution on it. It seems to me that that’s a more important issue to address. Who cares if I love the flag? Surely it’s more important that I love the Constitution…
Oh, please…oh, please…oh, please….
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p>Go ahead, Barry! Prove you’re a man of the people!
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p>Wear your Hammas pin while bowling!
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p>Oh, please…oh, please…oh, please…
have tattoos of the American flag on their foreheads? Clearly flag pins represent an anemic and weak level of commitment to our country. True patriots wouldn’t shy away from a permanent expression of their love of country.