Originally Posted By: the G-man
Obama May Face Grilling on Patriotism
[list]Sen. Barack Obama's refusal to wear an American flag lapel pin along with a photo of him not putting his hand over his heart during the National Anthem led conservatives on Internet and in the media to question his patriotism.

Now Obama's wife, Michelle, has drawn their ire, too, for saying recently that she's really proud of her country for the first time in her adult life.

Conservative consultants say that combined, the cases could be an issue for Obama in the general election if he wins the nomination, especially as he runs against Vietnam war hero Sen. John McCain.

"The reason it hasn't been an issue so far is that we're still in the microcosm of the Democratic primary," said Republican consultant Roger Stone. "Many Americans will find the three things offensive. Barack Obama is out of the McGovern wing of the party, and he is part of the blame America first crowd."





During Friday night’s Real Time with Bill Maher, Republican Congressman Jack Kingston took to the airwaves to echo the right wing talking points of Obama being “not patriotic enough”. One of the memes that Kingston brought up was about Obama not wearing his lapel pin. Let’s take a look at people not wearing their lapel pin:



How interesting. That looks like Rep. Jack Kingston talking about Obama not wearing his lapel pin. What’s missing? Jack Kingston’s lapel pin.

So does this make Kingston unpatriotic, a hypocrite or just plain stupid.

Of course this isn’t the first time Kingston played a game of “open mouth, insert foot”. A little over a year ago, Kingston said if families couldn’t survive on the old minimum wage then they needed to work longer hours. Just a month before that he was crying that working a 5 day work week in Congress would “take away from families“. I guess his family is more important than yours or mine.

I myself didn’t know lapel pins were so important to national security. Glenn Greenwald explains how easy it was for Obama to handle this nonsense:

 Quote:
Far more notable is Barack Obama’s response to these depressingly familiar attacks. In response, he’s not scurrying around slapping flags all over himself or belting out the National Anthem, nor is he apologizing for not wearing lapels, nor is he defensively trying to prove that — just like his Republican accusers — he, too, is a patriot, honestly. He’s not on the defensive at all. Instead, he’s swatting away these slurs with the dismissive contempt they deserve, and then eagerly and aggressively engaging the debate on offense because he’s confident, rather than insecure, about his position



“A party that presided over a war in which our troops did not get the body armor they needed, or were sending troops over who were untrained because of poor planning, or are not fulfilling the veterans’ benefits that these troops need when they come home, or are undermining our Constitution with warrantless wiretaps that are unnecessary?

“That is a debate I am very happy to have. We’ll see what the American people think is the true definition of patriotism.”


Never mind the fact that John McCain often doesn't wear a flag lapel pin either. But that's the far right for you, always up in arms over proper reverence towards symbols rather than substantive things like Constitutional and international law.