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From Breitbart:
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says he doesn’t wear an American flag lapel pin because it has become a substitute for “true patriotism” since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Asked about it Wednesday in an interview with KCRG-TV in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Illinois senator said he stopped wearing the pin shortly after the attacks and instead hoped to show his patriotism by explaining his ideas to citizens.
“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,” he said in the interview. “Instead, I’m going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testament to my patriotism.”
On Thursday, his campaign issued a statement: “We all revere the flag, but Senator Obama believes that being a patriot is about more than a symbol. It’s about fighting for our veterans when they get home and speaking honestly with the American people about this disastrous war.”
Substitute for true patriotism? So true patriotism is not wearing the flag according to Obama.
Perhaps wearing the American flag lapel pin is just too patriotic for Obama. Is it that by wearing the pin, he’s leading people to believe he’s more patriotic then he really is?
All I have to say is, what kind of person makes this kind of statement? This unqualified man is running to be president of the United States of America yet he says he thinks wearing the flag of the United States of America is an inappropriate way to show your patriotism?
Does he realize that people have given their lives, and continue to give their lives, defending the flag? Does he find the flag makes him seem too American?
I’ll wear it for him.
Did Obama think this would bring him anything but negative press?
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I think you’re completely missing the point. Obama is railing against statements of hollow jingoism, not true patriotism. The point here is that the lapel pin has become an empty symbol of patriotism; the very politicians who wear them at every photo-op are the same ones who are eroding our rights.
It’s like slapping a “support the troops” magnetic ribbon on your Hummer. A hollow statement, since you’re ultimately just contributing to our dependence on unstable Middle East governments by driving the thing.
I think you’re missing the point that the flag pin has become a bi-partisan statement. You see them on everyone, not just Republicans who I assume you are accusing of “eroding our rights”.
The point is, I don’t care whether he wears one or not but he’s specifically trying to make a statement by not wearing one and that’s what I’m impugning and reporting.
WHAT?
I think you are on the mark. This man is deceiving to all of the voters. I usually vote democratic, but I would go for John McCain over Barak Obama. He is untrustworthy with what I have heard and seen. I also question the religion. Our country was founded on Christianity and that is going away. The religion, he claims he is a Christian but there are too many issues there. People read your bible…. Where did religion fall to in our country. Also, our veterans’ are the most abused after all they have given for our country, and Obama won’t wear a pin? That is disrespectfull. They are fighting whether for us or for the rights and safety of another country, wherever our government has placed them. Our fighters deserve more.
Does this mean, if elected President, that he will not pay respect on Memorial Day or Veteran’s Day or that Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day will go away?
Funny this thread should come back to the top. Reading this first article again, and knowing that Obama has now begun to wear a flag pin – on at least 3 occasions I’ve seen reported – makes me wonder what part of these statements from last year he thinks may be no longer valid. That whatever stand he was taking by not wearing it, is it no longer a stand he feels he should take?
John McCain was NOT wearing an American flag pin when he made his speech on Memorial Day.
John McCain is NOT a patriotic American and is NOT suitable to be President!
From what I see, hear and study, none are worth voting for because we haven’t found that “Saviour”, the person that can actually lead our country in all areas that the American people need. Other countries suffer loss and deal with death and war, I see it, it makes me upset but our government puts us there most of the time. But, at the same token it is the US that funds it, no not actually, we go in debt for it and then the US citizens suffer the debt. Either we pay or we starve and go homeless and suffer a slower death. Our food and gas prices are unreal. Does income go up, “no”. The USA is paying the price and we have been dependent too long on other countries for our needs, thanks to our government. Where is the government that cares about feeding our kids, helping us pay for our medical bills, because even with health insurance, the debt is still overwhelming. What kinds of medical issues do you deal with? My husband is a heart patient and everytime he hits the hospital and gets transferred to another, the bills are ungodly, even with insurance. Who do think is the better candidate for the presidency? The problem is that they all tell the American public what they think they want to hear. Who will deliver?
Excellent points, Darla. What people are looking for, especially in Obama, is indeed a “savior”. No President can be that, unless they have a Congress replete with “yes men” who will go quietly into the night and give him everything he asks for. And that’s not going to happen in America. Over the years I’ve seen Presidents who tried to keep campaign promises, only to be shot down by Congress. And to fair, I’ve seen Presidents who would have made some huge mistakes with our country had it not been for Congress shooting them down. So, it’s my belief that any President can only deliver what the Congress allows them to deliver, and that’s something we all should keep in mind when we vote. Who is the candidate that can work best with Congress and accomplish at least MOST of what needs to be done, and that means working with both parties “across the aisle”.
Where do we turn? You have democrats in congress trying to bail out people in foreclosure and the president that will veto it. You have Jesse Jackson making comments on Barak Obama. You have Barak Obama, that lacks foreign policy knowledge. Iran is a threat, I believe. A serious one. Then you have John McCain who admits to having a lack of economic issues but, would probably keep troops elsewhere to protect this country. Where do we go this election term? It seems like our leaders are leaders are all leading us and we, the people have no “real” choices that we feel are true and trusting choices. I would really love to hear your feedback on this. This country needs serious help. The Americans are paying a big price. We need change, yes. But who do we trust? What is said, to get elected, is not always what we get.
Darla, I agree with you that we need changes, and we need them now. So far, anything that’s been attempted is just bailing out the boat. Unfortunately, sometimes that’s the best we can hope for when the boat is so very full of water. It was baby steps that got us into all this mess, and it won’t be one big action by anyone to get us out. I feel like patience is a big key to resolving our problems, and often we as a people have a hard time with that concept. We’ve almost reached a panic state as a country. The fuel problem has no quick fixes, it will require patience and all of Americans – and Congress – working together at the same time to reach the goal of oil independence. The economy won’t get fixed quickly either, it’s taken us decades to get into it, it will take years to get us out. The war in Iraq is a big issue. Never before in our history have we been attacked by foreigners on our own soil, and sadly that act changed the face of our world forever. We can’t go back to the time when we could champion a country, defeat the enemy and come on home. I wish we could, but times have changed and there are people in the world who have become the epitomy of evil. At this point, the why of that doesn’t even figure into the how of what we have to do to protect our way of life.
It was hard for me this year to know which way to go. I’m not tied to party loyalty, I’m tied to American freedoms and our way of life. For all the independent choices we have – Nader, etc. – their electability is zero. We have two choices, as you say, Obama or McCain. Staying home and not voting won’t help.
It has been sorely played up that McCain admits weakness on the economy, but downplayed is the fact that Obama has no experience in the area at all. So I looked at their record as individual senators – and men. Obama supports and uses the Special Interest system of syphoning money out of the defense budget for special projects in his district – into the hundreds of millions of dollars. That’s not surprising, if you look at the democratic spending trends historically, they love to spend our tax dollars. Then I looked at McCain’s record on the same thing – $0 ever to special interest, in fact, he says he’ll stop the billions going to “pork” altogether. Well, he may not be a degreed economist, but doesn’t that look like just plain common sense in these times? Will it solve the economy? Of course not, but it’s a baby step, and a fine one. Also, I looked at their personal records of spending. It was important to me to address the character, you see. I learned one small detail about McCain that won me over on that score. A few years ago the Senate decided to vote on giving themselves a pay raise – as if they’d earned it. *L* Well, McCain staunchly opposed it, and voted against it. Of course it passed. In researching his personal tax returns, I found that McCain has never accepted that raise, has donated every dime of it to charity every year. There was no big statement made about it or publicity garnered over it, he just did it. To me, that was a man of principal, and it gained my respect.
On the oil crisis, there’s equal points on both sides. McCain is in favor of drilling, Obama is not. Obama uses the argument that we will not see any immediate results from drilling, and he’s right. He’s going along with his party on this one. McCain changed his stance in favor of drilling because of current conditions. That’s what he says, and I believe him. I found that in 1998 this same issue came up, and the Democrats also shot it down then, using the same argument that we would not see any results for at least ten years, so they wouldn’t do it. But think about this, it’s ten years later now in 2008. Where would we be now if we had not listened to those democrats, and drilled? Maybe, just maybe, we wouldn’t be in this crisis now. The current situation – to be fixed – will take a lot of aisle crossing, both parties working together for the common goal, because right now that’s the biggest fight in congress, and it’s a partisan fight. Obama has no record of bipartisanship, McCain has a long standing record of bipartisanship. So much so there are some in his own party who resent him for it, and call him a closet democrat. Hence, the “Maverick” nickname.
The Iraq issue, not to mention Iran and Pakistan, and all the other players – I don’t know where to put Obama’s stance on this. Some say his recent rhetoric is not flip flopping, some say it is. Whatever it is, I know that he has no foreign policy experience to speak of, and is vowing to retreat from Iraq irregardless of the circumstances. That could be very dangerous. McCain, as I understand it in all I’ve read, pushed for the surge saying Bush’s tactics were failing, and once the surge was approved and it happened, it is successful. Obama said repeatedly it would fail. McCain gets the judgment call on that one. Whether you agree with staying in Iraq or not doesn’t matter. Neither of the candidates, I suspect, will pull out immediately, and the fact that McCain is saying what he is knowing that it’s not the popular answer to get votes leads me to trust his judgment more than Obama. His POW status didn’t even enter into my decision on that one. POW or not, he has more experience, and proved with the surge he has the better judgment.
Do I agree with all of McCain’s policies? No. I just think he has the best shot of the two to bring about at least SOME of the changes that need to happen. I don’t trust Obama to do that simply because he’s naive and easily swayed. McCain has stood for the same things for a long time, but has also shown that he is willing to concede a change when it’s needed, like drilling. Obama is all over the map, and I don’t see that improving once he gets into the White House. I think he’d make a wonderful Govenor of Illinois, but he hasn’t paid his political dues yet, and I don’t have confidence enough in him to hand over my country to him. So for this time, it’s the Republican/Maverick/Closet Democrat.
Sorry this is long winded, I’m pretty passionate about things.
Babs,
Thank you for responding and your input. I feel like you do, 100%. It is not about the party but the candidate. I do not agree with alot of the issues and even after our country is failing under the Bush administration and the Republicans, you are right the Democrats have controlled the house and I just do not trust Barak Obama. I would rather have someone of experience in these troubling times, although John McCain confesses to not having much financial dealings. That’s scary too… I feel with Barak Obama he will open up our country to war, on our soil, finances (who knows), and while the US has made all this overseas debt, Obama will just pull them out and make us look weak. These servicemen have been over there to do their job and keep us safe. How does this make the US feel, the servicemen that are fighting, and how does this make us look to other countries? This country needs alot of help but again, who is the the least of 2 evils?
http://counterterrorismbl.....n_of_m.php
http://wasteofmyoxygen.wo.....otherhood/
http://www.worldnetdaily......E_ID=26888
Copy and paste these links and read it. I guess it boils down to are you a Christian or an extreme Muslim? I guess that will be the key. I believe in my Christian faith. I do not believe that Barack Obama is in our best interest as president. We are dealing with many financial issues, and yes, we blame the Republicans, but at least we know where the faith is and we do not need to deal with an anti-christ yet unless we invite it. Just my thoughts.
Another good link on the belief of law..
http://www.bible.ca/islam.....hariah.htm
http://www.ntpi.org/html/whyoppose.html
http://www.answering-isla.....oving.html
Goverment and Religin are two differant things!
we teach our children about goverment in our schools, but not religin? why is that… hummmm let me see RELIGIN Dont belong there!!
Guess if you can’t spell RELIGON, we shouldn’t expect you to have a decent comment about it. We don’t teach RELIGON in our schools, because liberals voted not to. Apparently you’re not old enough to remember when prayer was allowed in school. This post sounds like another commenter who said religon doesn’t belong outside of church.
You know, I have been watching everything going on the news between McCain and Obama. The sad thing is that we only have the two unless something else happens, a “miracle”. Everyone is looking at the economics and suffering. Yes we all have, but it can be worse. Our religion is being tsken away and has been, but yet our country was built on this in many ways, Christmas, money, the pledge, etc.
Barack Obama has no allegiance to this country. He is so deceptive it isn’t funny. He is lying to all of his followers. I am not a a racist, have never been a racist, but I have a problem when the others use that against us. I see him, by this video, trying to change the constitution and trying to make us pay for what our forefathers did many many years ago. How is that dealing with with the politics today? Oh yeah, go out and second chance life again for kids that survive abortion. That will send chills up your spine. They abort, they don’t die and they “shelve the” and never try to save them. That is his answer. If they don’t die at abortion, they have to suffer again and no one helps them. Watch Hannity and Colmes. They had a woman on there that went through but survived, even though now, she has cerebral pulsey.
http://www.nelsonguirado......acism-spee
He is deceptive. Please, tell all that we need better. Russia and Venezula are dealing regarding nukes and Iran too. Who do you trust? Obama is too concerned about inflicting pain on the whites. Where is his thoughts, guess he doesn’t see what’s best for the country he doesn’t love.
Apparently this is completely false:
(If the image doesn’t show click on link)
http://www.portfolio.com/.....-cover.jpg
More proof of incorrect statement:
http://images.nymag.com/d.....ama_lg.jpg
http://www.huffingtonpost.....448612.jpg
http://www.huffingtonpost.....eddb33.jpg
Joshua.. What exactly are you trying to say with the photos of an incorrect statement or a stement that is completely false? I am not sure where you stand on this issue. What are your views? How do you feel about Obama and Isreal?
I would like to hear your input.
May 2nd, 2009 at 4:54 am
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