Barack Obama Won’t Wear American Flag Pin
Because of Iraq, I guess.
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.”
But Obama didn’t say that.
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.
“Instead,” he said, “I’m going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.”
A little puzzling, I guess. I certainly don’t think Obama has to wear an American Flag pin in order to be considered patriotic, but saying that you won’t wear a symbol of your nation on your lapel because of the war in Iraq is bizarre, and indicative of a larger mood of liberal American self-loathing.
After all, most liberals consider our country, and the fact that we’re not more like Europeans, to be the real problem with the world. This seems, to me at least, to be a symptom of that attitude.
