VIDEO: Which candidate doesn't wear a flag pin? Hint: Gramm-pa

By GottaLaff

I've written about this ad nauseam. Here we go again:

[Rick] Santorum claimed that the real reason people in that area [western Pennsylvania] won’t support Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is because he is “condescending to them.” As evidence, he said that Obama “won’t wear the American flag pin”:

Uh-huh. Thank you Ricky-who-isn't-wearing-a-flag-pin-in-the-video. And how do you explain these photos from all three debates?

Gramm-pa McCain is so condescending.

Fox News: Palin Won VP Debate Because She Had A Bigger Flag Pin

Just when you think they can't fall deeper into cartoonishness, voila!!! Via Think Progress.

"John McCain talking about putting country first, it’s fair to ask – which country?”

By GottaLaff

Obama's hitting J Sid on patriotism, attacking his "strength" while busting him for his lobbyist ties:

Sen. Barack Obama ripped into his Republican rival today for undermining American workers and prioritizing a foreign corporate agenda over domestic manufacturing.

“Ask the workers across this country who have seen their jobs outsourced!” Obama told a gathering of Florida Machinists in a satellite address. “The very companies that shipped their jobs overseas have been rewarded with billions of dollars in tax breaks that John McCain supports,” he continued. “So when American workers hear John McCain talking about putting country first, it’s fair to ask – which country?” [...]

John McCain just doesn’t get it. Just ask your brothers and sisters at Boeing. Because while it was right for the Pentagon to cancel competition yesterday for the next generation of tankers, it was wrong for John McCain to reward two of the Washington lobbyists who worked against Boeing with jobs on his campaign. Just ask the Machinists in Pennsylvania who build Harley-Davidsons. Because John McCain didn’t just oppose the requirement that the government buy American-made motorcycles, he called “Buy American” provisions “disgraceful.”

Obama was repeatedly interrupted by applause. [...] McCain was just caught sans flag pin on September 11, so this could be a ripe time for debating who is the true patriot in the race, if you’re into that sort of thing. Obama is taking a slightly higher road, tying his “country first” line to actual policies about workers in this country.

Now the question is, did he reach his audience? From the repeated applause, it seems so. So the next question is, will his message reach a larger audience?

Video: George Bush disrespects American flag at Olympics

By GottaLaff


I was hoping somebody would YouTube this. I saw it during the Olympics coverage, and couldn't believe our patriotic, wartime president would treat the flag with such disrespect.

This is acceptable, but if Obama doesn't wear a flag-shaped piece of tin, made in China, he's unAmerican. If McCain leaves his disabled wife for a younger, wealthier woman, that's fine too. But let's not forget to condemn John Edwards 24/7.

Why it's easy to detest Karl Rove

By GottaLaff

Karl Rove is so distasteful that I thought twice about posting this. It's nothing momentous, just typical Rovian bile. But things are a little slow so what the hell:

• Mitt Romney failed to win the Republican presidential nomination because of inexperience and inconsistency, according to GOP political guru Karl Rove. If this is who the Republicans consider to be their guru, especially after his disastrous stint at what used to be the White House, it explains why they've chosen John Sidney McCain as their candidate.
  
• Rove criticized presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) decision to stop wearing a flag lapel pin. (Obama said, in part, that it "became a substitute for true patriotism.")

  "I think it went one step too far to say that wearing a flag lapel pin was not true patriotism," Rove said. "For a lot of people, it is true patriotism. And that kind of judgmental comment, I thought was inappropriate. I don't suggest it's un-American, but it was questioning, inherently, the patriotism of people who said, 'You know what? I'm going to put a flag on my lapel or on my sleeve or on my uniform."' Here's an idea, Mr. Guru: Accuracy. Obama never said wearing a pin wasn't true patriotism. This is the equivalent of accusing Wes Clark of besmirching McCain's military duty by correctly pointing out the being a P.O.W. is not a qualifier for being a good administrator/president.

• Rove deflected questions about the appropriateness of him being a news commentator while he's in a legal fight with Congress for refusing to testify under oath about the leaking of FBI operative Valerie Plame's name to the press. Two words: Ethics vacuum. One more word: Liar. Three more: Go Cheney yourself.
  

• "My attitude is, I know who I am. I'm not the myth that I've been developed into."

  And he seemed unconcerned about the many shots he's taken from many quarters.

  "Harry Truman said, 'If you live in Washington and want to have a friend, have a dog.' And I've got two," he said. One avoids him. The other pees on his shoes. Oh, sorry, those were his aides. The dogs ran away.
  

• Rove said he's donated to the John McCain campaign, but "I play no official role, no ongoing role, but, yeah, I do get phone calls" from GOP. "I intend to stay married. I've done this twice. If I was going to play a role in a presidential campaign like I've played before, I'd be divorced very quickly." I thought he was married to the GOP and got phone calls from his wife. Apparently, I got confused. Oh, and someone please tell me... Who would marry this pig?
  
• Asked about the decision President Bush made to appoint Michael Brown to head FEMA, Rove declined to comment.

  "On that one, you'll have to wait for my book, unfortunately. Which will be will be available in the fall of 2009 for $29.95," he said. Part I: Karl, you've been declining for years. Part II: Heads up: Nobody will have $29.95 by the fall of 2009. Dream on. Maybe your 2 dogs can use the books for Puppy Piddle Paper. In fact, that would be an upgrade.
  

Pinning down patriotism

By GottaLaff

I won't be around as much today or tomorrow: Work, plus my computer is finally going into the shop. I'm also getting a late start, so here's something I read in this morning's L.A. Times to get things going until I get more organized:

Patriot games

Re "Obama now wears his patriotism on his lapel," July 5

I flew the American flag this Fourth of July weekend, though I did not wear a flag pin. I guess that makes me a better patriot than my neighbor who cares for her aging and forgetful mom with grace and dignity and nary a complaint, or my other neighbor who volunteers at a hospice and collects and distributes food and clothing for the poor and indigent, or my friend who has nurtured two foster children.

None has gone to a military academy or been a prisoner of war. None wears the American flag to tout their patriotism. But can anyone question their love of country and its people? I take exception to those who suggest that they are better Americans because of flag pins on their lapels.

Amen to the bazillionth degree.

Poll-itics: Fox News Edition with "dumbest question ever"

By GottaLaff

First, Taegan's quote:

Who Loves America More? A new Fox News poll shows Sen. Barack Obama edging Sen. John McCain nationally, 42% to 39%, within the poll's three point margin of error.

Meanwhile -- in what has to be one of the dumbest questions ever to appear in a poll -- 64% of voters think McCain loves America "a great deal" while just 48% think Obama does.

Now, one other result. It's a PDF file, but click on the link to see the rest:

Do you care whether a candidate is wearing a flag pin or not?
Yes: 31% No: 66% (Democrats, Republicans, Independents all had way more "no" responses)

How proud would you to have Barack Obama as president?
Extremely/very/somewhat: 65%
John McCain?
Extremely/very/somewhat: 66% [Laffy Note: Check out the breakdown]

It Is Now Safe to Vote for Obama: He Wore a Flag Pin

By GottaLaff

How could anyone think Barack Obama was qualified to run for president... until now? He has finally revealed his patriotism by ::drum roll:: attaching a brooch to his lapel, one that was most likely made in China. But that little metal symbol has convinced me that, at last, he can be commander in chief. It must also mean he's no longer a Muslim, because the two are linked. Aren't we all relieved?

Wearing a flag lapel pin, Sen. Barack Obama emphasized his patriotism and support for a strong and humane military Monday, while Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton implored West Virginians to sustain her hopes of somehow denying him the Democratic presidential nomination. [...] He used his visit to Charleston to combat critics' claims that he is not particularly patriotic or ready to be commander in chief, in part because he never served in the military, usually does not wear a flag pin, and opposed the Iraq war from the start.

Wait just a durn second there. He was opposed to the war... from the start? Why, that shows -- What's the word again? Oh yeah -- good judgment. And isn't that the last thing we want from a world leader?

Obama broke from his usual practice by wearing the flag pin and reading his speech instead of talking without notes. He told several thousand people at the Charleston Civic Center that patriotism means more than saluting flags and holding parades. He criticized Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain for opposing a Democratic bill to expand education benefits for veterans.

"At a time when we're facing the largest homecoming since the Second World War," Obama said of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, "the true test of our patriotism is whether we will serve our returning heroes as well as they've served us."

Barack, Barack, Barack, veterans aren't important. What is important is how well you bowl. You still have so much to learn.

After the speech, Obama stopped at Schultzie's Billiards hall, where he showed greater skill at pool than he had at bowling last month in Pennsylvania. [...] Obama told reporters he will have to consistently fight rumors that he doesn't say the Pledge of Allegiance, among other falsehoods widely spread on the Internet. "This is something that's been systematically fed into the bloodstream," he said. He said he had no idea who is doing it.

I'm still a little wary. I have a hunch he doesn't say the Pledge of Allegiance to his flag pin.