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Monday, April 7, 2008
Obama’s lapel pin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Barack Obama cost me a dollar.
Worse, a dollar that probably went to support moveon.org or some other organization that camps with the national Democratic Party.
I bet my colleague, Jay Bookman, that when Obama appeared before cameras for his Jeremiah Wright speech, he’d be wearing an American flag lapel pin.
I lost.
But on reconsideration, Obama might choose to wear it next time.
Those of you who take the Sunday AJC — and everybody should, of course — saw the story on the April 22 Pennsylvania primary. The accompanying photo was of a Latrobe, Pa., couple sitting at a diner discussing their upcoming vote. “How can I vote for a president who won’t wear a flag pin?” asked the woman, Nash McCabe, an unemployed typist.”I watch him on TV; I keep looking for that lapel pin.”
Obama’s getting the message. As the Associated Press reports, Obama has begun to pepper his speeches with expressions of patriotism. “I love this country not because it’s perfect but because we’ve always been able to move it closer to perfection,” he said in North Dakota.
In Montana: “It’s a country where … I’ve seen ordinary Americans find justice, where I’ve seen progress made for working families who need leaders who are willing to stand up and fight for them. That is the country I love.”
Obama has said he thinks actions, not lapel pins, demonstrate real patriotism. For enough Americans to represent the difference between victory and defeat in a general election, that’s a little ambiguous. That’s especially true of white, blue-collar types.
I have to admit that I’m one of them. A candidate who wants to be President of the United States should not be uncomfortable wearing a flag lapel pin or think it’s cheesy. Symbols matter.
