If flag lapel pin issue "comes up again and again" with voters, why did ABC rely on the one voter quoted in NY Times criticizing Obama?
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SUMMARY: During ABC's April 16 Democratic presidential debate, Charles Gibson claimed that the issue of whether Sen. Barack Obama wears a flag lapel pin "comes up again and again when we talk to voters" and "is all over the Internet." But McClatchy Newspapers reported that the woman who asked Obama about the flag lapel pin during the debate was "tracked ... down" by ABC "after she was quoted in a New York Times story about white voters in small-town Latrobe, Pa., revealing her as 52, out of work and against Obama." If, as Gibson claimed, the flag pin issue "comes up again and again when we talk to voters," why did ABC turn to the one voter from Pennsylvania quoted in The New York Times criticizing Obama over the issue?
During ABC's April 16 Democratic presidential debate, co-moderator and ABC World News anchor Charles Gibson introduced a question for Sen. Barack Obama by asserting, "I want to do one more question, which goes to the basic issue of electability. And it is a question raised by a voter in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, a woman by the name of Nash McCabe." McCabe asked, via videotape, "Senator Obama, I have a question, and I want to know if you believe in the American flag. I am not questioning your patriotism, but all our servicemen, policemen and EMS wear the flag. I want to know why you don't." Before Obama answered, Gibson explained, "Just to add to that, I noticed you put one on yesterday. But -- you've talked about this before, but it comes up again and again when we talk to voters. And as you may know, it is all over the Internet." However, an April 17 McClatchy Newspapers article reported that ABC "had tracked [McCabe] down after she was quoted in a New York Times story about white voters in small-town Latrobe, Pa., revealing her as 52, out of work and against Obama." If, as Gibson claimed, the flag pin issue "comes up again and again when we talk to voters," why did ABC turn to the one voter from Pennsylvania quoted in The New York Times criticizing Obama over the issue?
From the April 4 New York Times article to which the McClatchy article referred:
Ask whom she might vote for in the coming presidential primary election and Nash McCabe, 52, seems almost relieved to be able to unpack the dossier she has been collecting in her head.
It is not about whom she likes, but more a bill of particulars about why she cannot vote for Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.
"How can I vote for a president who won't wear a flag pin?" Mrs. McCabe, a recently unemployed clerk typist, said in a booth at the Valley Dairy luncheonette in this quiet, small city in western Pennsylvania.
Mr. Obama has said patriotism is about ideas, not flag pins.
"I watch him on TV," Mrs. McCabe said. "I keep looking for that lapel pin."
According to an April 14 Associated Press article, in advance of the debate ABC had been "soliciting questions from Pennsylvania voters," but, the article added, "Gibson isn't sure whether they will be used." Only one other question, which was delivered via videotape by a man identified as Tom Rooney, was explicitly attributed to a Pennsylvania voter.
Gibson's assertion that the issue of Obama not wearing a flag lapel pin "is all over the Internet" downplays the role of media outlets, including ABC, CNN, and Fox News Channel, in highlighting the issue. As Media Matters for America noted, following an October 3, 2007 interview with ABC affiliate KCRG-TV in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in which Obama was asked why he was not wearing an American flag pin on his lapel, those outlets reported on the "controversy."
From the April 16 ABC Democratic presidential debate:
GIBSON: And Senator Obama, I want to do one more question, which goes to the basic issue of electability. And it is a question raised by a voter in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, a woman by the name of Nash McCabe. Take a look.
McCABE [video clip]: Senator Obama, I have a question, and I want to know if you believe in the American flag. I am not questioning your patriotism, but all our servicemen, policemen and EMS wear the flag. I want to know why you don't.
GIBSON: Just to add to that, I noticed you put one on yesterday. But -- you've talked about this before, but it comes up again and again when we talk to voters. And as you may know, it is all over the Internet. And it's something of a theme that Senators Clinton and McCain's advisers agree could give you a major vulnerability if you're the candidate in November. How do you convince Democrats that this would not be a vulnerability?
ABC News= Fox News wannabee.
They are not in the bag for Hillary.
They are supporters of McCain and a third Dubya term.
As is the rest of the so called liberal media.
C'mon MMFA, people want to know...again and again and again and again ETC ETC ETC ETC and again and again and again.
Keeps going back to that hearing problem running rampant throught the Republan Party. No sense in talking to Repubs they do not understand English or just cannot interpret the language. As Rush always spews..just sit back, don't think and listen to what I tell you. They hear that order.
"...and I want to know if you believe in the American flag."
And I want to know what the hell does this question mean...do you believe in the American flag? To have posed this question is beyond embarrassing. The flag is a symbol...do you believe in a symbol? A symbol whose meaning has been cheapened by overuse. Or do you believe in something deeper and more meaningful than that, such as the Constitution?
I want to hear someone ask McCain: Do you believe in Bald Eagles? That makes just about as much sense as: Do you believe in the American flag?
Or how about: Do you believe in apple pie? Do you believe in baseball? Do you believe in the smell of hot dogs roasting on the grill?
Just plain dumb...
Touche. I've been saying the same thing -- what does it mean to BELIEVE in the flag? It's not a religion. One may RESPECT the flag, or HONOR the flag, but . . . BELIEVE in it? That's what happens with the dumbing down of the populace. Education? Intellect? Too snobbish. And, so, this is what you get.
When given the chance to question a presidential candidate, a "recently unemployed clerk typist" seizes the opportunity to ask about.... flag pins.
Having no job, presumably no income, and quite possibly no health care insurance, this woman is worried about flag pins.
The right-wing has now managed to add flag pins to the three G's that dictate to their voting base.
I am absolutely dumbfounded.
"Having no job, presumably no income, and quite possibly no health care insurance, this woman is worried about flag pins." - Pete592
Well, Pete, those are the kinds of questions you ask when you've been a clerk typist at a flag pin manufacturing plant.
Lady, those flag pin jobs aren't coming back. That is now a nicely profitable source of steady income for the mainland Chinese.
So what's their excuse for all of the dumb questions Gibson and Stephanopolis used?
This debate is goin to make a great sketch on SNL or Mad TV or both in a week or two, they wont even have to rewrite anything, it's almost perfect word for word.
has anyone actually read the flag code and the standards for respect?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Flag_Code
The flag should not be used as part of a costume or athletic uniform, except that a flag patch may be used on the uniform of military personnel, firefighters, police officers, and members of patriotic organizations. (Note that on Army uniforms, where the flag is put on the sleeve of the uniform, the flag patch is displayed with the stars facing forward, in the direction the wearer is facing. This is done to give the impression of the flag flowing in the wind while being carried forward across the battlefield. This is known as the "Reverse Field Flag.") Flag lapel pins may not be worn
notice that last line.
Hmm . . . could it be that this unemployed woman is . . . dare I say it??? BITTER?? ;-)
And I saw one comment that perpetuates the myth that one is supposed to put one's hand over one's heart during the national anthem. Apart from the fact that too many people are focusing on MINUTIAE, where did these folks go to school? You're NOT SUPPOSED TO SALUTE THE FLAG during the national anthem!! ONLY during the pledge of allegiance! Ya, know -- it's a PLEDGE!!
Haven't we had enough of a demonstration in the last 8 years with Bush what happens when we have someone lacking a confident image of himself? He wore his affinity for dismissing people, ideas, and media he didn't associate himself with thus limiting his experience and skills engaging with them. He only sought the comfort of agreeable and often self interested persons of stronger will than himself who knew how to ingratiate him.
In times like these, who could possibly blame these television personalities for indulging in quirky tripe?
One criticism: Charles forgot to ask either candidate whether or not his own ABC flag pin would be subjected to a higher capital gains tax if and when he ever manages to pry it from George's labia, sell it on eBay, and then uses the proceeds to buy all the ingredients necessary to make chocolate doughnuts with sprinkles (using one of Cindy McCain's favorite old family recipes) that will then be sold in order to buy more kneepads for all of the embedded MSM personalities aboard the Straight Talk Express.
I don't understand this bizarre obssesion of wearing flag pins. Nor do I understand the obsession of putting mini-flags on car anntennas. I bet you most of these people who do that don't even know who Betsy Ross is, who was the architect of the American flag. Nor do I think they know who Francis Scott Key is, who passionately wrote the Star-spangled Banner from a British prison ship as he observed that the American flag was still standing tall on the cliff where the battle was taking place.
I think these people are the ones who take the flag for granted and don't really understand the true meaning of its symbolism. I believe Obama won't wear a flag-pin because he knows how that belittles the importance of the flag.
Didn't the Nazis WORSHIP the Swastika? Are we not going to elect someone because he doesn't wear a f**king piece of metal on his lapel? Karl Rove, the most public of the
anti-americans, does not wear a pin. (Yes, I said anti-american! Deal with it.)
Long before I read a bit of Korzybski, I intuited that (as he put it) "the map is not the territory." I also felt a kinship with MacDermott & Hunt, whose 19th century musical hall ditty had a chorus that went: "We don't want to fight but, by Jingo, if we do/We've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money too...." Their song, and a Daily News letter to the editor coined the term "jingoism." (Jingo was a euphemism for Jesus; in Vermont to this day people still say, "Jesum Crow" instead of Jesus Christ because they're afraid of "taking the Lord's name in vain.")
The point? Obama doesn't wear a flag pin because he doesn't feel it necessary to take the last refuge of Faux Noise-type scoundrels who insist he can't be a patriot unless he does so. A lot of people wearing flag pins nowadays are scoundrels, and that includes Bush, Cheney, and Condoleeza Rice. (I would include Rumsfeld, but he's retired to his ranch and doesn't wear suits anymore, and Petraeus, but he's got so many ribbons on that uniform he can't find room for a flag pin.)
When I was in graduate school, a roommate's friend was allowed to bring his main squeeze around for rolls in the hay. I never found out why they couldn't have sex at his digs or hers, but there they were. One morning, for fun, I scribbled "F**K!" on a pizza board and hung it, mobile-like, from the living room ceiling. (I omit letters only because of Media Matters policy, mind you.) When the main squeeze cleaned herself up and came out from the roomie's bedroom, she saw it and became irate, complaining that the word, f**k, demeaned "a beautiful act of love and devotion," &c.
Go figure. What difference does it make what you call it? Why use a euphemism like "making love" when the shorter, more immediate, more forceful, more HONEST f**k will do? She only wanted us to use euphemisms because she felt guilty about what she'd just finished doing.
The plain, simple truth of the matter is: neither f**k nor "making love" is the territory. They're only maps. Ditto flag pins. If Obama begins to wear one now, I will have to assume that he, too, is a phony...and just possibly a scoundrel.
FLOOD media outlets inbox.
The woman that asked the question about the laple is yet another American whose mind has been dilluted by American media.
We all know that she was paid to ask that question. She could not speak the words that they were asking her to speak clearly.
We as true American citizens need to open our minds and make our own assumptions and decisions regarding our Political woes.
What will happen in 2009 is ineivitable. Regardless of what the media tries to do or say nothing can change who has the popular vote and who is ready for change in America.
Presidential debates are hockey if media outlets are the host of them and the only way that we as American citizens are going to make different is if we stand and do not tolerate this mess.
Flood inboxes. Boycott news networks.
I can't help myself. I must pile on. This vapid woman epitomizes the reason why America is doomed. Out of work, struggling to live, looking down the barrel of having to work (if she can find it) till she dies or possible homelessness and this Republican parrot is concerned about flag pins.
Out of proportion with reality much?
Or in proportion with the reality that Americans are actually THIS stupid? My fellow countryman and women are in fact every bit as drooling on their shoes idiotic as I feared.
Unable to prioritize survival from semantics, this country shall soon fade into the annals of history, another failed experiment, another cul-de-sac. Perhaps the founding fathers were right. There should be a minimal requirement to vote besides opposable thumbs. How about an IQ above that of a mud skipper? That's a fine start.
Randy
Flag Fetishism
This nonsense about flag pins makes me wanna holler! It is the same as worshipping a golden calf, mistaking the menu for the meal, judging a book by its cover, substituting jerking off for intercourse. It pulls for the most primitive, atavistic kind of "our tribe-their tribe" group-think. It is profoundly disrespectful to the good things the flag stands for to use it in this manipulative way. Richard Ferry San Jose, CA