RUSH: There’s an interesting story about Barack Obama out there. He was in Waterloo, Iowa. He says he doesn’t wear an American flag lapel pin because it’s become a substitute for ‘true patriotism’ since the 9/11 attacks. He was asked about it on Wednesday in an interview on a TV station in Cedar Rapids, 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. 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.’ You can go look up the definition of patriotism in any dictionary you want, and that is not it. Why do these guys have to redefine patriotism? Mrs. Clinton redefined patriotism once as being equal to criticizing a sitting president — dissent. Obama’s getting pretty close to the same thing. The interesting thing about this to me is that now we know that Elizabeth Edwards’s PR people send out questions that she wants asked to her by the people that are going to be interviewing her in various media — because the guy at Air America Radio admitted it! They got a note from the PR person suggesting things that she wanted to be asked about.
So how in the hell does this flag pin question come up? Of all the things. Now, it may be legit. The question from the TV station could have been legitimate, but we also have to consider the possibility that the Obama campaign wants to be asked about this. In any event, it was asked, and it was answered. There is obviously an attempt here by Barack Obama to suggest not wearing the flag is patriotic. He’s aiming it right at the fringe lunatic base. He’s got a lot of ground to make up on Mrs. Clinton, and he has to do it with the base. He has to do it with those one in five Democrats in the Fox News poll that admit they think the world would be better off if the United States lost this war. So that’s who he’s going after, by letting it be known that he took off his American flag lapel pin, as a sign of phony patriotism.
I’ll tell you, after 9/11, and a long time after, the first year after, I remember down here in Florida, you couldn’t see a car that did not have a flag protruding from an open window or from the back. I went out to California, went to Los Angeles, about the same time, a year after 9/11, and it was amazing to see so many cars on the freeways with the American flag waving proudly in one form or another. Obama now tells us he took his flag — his lapel pin — off after 9/11? Something about this doesn’t make any sense, to make this an issue. Well, it makes total sense. I’m sure it makes total sense when you understand exactly who it is that Barack Obama is trying to gain the support of. It makes total sense, 100 percent. Should have known that even when I think I’m wrong, I’m right.