I’m watching the News Hour coverage of last night’s debate. One of the commentators from factcheck.org pointed out that Barack Obama was not factual about the American flag lapel pin when he said that he had not made definitive statements one way or the other about wearing a lapel pin. In fact, according to factcheck.org Obama did say that he wasn’t wearing a pin: “Actually, he did. He said last year, “I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest” because it had become “a substitute for … true patriotism” during the run-up to the Iraq war.”
All I could think about was the fact that we’re in the middle of a Presidential election with a lot at stake: the economy, education, the war in Iraq, and we’re wasting time worrying about whether someone is wearing a pin or not? They even found some woman from Pennsylvania to record the question for him. Puh-leaze! Lapel pins?? And, I wish he would have repeated what he said last year at the debate last night: things like pins are substitutes for patriotism. Maybe we should start practicing real patriotism by conserving petroleum and building up our own economy instead of throwing money into that pit known as Iraq.
Tom Shales at the Washington Post criticized ABC for the gossipy nature of the debate and I applaud his message.
I was particularly annoyed with the whole thing about William Ayers, the former member of the Weather Underground. The Associated Press has a good outline of the issue. But, come one, aren’t we setting a pretty high standard if we start looking at every person with whom you associated? Aren’t some very close Clinton friends in prison now? And, of course, Bill Clinton pardoned two of the Weathermen before he left office. Again, this is really a non-issue.
I think part of the problem here is that neither candidate is very far apart on the issues. So, we focus instead on trivialities and titillating details. And, I think Obama showed his disdain for these tactics last night.
