Appearing in RW email: pic of Obama not saluting flag

[philly_bob]

Anybody seen this pic? It's making the round of right-wing email lists.

http://albanysinsanity.wnymedia.net/blogs/2007/10/20/obama-no-hand-on-heart-for-pledge-either-will-msm-notice/

It shows Obama with his hands cupped in front of him, not saluting flag, while Hillary and Richardson salute. The RW text says Obama consistently refuses to salute flag.

Any history on this picture or story?

If there's an explanation, some Obama supporter should send it to SNOPES.COM.

[wyldwolf]

1. c'mon! The right wing won't smear Obama!

[BeyondGeography]

2. More proof he's winning

[wyldwolf]

7. so right wing smears is proof someone is winning?

[BeyondGeography]

10. Clearly

[wyldwolf]

12. then Hillary has been winning for 15 years and, further...

...since Obama supporters constantly whine about how Republicans will attack Hillary, she is clearly the candidate who can win the GE.

[BeyondGeography]

16. Looks like they're turning their attention to the new guy

[wyldwolf]

20. nah - that e-mail has been making the rounds for months

[BeyondGeography]

21. I remember...he downplayed the fallout post-Steak Fry

and he was careful to put his hand over his heart during the playing of the anthem at the JJ dinner. Showed growth, don't you think?

[wyldwolf]

35. glad you admit the attack is nothing new

[BeyondGeography]

36. Lame thread

cuz you know the Republicans are really scared shit of Edwards anyway. :P

[wyldwolf]

37. well, your replies, anyway.

[BeyondGeography]

38. Someone's not taking a falling apart campaign very well

[wyldwolf]

42. just having fun with your twisty turny replies

[BeyondGeography]

44. The OP says the photo is "now" making the rounds of RW lists

doesn't mean the controversy is brand new.

I know it's complicated.

[wyldwolf]

46. but that isn't true. I saw it months ago. Regardless, that isn't the focus of OUR conversation

Like I said - your replies are twisty-turny.

[IndyOp]

3. It look like they are waiting for the pledge to begin -

several already have their hands in position but they are bending over and looking in the direction of... the person who was supposed to lead the pledge, maybe?

I bet if you click around on Obama's site or Google you could find Obama with hand over heart.

The charge that he consistently refuses to salute sounds like drivel to me.

I, personally, do consistently refuse to salute the flag because I refuse to salute a piece of cloth. Until we get clarification about the values for which it stands and the part about saluting a piece of cloth is removed I will refuse to salute.

[MonkeyFunk]

9. No

he stood that way during the anthem. There's video of it.

I don't think it's a big deal, but it is true.

[BeyondGeography]

13. You are correct...and he promises never to do it again

[IndyOp]

27. Okay. Thanks for the clarification. (n/t)

[Maat]

28. What I tend to avoid doing is stating the pledge ...

particularly the "under God" part. I believe the One is both within and without, and I'm not "under" a "Him."


I find the idea of a loyalty oath to be disgusting, in my humble opinion.

I AM loyal to the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, and to the country and its people; but, I do not need to utter those words that remind me of the evil Joe McCarthy!

[NMDemDist2]

4. snopes says it's true, I got it last week and checked it out

Obama doesn't deny it, he just put out a letter by a bunch of Military supporters saying Obama is 'patriotic'

[Connie_Corleone]

8. It's NOT during the pledge of allegiance. Snopes points this out.

It's during the national anthem and no one is saluting the flag because the flag is behind them.

[BeyondGeography]

19. The good thing is the photo doesn't show his secret cocaine patch

then we would be so screwn.

[otohara]

51. LOL

I need to get me one of those instead of this estrogen patch.

[elizm]

18. Someone was singing the National Anthem...it was NOT the Pledge of Allegience...

Do you see Hillary or anyone else's freaking mouth moving saying the pledge???? I'm guessing this...like the hate email THREE of Hillary's staff were caught sending...is more trash not only from the top of Hillary's campaign, but from Hillary herself. Bring it on!!

[baldguy]

5. I'll take Barak's single lapse any day.

King George has made a career of desecrating the flag.

[elizm]

25. It WASN'T a lapse! nt

[Connie_Corleone]

6. First of all no one is saluting the flag. The flag is behind them.

Second, this was during the singing of the national anthem, NOT the pledge.

Third, why are you posting something from October?

And lastly, if you had bothered to go to snopes yourself, you would see it's already been debunked.

[MadBadger]

11. I've heard it was the national anthem, and not the pledge

[suston96]

14. That's nuthin......

Find one of him looking at the ground with his right hand clenched in a fist and raised above his head.

Then you will have something to talk about.

[Arugula Latte]

15. Hey, Rightwingers. Here is YOUR president "saluting" the flag:

At least the child next to him has one of her hands in the general vicinity of her heart. That is apparently beyond Bush, though.

[Turbineguy]

22. Bush has his hand over his heart

it just happens to be located where everybody else has their colon.

And it's filled with the same substance.

[JoePhilly]

31. Maybe he has gas ...

Or maybe he puts his hand over his GUT ... like Steven Colbert says ... Bush doesn't need facts ... he relies on his GUT.

[Kucinich4America]

33. If Chimpy were Vulcan, his hand would be in the correct place.

But that dumb motherfucker doesn't know the meaning of the word "logic", so that isn't likely.

[Nailzberg]

17. It was a MSM story in October and also appeared on Snopes around that time.

The RW emails usually use this as "proof" that Obama is really a Muslim infiltrator, refuses to say the pledge of allegiance, that kinda garbage.

It's not during the pledge, it's during the national anthem. All the major networks examined this picture in October.

[Joe the Revelator]

23. Someone from the Hillary campagin emailed it to me.

NT

[elizm]

24. OBAMA's statement on it for you philly_bob

We don't need SNOPES.COM, thank you. And this is nothing more than flame bait by you!

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/11/obama-says-flag.html
Obama Says Flag Flap a Dirty Trick
Email
Share November 07, 2007 3:18 PM

ABC News' David Wright and Sunlen Miller Report: At a town hall meeting Wednesday an Iowa voter asked Senator Barack Obama, D-Ill., about the numerous emails she has received with photos purporting to show Obama "refusing" to pledge allegiance to the flag.

"You're standing with your arms folded and Hillary's got her hand on her heart," she said, adding that she received so many of these emails she is sick of them.

Obama shook his head and smiled.

"This was not during the pledge of allegiance," Obama said of the picture taken at Senator Tom Harkin's, D-Iowa, annual steak fry and first published by Time. "A woman was singing the Star Spangled Banner when that picture was taken.

See the original photo by clicking here.

"I was taught by my grandfather that you put your hand over your heart during the pledge, but during the Star Spangled Banner, you sing!" Obama said.

ABC News has video of the event in question which can be viewed by clicking here.

Obama called the circulation of such pictures a "dirty trick" and mentioned other emails accusing him of being "a Muslim plant."

"I have been pledging allegiance since I was a kid," Obama said.

Obama advised his supporters who receive such emails to ignore them.

"Just tell whoever sent it," Obama told the crowd, "they're misinformed."

[David Dunham]

26. This photo makes Obama look really bad.

[elizm]

30. Only if you are shallow. nt

[Cha]

41. You wish...really

bad.

[Pushed To The Left]

45. Only to the extremely gullible!

Apparently, the right wing can't attack Obama on the issues so they have to resort to nonsense like this and what he wrote in elementary school.

[philly_bob]

47. Thanks for the explanation but I resent the insult, elizm.

So it's kind of like the Dean Scream == a meaningless moment from a long campaign. Here's the Snopes account: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/anthem.asp. Obama does salute the flag, sing the pledge of allegiance, etc.

Apparently I missed the controversy over the picture in October. I just saw it for the first time yesterday.

I hope my bringing it up again, even if tardy, at least instructs a few people to answer the right wing about the picture.

But hey, elizm, your saying my OP was nothing but "flame bait" means what, exactly?

Boy, DU is certainly a hostile place these days. I hope it gets a bit calmer after primary season ends.

[elizm]

52. Just where was an insult?

Maybe you missed the controversy back in October but most of us here didn't. We do not need to answer the right wing about the picture....Senator Obama already has in the link I provided. I sent the Snopes.com thing to anyone who questioned me about it, and quite frankly, I am tired of seeing it dragged back out over and over again. Hillary's campaign has already beat that dead horse enough.

[philly_bob]

56. Ok, "Flame Bait" may be a description, not an insult. Also, I traced sender.

One positive outcome of my unfortunate posting may be that I was able to trace the origin of the email containing the picture by asking around.

To my disappointment, it was not a Right Winger who sent it, but a supporter (not a staffer) of a different presidential candidate: Hillary Clinton.

I hope this thread stays at 0 recommendations.

[maddiejoan]

29. There was no flag to salute!

Hillary and Richardson are doing that for the picture to smear Obama!!!


ATTACK!!! ATTTACK!!!! ATTACK!!!!

[avrdream]

32. The point is: this is the kind of stuff that the RW will bring up.

He just can't argue that picture: wingers don't care what words are said. A picture will say a thousand words to them and many others who don't bother to find out the little details behind things. The shit-throwing is only just beginning for Obama.

(It does seem odd that the others have their hands over their hearts but he doesn't.)

[Blue-Jay]

34. Fuck 'em. RWers aren't gonna vote for a Democrat anyhow.

So, fuck 'em. I don't care what those pieces of shit say.

[Cha]

39. The jackboots have

spoken.

[Zynx]

40. Oh for God's sake...

And I'll just throw this out there too even though it is not really related: Flag Day is stupid.

[NewHampster]

43. I think I'm fairly liberal but he pisses me off too

I don't say the Lord's prayer at my friends wedding but I bow my head out of respect.

I don't sing the anthem but I stand with my hand or hat over my heart.

He who wishes to lead this country needs to respect it's traditions.

[Fierce]

48. "Some Obama supporter should send it to SNOPES"?

Why don't you check snopes before you post it? Because it's there already, and has been for some time.

[philly_bob]

49. I didn't check. I should have checked. I regret it.

If only Gilda Radner's Emily Litella was around to say "Never mind."

Certainly gave some folks the opportunity to shoot partisan paintballs at each other.

[elizm]

54. Just a 'wild guess' but I'm thinking the poster already knew it was there at Snopes...

Flame bait.

[philly_bob]

57. I may be clueless, but I'm not devious. nt

[Maven]

50. Just the tip of the iceberg. This is the appetizer

They're saving the drug use story for the main course.

[elizm]

53. And watch Obama's number go up when they do. nt

[Perry Logan]

55. If the Clinton years are any indication, they'll just start making stuff up.