This isn't really about a flag pin, no, it is about giving one reason and when that didn't work out so well, giving another reason that sounds better and accusing people that quoted your previous words, of telling lies.
Case in point.... Barack Obama and the flag pin.
Last October Obama was asked why he didn't wear a flag pin and his answer was:
"You know, 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, I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest. Instead, I'm going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism."
His words are clear...he decided not to wear the pin.
Now, lets look at his attempt to rewrite his own reasons and words.
"And the second thing, the way this has come up is the fact that I don't always wear a flag pin. Now I don't know if any of you who don't have flag pins consider yourselves unpatriotic. I think you're patriotic. The reason that I don't always wear a flag pin is not that I disrespect the flag, it's that when I started wearing a flag pin after 9/11, I gotta admit that sometimes I would misplace it and so I didn't always put it on."
So, now it wasn't his decision, it was that he misplaced it sometimes... anyone buying this?
He continues:
"Then I was asked about this in Iowa," Obama said. "And somebody said 'Why don't you wear a flag pin?' I said, well, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I said, although I will say that sometimes I notice that they're people who wear flag pins but they don't always act patriotic. And I was specifically referring to politicians, not individuals who wear flag pins, but politicians who you see wearing flag pins and then vote against funding for veterans, saying we can't afford it."
You can look at his two explanations for yourself and decide if they match up with each other, or if he was simply trying to make it sound better this time than it did last time.
The flag pin never was much of an issue for me, hence my not writing about it at length at the time, but his constant stream of lies, many shown here, is a problem for me. His consistent attempts to skewer the truth when it fits his agenda and then simply act like he did nothing wrong when he gets caught in a lie, is a problem.
The audacity it takes to tell these lies, straight to people's faces when his previous words were published over and over again, also shows he doesn't really care about the truth and further goes to show that his supporters don't either, or they would call him out on it and insist he start showing more honesty.
Little misstatements, little white lies or simple changes to a story told many times, is almost considered normal in politics, but when it becomes the one consistent theme, as with Rezko, Wright, and Ayers, and a whole list of topics ranging from big to small, it can be considered a pattern.
It is a pattern Obama supporters would rather ignore, as would Obama himself, but unless they face it head on and start holding him accountable, their credibility will fly out the window right along with his.
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