ABC Debate Obama Flag Pin Question ‘Planted from the Right’? Nutrooters REALLY losing it now!

April 19, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Media Bias, News, President, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston |

-By Warner Todd Huston

Houston Chronicle blogger Bob Cavnar needs to take some time off, or lay off the caffeine, or maybe someone should gently tell him that the black helicopters aren’t following him after all. Whatever the case, Cavnar used his April 19th posting to go off on a wild eyed rant that is so twisted that it ends up blaming Republicans and Mickey Mouse for the fact that Barack Obama isn’t patriotic enough to wear an American flag lapel pin! This is just another hilarious example of the overheated far left’s panty bunching extravaganza that we’ve seen since the ABC debate aired.

During the last Democratic presidential debate, a woman from Pennsylvania was shown on videotape pointing out that Barack Obama refuses to wear an American flag lapel pin unlike most of the other candidates who do from time to time and Cavnar has decided that some dark, Obama hating conspiracy at ABC pushed this woman into the debate.

Here was her question at the ABC debate:

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.

As Cavnar points out, the woman, Pennsylvanian Nash McCabe, was quoted as concerned about that very question by The New York Times on April 4th. So, because this woman’s point against Obama was known before the debate, Cavnar claims that McCabe being presented as a “typical voter” by ABC is somehow a lie.

Cavnar also points out that Philadelphia Daily News columnist Will Bunch agrees that McCabe’s question was unfair and more proof of the “travesty of a mockery of a sham of a presidential debate” that ABC perpetrated on the nation. Bunch was just as peeved as Cavnar and said, “So Nash McCabe wasn’t located at random at all. Instead, someone at ABC News decided that they wanted to go after Obama on the patriotism issue, and they actively sought a Pennsylvanian who they knew wanted to bring it up.”

But, it all amounts to a big “so what?” Did ABC ever SAY that McCabe was chosen at random? No would be the answer to that. Both the Houston Chronicle’s Cavnar and the Philly Daily News’ Bunch set up a nice strawman that they could then easily knock down. Of course, it is true that ABC sought out this woman and that she wasn’t found “at random,” but I’m not aware that anyone at ABC DID say she was found by accident in the first place.

ABC did look for this woman to pose this question, without question. But it was not an ABC hit job at all. It was a substantive question on an issue that Obama himself made into an issue. Cavnar and Bunch’s absurd claims of ABC’s malfeasance aside, it was Obama himself that we can blame for the lapel flag issue.

Americans are interested in why Obama won’t wear his American flag pin. It’s just that simple.

Here was Charles Gibson’s follow up to McCabe’s video taped question:

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?

So, yes, this was ABC’s specific goal, to get at this question. McCabe’s video tapped question was not random and was not supposed to be.

But, Cavnar especially goes off his nut on this business. Here is how he describes the situation…

So…ABC, owned by Disney, who benefits from Republican policies, decides to make the leading Democratic contender look bad. They get their two most prominent talking heads to “moderate” the debate to lend credibility, even though one of them owes everything he has to the Clintons. They then go after Obama with a few token challenges to Hillary, using planted questions from the right and a bitter woman in Pennsylvania to do their dirty work.

Hilarious! So, Disney and Republicans are at fault for Barack Obama’s refusal to wear a flag lapel pin? And, even worse in Cavnar’s eyes, George Stephanopoulos shouldn’t have been allowed to be involved in the debate because he “owes everything to the Clintons”? I wonder if Cavnar ever doubted Stephanopoulos’ ability to be an unbiased newsman when it was first announced years ago that he was becoming one? I’d bet no is the answer to that. Of course, now that Georgie is seemingly standing in the way of Cavnar’s candidate, suddenly Stephanopoulos is not to be trusted!

But, as I said, this is all Barack Obama’s fault in the first place, so the nutroots claims that ABC sandbagged the candidate of “change” is patently absurd. They have no one but Obama to blame for the whole mess. As Jake Tapper reminds us all, Obama is the one that made this a problem issue for his campaign.

Back in October Obama replied to a query of why he wasn’t wearing the flag pin with this bit of tortured “logic”:

“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.”

This Obama reply begs the question: do you not think, Mr. Obama, the country is great already? Do you think that only YOU can “tell the American people” what “will make this country great”? “Will” as in future tense, not “is” as in currently great?

Anyway, the whole point that the lefty whiners are attacking ABC over in this case can only be blamed on their favorite candidate. The whole lapel pin deal is Barack Obama’s fault, not ABC’s. As Tapper points out, “So…wasn’t it Obama who made an issue out his not wearing a flag lapel pin?”

No, all we have is the conspiracy mongering of the far left upset that their candidate is finally being held to account for his many anti-American sentiments, sentiments that he has been given a pass for by the very MSM that the nutrooters are now attacking.

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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston