"Are you currently wearing a flag pin?
Yes? Then you love America.
No? Hmm. That's gonna be a problem.
Such was the false dichotomy that faced Barack Obama during his April 16 debate against Hillary Clinton, when Charlie Gibson asked Obama a voter question about why he did not wear a flag pin on his lapel. The previous October, an Iowa ABC reporter had asked him a similar question, to which Obama replied that he had worn one after 9/11, but soon noticed, "people wearing a lapel pin but not acting very patriotic." He went on to explain, "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... and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism." Naturally, a controversy erupted. When it came up again during the April debate, he made a similar point.
Obama now wears a flag pin on his lapel. Every day."
