MetaChat - Barack and his lapel pin. Discuss.

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

10 October 2007

Barack and his lapel pin. Discuss. →[More:]

Wanted to answer box's question without bringing down the bunny-pin thread.

My opinion, box, is that it's only politically risky because most people (espeically media commentators) are too small-minded to realize that a person's jewelery is pretty irrelevant to how good of a job they'd do.

I don't know why he doesn't wear it, but I love his explanation -- that it should matter, and that actions (and carefully scripted words) should speak louder than lapel pins or bumper stickers.

post by: mudpuppie at: 15:48 | 33 comments

(Also, I might have it wrong, but I'm pretty sure that he didn't announce that he'd no longer wear it. I think someone asked him why he didn't have one on when everyone else did. Is that right?)

posted by mudpuppie 10 October | 15:50

most people... are too small-minded to realize that a person's jewelery is pretty irrelevant to how good of a job they'd do.

Then what did I buy all this shiny jewelry for??????

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 10 October | 15:52

The DeBeers People have been brainwashing us all for decades, TPS. Don't beat yourself up for falling for it.

posted by wendell 10 October | 15:54

Thanks, pup--I didn't mean to derail it either.

It's a nice point, but if he's actually trying to win the Presidency, what does he stand to gain by forsaking the lapel pin? Surely the number of small-minded folks who etc., or the risk of Fox News or whoever saying that he's unpatriotic because he quit wearing it, is larger than the number of people who would vote for him based on his courageous anti-lapel-pin stance.

most people... are too small-minded to realize that a person's jewelery is pretty irrelevant to how good of a job they'd do.

Then what did I get this tongue piercing for? (Note: I don't have a tongue piercing.)

posted by box 10 October | 15:55

And in my ongoing assessment of candidates, Obama's choice to NOT participate in this act of false-flag-waving is a +1. (No, I will not be revealing any overall scores until just before the California Primary, whether it matters or not)

posted by wendell 10 October | 15:57

"To say that it would be some sort of hypocrisy to wear the flag on your lapel is out of touch," Brady said. "I certainly don't mean that people who don't wear a lapel pin aren't patriotic -- but it's another thing to say that people who are wearing a lapel pin are falsely patriotic."--Bill Brady, state senator (R-IL) and Fred Thompson's Illinois campaign chairman.

posted by box 10 October | 16:00

I'm kind of disappointed that he ever did wear it. Let the Republicans wrap themselves in the flag -- they have the haircuts to pull it off.

posted by Atom Eyes 10 October | 16:02

Lou Dobbs wrote a rather incendiary response to it, which I won't link to.

It seems to me like there are some people who will automatically attack him for his stance on what amounts to an easy photo-op. I will chose to disregard those people's opinions in the future.

Look, I don't wear an American flag pin. In fact, I've only worn one for one day in my entire life - 4th of July, 1997. I don't recall politicians wearing them before Sept. 11th. So what is the pin even supposed to symbolize? Patriotism? That's pretty dumb, in my opinion. Patriotism should be a value, not an attribute.

posted by muddgirl 10 October | 16:20

"There are so many things we need to be talking about" other than what a candidate wears on his lapel, [Republican presidential candidate Mike] Huckabee said, adding that he does not wear a flag pin on his.

"A lot of people wear insignias of their fraternities," he said in a brief interview. "Now if you wore a satanic symbol, that has a relevance. That would be an issue."

posted by box 10 October | 16:22

Good on Huckabee. (Except for the "satanic symbol" non-sequitur. That was weird.)

posted by Atom Eyes 10 October | 16:29

That might be an example of Huck's 'sense of humor.' Or it might be an example of the kinds of things he said when he was a culture-warrior minister, or when he was doing those 'traditional marriage' rallies as Arkansas' governor.

posted by box 10 October | 16:31

Hey, as long as we're talking presidential politics--I don't think that Huck has a prayer, no pun intended. But maybe I think this in the same way that people who live in NYC think that Rudy couldn't possibly win it. Obviously, Huck's a second-string candidate. But is he also a joke?

posted by box 10 October | 16:35

i remember coming in to work one day about a month after 9/11, and two people from our human resources office were standing a few feet away from the timeclock handing everyone american flag lapel pins. they actually went around the plant later that day to see if everyone was wearing them. when they got to my desk and saw it being used as a thumbtack to hold my wall calendar up, they got all pissed off. i could have defended my position, even going as far as singing "the stars and stripes of corruption" by the dead kennedys with four-part harmony and feelin', but i thought it best to let it go. within a month everyone stopped wearing them anyway. I'm still using it as a thumbtack. So who's the unpatriotic stick-in-the-mud now? :)

posted by syntax 10 October | 17:57

I could've sworn that I've seen some NON-flag label pins on some US politicians... I think they were circular, like a black-on-grey dot. Is this some kind of memory retrieval hallucination? If not, wtf is/was the supposed symbolism of a dot pin? They can't all have been Mefites in mourning.

posted by CKmtl 10 October | 18:11

Barack and his lapel pin. Discuss.

Or DON'T.

These frikkin' non-issues only refuse to die because we keep paying attention to them.

posted by scarabic 10 October | 19:32

It makes me like him more. To me, not wearing a symbol, or sporting a bumper sticker, or what have you, means you are more inclined to think through the complexities of things. Not that one shouldn't accessorize oneself or a car or bike with sentiments one believes in, but why should one have to? For whom?

It all started, in my memory, at least, with the Red Ribbons at the Oscars. Which was sort of thrilling, for one night. Big Hollywood Stars made a Gesture that acknowledged AIDS. And it made news and it was great. But immediately - the very next day, the media and folks in general started commenting on who didn't wear the ribbon. Which bothered me. And now, there are so many ribbons and banners and pins and whatnot, that it's just overwhelming.

I don't accessorize to make statements, and I'm already voting for the man. So there is no real news here. Move along.

posted by rainbaby 10 October | 19:47

Well, no, of course there isn't any real news here.

It's like celebrity gossip, or fantasy sports, or critiquing the iPhone launch, which are the kinds of things that usually (okay, sometimes) play well here.

posted by box 10 October | 19:56

Yeah. She asked, I answered. Chat. I like it.

And no, box, I don't think Huck's a joke. He's got two big hills to climb. One, being taken more seriously, then two, stepping out of Geographical Clinton comparisons, but so far, he's doing ok.

posted by rainbaby 10 October | 20:00

Huckabee seems a lot more likeable and a lot less weird than I know he really is. (This is the guy who wanted to create "covenant (i.e. no-divorce) marriage" when he was governor, right?

I mean, that's scary, coming from a politico. But the few snippets I've seen of him on TV make him seem a lot less oily than the other GOP candidates. What's up with that? Is that what they call charisma? Or is it just that he can't keep up with the ever-growing creepiness of the other guys?

posted by BoringPostcards 10 October | 20:09

Further clarification, I meant my opinion contained no real news, not the original post.

I've come across kind of bitchy on metachat lately, and I don't mean to and I'm paranoid about it, so I tend to dismiss myself, because I'm afraid of getting called down. It's half my own mind-state right now and half the tone here feeling more filtery than chatty lately.

Fine discussion.

Yes, bp. ever growing smarminess and codification. I can't even hear H. Clinton right now because I rebell in my soul against Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton. Even though I like the gender/race issues stariting to fade a bit. I'd just love some real individuals to get the nominations.

posted by rainbaby 10 October | 20:15

An only-tangentially-related anecdote:

Some years ago I was stuck on a 2-hour chartered van ride with a woman who was the chatty sort, and she told us all about how she worked in the lapel-pin industry, and how they had made so much money by outsourcing production to China, and how proud they had been to have been picked to supply the flag lapel pins to the White House, and how embarrassing it had subsequently been to discover that there weren't the proper 50 stars on the pins they had provided to the White House, and ha-ha-ha you've got to be careful when you do your manufacturing overseas. She then spent the next hour or so trying to decide which of the ringtones on her cellphone she liked best by playing them all sequentially.

(on preview: there's some chat fer ya, rainbaby. Hang in there, k?)

posted by Triode 10 October | 20:21

FWIW, rainbaby, I've never seen any bitchiness from you, and I've enjoyed seeing you speak up more lately.

I know what you mean about the "dynastic" problem of electing another Clinton... it grosses me out, too. I'm also not a huge fan of Hillary's, as a politician. (I can't be the only person who wishes that Elizabeth Edwards was going to be our first female president, can I?)

I can't believe it's still over a year away and we're already this deep into the campaign stuff... nobody can withstand this level of scrutiny this long without looking fairly creepy.

posted by BoringPostcards 10 October | 20:25

She then spent the next hour or so trying to decide which of the ringtones on her cellphone she liked best by playing them all sequentially.

This is why I sometimes wish we all had video cameras issued at birth. That's freakin' hilarious.

posted by BoringPostcards 10 October | 20:29

She then spent the next hour or so trying to decide which of the ringtones on her cellphone she liked best by playing them all sequentially.
Well, apart from taking an hour to do it, how else are you supposed to work out which one you like best?

posted by dg 10 October | 20:54

I've come across kind of bitchy on metachat lately

Not that I've noticed, love. But I like it when people get salty.

posted by jrossi4r 10 October | 22:12

I'm happy (I think) to say that I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about.

posted by me3dia 10 October | 22:37

"I can't be the only person who wishes that Elizabeth Edwards was going to be our first female president, can I?"

Well, now that you mention her I will give her some serious consideration.

I constantly hear "America is not ready yet for a woman president" used as some kind of charge against Hillary, but I think that statement is wrong. America IS ready for a woman president but Hillary isn't the one.

posted by mischief 11 October | 00:14

Wow, I'm totally going to have to agree with mischief on this one. High five.

posted by mudpuppie 11 October | 00:19

I constantly hear "America is not ready yet for a woman president"
That bears repeating as the biggest crock of shit I've heard today. And I work for the government, so I'm usually neck deep in the stuff.

posted by dg 11 October | 00:31

Enh...my dealbreakers for him are the coke and the fact that his wife has been waspish about him in public.

posted by brujita 11 October | 00:56

My dealbreakers for OBAMA

I'd vote for Diane Feinstein long before I'd vote for Hillary...just on what my gut says.

posted by brujita 11 October | 00:58

brujita - I actually think it's humanizing that his wife plays it a bit straight and takes digs at him from time to time. I'm really sort of sick of this whole, "Standing behind my man 100%, we have a perfect marriage la de da de da" thing that first ladies are expected to do. I like that she can acknowledge that this is hard for her and the kids, and that Barack needs to put them first, even above his senatorial duties.

And, I like that he's honest about his past, instead of pretending that he's a perfect goody-two-shoes (I'm looking at Romney, here).

posted by muddgirl 11 October | 10:26

I had less of a problem with Dean's wife not being there with him all the time...given she's a doctor and her first responsibility is to her patients. It's one thing to say this is hard on the family (I think Edwards' two youngest are too little to be dragged around the country like this--and that Elizabeth Edwards seems healthy enough at the moment,but the stress can't ultimately be good...I wouldn't have a problem with his continuing a job based in his home city, but I would have dropped out of the campaign if a loved one were diagnosed with a terminal disease) but I think putdowns and snarking shouldn't be made public--I saw too much of this in my parents' marriage. Obama may not be prone to addiction, but I HATE coke--I've seen it turn people completely nasty.

posted by brujita 13 October | 01:16

← New Salad Fingers || Posting This from the Seattle Library →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN