Posted on 09/27/2008 12:04:59 AM PDT by RatherBiased.com
In recent memory, every presidential debate eventually distills down into a few catchphrases. Al Gore became known for his sighs and love of lockboxes. John Kerry actually served in Vietnam. Dan Quayle was no Jack Kennedy.
Barack Obama has a bracelet, too.
That inartful comeback will likely filter out through the political ether in the days ahead. What might not filter through our partisan press is that shortly after pointing out that, like John McCain, Obama sports a bracelet given to him by a military family, the Democratic candidate had to stop and look at it to find out the name of the soldier he's honoring.
That soldier is Ryan David Jopek. Barack Obama doesn't appear to have known that fact.
Here's his complete line:
"Jim, let me just make a point. I've got a bracelet too. From, Sergeant, uh, uh, from the mother of, uh, Sergeant, Ryan David Jopek."
Had a Republican, say Sarah Palin, made this gaffe, who wants to bet that we wouldn't hear this clip repeated endlessly during the post-debate spin shows and in the days ahead? How much would the sincerity of our hypothetical Republican politician be called into question.
I didn't hear it discussed once in the post-debate coverage. Did you?
Sidenote: Michelle Malkin reminds us that this incident is remarkably reminiscent of the now-famous incident of George H. W. Bush looking at his watch during the 1992 presidential debates.
Good on that Dad - he’s handled the range of issues surrounding this matter, very well. Hat’s off to Mr. Jopek.
Yep, he sure has a bracelet...Says: I’m living proof that Indians did screw buffalo’s ! ! !
What was the Kissinger gaffe? I haven’t watched the debate yet
sw
His mother should rip that braclet off him in front of a dozen tv cameras.
Of course, Obama was given the bracelet just before the debate began by one of his advisers. He was grandstanding again since he was exhausted with very little sleep, after having been to 57 states with one more to go......
And the press still has their blindfolds and ear plugs planted, while the general public is still unaware that a monster is being crammed down their throats with a spoon.
The drive-by media called it a draw, so did the Black Knight.
(Now that’s not a racial innuendo!)
;^)
“the Democratic candidate had to stop and look at it to find out the name of the soldier he’s honoring.”
FNC has their marching orders. Fair and balanced when it comes to dems, critical when it comes to repubs.
Tell me again Sir Bedevere how to make ship’s sails out of lamb’s bladders...
My ALL TIME fav is Al Gore’s...”What about Dingell-Norwood”!!! We STILL use that around this house!
I'll let you know how it's reported in the local paper today.
He actually did meet the mother. But it wasn't during his recent trip to Green Bay. It was another visit a few months ago. It was reported in our local paper at the time.
His mother isn't quite as bad a Cindy Sheehan, but you're right, she'll cover for him.
"I have a bracelet,too. It say Livestrong.
To be perfectly honest with you, when I was in high school, I had an English teacher that I very much looked up to. He was a very intelligent man, and he taught us many good things. The most important of which would be that he encouraged us to think for ourselves, and encouraged us to disagree with him as long as we could back up our views. (BTW: I was in his class when the Berlin Wall fell. IIRC, there was an announcement over the loud speaker about it. I do remember everyone being very excited - lots of cheering and such.)
Anyway, he was definitely a liberal. Probably the classic liberal professor type (with the elbow patch blazers and everything). We grew up in a pretty nice area - definitely the majority of student were middle, to upper-middle class leaning more towards the upper-middle side at that time. I remember him telling us how lucky we were - that most of our parents were in the top 10% of the income bracket in the nation (don’t know how true his statistic were... but he may have been right...). I also remember him showing us how (according to him) Reagan’s Trickle-Down Economics didn’t work...
I explain all of this because I unfortunately believed him. It probably didn’t help that a lot of my friends were what I know recognize as liberal as well... Several operated an “underground” newspaper in our school that was pretty popular. I was also a very rebellious teen, and seeing as my father was a Republican and I associated EVERYTHING he believed with his (literally) evil nature, I made the assumption that ALL Republicans were like him. I failed to see that even though he was not a good role model morally, he was intelligent, and he was right about a good many things having to do with economics, the government, foreign policy, etc...
As a result of my naivete, I didn’t realize that SOCIALISM could NEVER exist in any true form in our world. I didn’t realize - as I do now - that “Socialism” is a misnomer, and every time someone uses that word in one’s mind they should really substitute communist...
Anyway, I was also a bit of a dreamer. I thought “wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all just get along?” Wouldn’t it be great if we could all share equally - no-one would go without, no wars, no poverty, etc... etc... etc... I bought into that Utopian Ideal.
Fortunately (and in some ways unfortunately) for me the real world knocked on my door rather early. Less than 2 years out of High School my husband and I had our first child and I began to see how in error my thinking was. I then began a slow but steady process of moving to the “right” so to speak... The more and more I learned - not what was in our schoolbooks, or what our teachers said - but the more I learned about the REAL world, the more people I met (like the young man our age that we became friends with who had JUST immigrated from Poland after they gained independence from the USSR), the more I began to realize how horrible SOCIALISM really was. (Again, I had an instinctual knowledge that Communism was bad due to the USSR, however, I did NOT equate socialism as being the same).
So, I guess I do completely understand the infatuation, and the romanticized notions of these young people when it comes to the PHILOSOPHY of socialism as a THEORY. What I don’t get is the fascination with these communist leaders, and how they could not realize how evil they were. I really do wonder exactly what they are being taught nowadays (we homeschool so I don’t know what the curriculum is like in some public schools).
Sorry to go on for so long in this post... The one thing I AM glad about is that since I was “one of them” even if for a very short period of time in my life - it’s a little easier for me perhaps now to debate these people, and use my memory of how I felt to connect with them, and show them that we all want the same things, but I can show them how Socialism will NOT get us there, and in fact will push us further away from the type of world they really want. It is still frustrating, especially when you deal with the “angry” types. There’s not much that can be done for them I’m afraid - it seems that some people need to learn the hard way.
Gosh I really didn’t mean for this to be so long. I appreciate your insights. I think I truly learned a little more about myself in writing this post — and that’s always a good thing! :)
Sorry for the typos!
I had forgotten you and I lived so close to each other! I feel bad that while Ryan’s name sounded very familiar to me I couldn’t place it. (Probably because Obama mentioned Green Bay).
I believe you’re right that the pause, and looking down at his wrist is NOT going to be looked at favorably at all up here. I think people will be VERY turned off by it. Do you think they’ll cover this on any of the TV news channels? I’ll go check the Wausau Herald site, and see if anything’s up there yet...
Here's the Milwaukee Journal's write-up about the bracelet from Feb. 19 - Mom's Braclet Becomes Symbol
From the article:
Tracy Jopek was watching Obama's speech Tuesday and had no idea he would mention her son. She said his speech hit just the right tone she was trying to send by giving him the bracelet.Irony is so ironic."I couldn't believe it. It was such an honor, such an honor," she said, her voice breaking. "To know that he does know his name. It means a lot."
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