'I've Got a Bracelet, Too'

NewsBusters ^

[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.

[RummyChick]

Here is the info from a Reuters site.
http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/2008/09/26/mccain-obama-fight-over-soldiers-bracelets/

No mention of the stumble.

Apparently, Obama has had the bracelet for many months.
http://specials.rediff.com/news/2008/feb/18look.htm

It is a black metal band. I will have to back and see if I can see a it on his wrist.

[doberville]

What is the wing beat velocity of a swallow?

[dools007]

IMO, neither candidate did well. Obama threw at least four opportunites out there for McCain to hit out of the park. He did not. For all the hoopla about the McCain return to Washington to help get a bail out bill in place, his remarks about the economy were anemic. Obama was no better. Considering that was the topic of the day, neither candidate impressed me.

McCain, for the most part spoke in complete sentences that made some sense—even when one didn’t agree with what he said. All Obama did was string together a bunch of dem talking points. The result were incoherent strings of words often without periods.

But the details of the so-called debate could be picked over for hours. McCain had a last chance to nail Obama at the end when asked why he thought he was ready to be president. He should have alluded to his vast experience. Then he should have pointed at Obama and said something like “you, sir, have zero experience in anything remotely resembling what it takes to be president. You have not had any meaningful responsibility by which to judge whether or not you could be a credible president.”

There is no viable Onada response to that. In addition, it could have set up Palin for the veep debate. Without a doubt our pal Lehrer will ask each candidate why they’re qualified for veep. Palin, properly set up by McCain, could respond that she has better credentials for veep than Onada has for president. Of course, she can still do that. But it would have so much more powerful if McCain had set it up properly.

I did not see fighter pilot McCain last night. The Onada camp is attempting to smear Palin as well as McCain. They’re saying the most vile things and he’s playing pitty pat with the guy.

And then there was McCain pandering to dems announcing the hospitalization of the “lion of the senate”, Kennedy. I almost puked. This guy killed a woman and never took responsibility. Nor was he ever punished for it.

Sure, I’m gonna vote the McCain/Palin ticket. But my vote is really for Palin. Choosing her was the best thing I can think of McCain has done—outside his Vietnam War experience. Of course, if he hadn’t selected a conservative running mate he would never have gotten people like me to vote for him. I was ready to vote for anyone running as a conservative. In the absense of that I was going to write my own name in.

Conclusion: McCain’s job last night was to show up Onada for the empty suit he is. He did not. Now, this nothing may very well have a shot at being elected next president of the US. This should have been a slam dunk and McCain failed. It would be instructive to know what McCain thought his job was last night.

Do I sound angry? You bet I am. But yes, Mr. McCain—I’ll vote your ticket. However, my vote is really for Gov. Palin.

[MaryFromMichigan]

Would you please ping me about your local paper’s reaction?
Thanks.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I dunno. I would ask her just how, exactly, she thinks it honors her son to give a bracelet to an anti-American, anti-military puke like Obama.

That is perhaps a rational question - but it would be gauche to ask it of a grieving mother. Let it lie.

[jellybean]

I don't watch TV, so I don't know how the locals will cover it. I checked our local paper's web site, but nothing is up yet. I had forgotten Sgt. Jopek's mother gave him the bracelet until I saw the video from last night. My first thought was, "Oh boy...he just lost Antigo/Merrill!;

The Daily Journal is probably out by now, but won't be on their web site until Monday.

[jellybean]

Would you please ping me about your local paper’s reaction? Thanks.

Absolutely! I have to work 10-4 today. I'll report back when I get home.

[Wilhelm Tell]

You made some interesting points. I hadn't really understood how some people get tied up in a THEORY, and lacking real-world experience, the theory takes over. We all go through things that make us grow up (if we are smart). I imagine having children makes one seriously think about how to make life better in the real world and not cling to theories.

Speaking of growing up (or not), the people on the far left seem so infantilized. And I think in recent years I have begun to understand why the left is so fanatical against families and how they are slaves to the gay lobby. It all has to do with our youth (adolescent - infantilized) culture. There is the cult of "Get everything now, I will be young forever." No society before ours has been rich enough for a large number of people to believe such a delusion. Well, people who raise families are sacrificing to take care of children who will eventually replace them. This is a rebuke to the infantile "the world revolves around me and I will live forever" culture and that is why the infantile left is so viscerally hateful of families. And that is why the homosexuals - the most live for today, infantile people - are so revered by the far left and by the adolescent Hollywood crowd.

[WhirlwindAttack]

Was Obummer using his cell phone text messenger as a tele- prompter during the debate? He kept looking down at the podium a lot last night.

[LibertyRocks]

The only thing in the Wausau paper (at least on the website) was an AP story covering the debate. I left a long comment in response to some of the “live” comments left last night. No mention of the bracelets in the article though... I’ll look again tomorrow (and maybe go out and get a print copy of the paper today, too — don’t know if it’s different than the web version, or how different it is, really! LOL)

[T Lady]

'I'm not able to have liberal friends. I truly do look at their ideology as a horrible mental disorder. I can't stand to be around them.'

It's tough going, believe me...since I think the same way you do.

It is rather incomprehensible (at least to me anyway) to support a political party and ideology that is completely at odds with the very tenants of Christianity.

[traumer]

I HAVE A BRACELET TOO... !

[Salamander]

I’ve seen him in his “got muh sleeves rolled up!” mode and never noticed a bracelet before.

[course he’ll claim she *just* gave it to him]

[Salamander]

Not wearing it here:

http://johnstodderinexile.files.wordpress.com/2006/06/barack-obama.jpg

http://www.cutyourfootprint.com/Images/news%20images/obama2.JPG

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/buar01_obama.jpg

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/02_01/obamaMOS0202_468x365.jpg

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2008/04/03/wOBAMA_wideweb__470x347,0.jpg

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/11_obama_lg.jpg

http://wonkette.com/assets/resources/2008/02/basketball_obama-thumb.jpg

http://timescorrespondents.typepad.com/charles_bremner/images/2008/01/30/obama.jpg

http://www.sfgate.com/blogs/images/sfgate/opinionshop/2008/01/18/obama500x375.jpg

But in a Wisconsin Feb. photo:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/us/politics/18video.html

Must’ve been when he got it but he obviously only wears it when it’s politically expedient.

I call BS.

He doesn’t give a red rat’s ass about Sgt/Pvt/Cpl What’s His Face until he’s in front of the nation claiming that he does.

[Salamander]

LOL....brutal.

[Salamander]

0 is literally only a few days younger than I.

If my parents caught me, to this day, addressing my elders or betters by their first name, they'd *still* ground me so it's not some “generational etiquette thing”....it was presumptuous disrespect.

[Political Junkie Too]

I noticed that about the FNC panel last night, too. At least we on the FR live thread were all over it instantly.

-PJ

[Salamander]

“The two terms are incompatible.”

And mutually exclusive.

[AFPhys]

“If a man is not a socialist in his youth, he has no heart. If he is
not a conservative by the time he is 30 he has no head” — Georges
Clemenceau, Former French Prime Minister

[Lexinom]

I did hear it discussed in post-debate coverage on CNN, and in a favorable light! Something like “I’m glad Obama came back and responded to McCain’s bracelet comment by pointing out he, too, has a bracelet. He took that away from McCain.” I THINK it was Gloria Borger who said it, may have been her twin, Campbell Brown.