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.
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Wasn’t that just sad... I feel for the mother of Sgt. Jopek, I really do.
BTW: I just put up a link to the video of that moment that has been put up at YouTube. It should be the post above this, I think... Anyway, I think we should spread not only this story, but help this particular outtake go viral. This is something almost everyone will immediately pick up on, IMHO. And, the libs at YouTube are having a hard time defending it.
Well, let’s see now ..... Hillary and the NOW gang and 99% of the PUMAs would hardly qualify as “Bints” since that term is generally regarded as mildly affectionate.
(And their sure as hell not moist.)
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=720053
Looks like he's mentioned this bracelet before back in Feb 2008 at his acceptance speech...guess it was so memorable that he forgot his name already...
Thank you for posting this link. I was trying to figure out why Sgt. Jopek’s name sounded so very familiar. His family lives in a town right outside mine...
Thank you so much for posting that link!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
“Just when I thought there could NEVER be a dem candidate as self-righteous and full of himself as Gore, along comes Kerry; when I thought HE was the worst they could do, they nominated Obama.”
Come now, you have to give it to Gore. The Florida debacle and his Nobel Prize-winning crusade against modern civilization put him head and shoulders above Kerry. As for Obama, if he loses, I don’t expect him to out-Gore Gore. I expect him to run again and again.
Poor Barry - he’s probably planned that bracelet as a prop with a humbling heart-wrenching eloquent story with the soldier’s name left off so every mother can think of her own son as he drags it out for all it’s worth.
Then McCain trumps it with a truly from-the-heart story, told from the heart of someone who knows what it is like to be in the midst of war, who knows what defeat feels like. That dead soldier was someone McCain could identify with, and it showed.
Poor Barry just couldn’t help himself. His story was better, dammit! So he had to get it in no matter how inept it looked.
Again, just a prop. I feel for the mother as well. Must be tough to think your gesture was wasted on such a shallow jerk.
Obama’s bracelet carries Mrs. Jopek’s son’s name, Sgt. Ryan David Jopek, and says Aug. 2, 2006, when he was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq. He was 20 years-old. It says, ‘’All gave some — He gave all.”
Mrs. Jopek showed Obama a photo of Ryan smiling, dressed for battle. She said the Senator hugged her and her daughter, asked questions about her son, and told her how much he appreciated the bracelet.
‘’I wanted him to know my son’s name for one thing, for when he’s Commander-In-Chief.’’
Opps....0’s bad
Jimmy Carter is a favorite of people who think the highest form of patriotism is to hate your country because it doesn’t measure up to some ACLU fever dream of how it SHOULD be.
Here is the quote from Mrs. Jopek:
Mom's bracelet becomes symbol Obama discusses Wisconsin woman's memento of slain soldier in victory speech - http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=720053
“I didn't get to say what I wanted to say. I just cried,” she said. “It wasn't for anything but for him to know this is real, something he needed to know. . . I do believe (the war) needs to end, but I believe it needs to be done very carefully and very thoughtfully.”
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.
“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.”
which says,
"Jopek talked about making a career of the military. “He was getting a great sense of accomplishment and felt that he was contributing to the effort,” said his father, Brian.
The father, who is divorced from Jopek’s mother, said she is declining media interviews because “she wants to avoid the Cindy Sheehan situation,” referring to a mother who has publicly crusaded against the war since her son was killed.
The father is leaning toward McCain and said his ex-wife “would like to see the troops come home a little sooner than I would.”
It’s even worse than that... He lied about what she told him tonight. Read the quote I just pulled out of the JSOnline article... According to her statements to the paper she did NOT say “So no mother has to go through what I am going through”. She said, “It wasn’t for anything but for him to know this is real, something he needed to know. . . I do believe (the war) needs to end, but I believe it needs to be done very carefully and very thoughtfully.”
That DOES NOT sound like a “bring them all home right now” statement to me. Also interesting is that Sgt. Jopek’s father ALSO served a year in Iraq.
Now that makes a LOT of sense. I was wondering about that myself... Seeing as Mr. Jopek served a year in Iraq. Thanks for your continued digging and posting on this!
It looks like Obama has had this hero's name in his speeches many times over the last few months and I am shocked that he couldn't remember his name!!
"Oliver Wendell Holmes once remarked that "To fight out a war, you must believe something and want something with all your might." The Americans we honor today believed. Sergeant Ryan Jopek believed. Ryan was just weeks away from coming home when he volunteered for a mission to Mosul from which he would never return. His friends remember his easy smile; I remember Ryan because of the bracelet his mother gave me that I wear every day. Next to his name, it reads: "All gave some - he gave all." It is a living reminder of our obligation as Americans to serve Ryan as well as he served us; as well as the wounded warriors I've had the honor of meeting at Walter Reed have served us; as well as the soldiers at Fort Bliss and the troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world are serving us. That means giving the same priority to building a 21st century VA as to building a 21st century military. It means having zero tolerance for veterans sleeping on our streets. It means bringing home our POWs and MIAs. And it means treating the graves of veterans like the hallowed ground it is and banning protests near funerals.
OK, then, Freeper Researchers and other Pajama Bloggers needed to analyze every single posted photo of Obama in the previous two-to-three weeks out on the campaign trail, and see if that bracelet was on his right hand, or when it started to appear. If it is missing a lot of times, then he would really be exposed for the bs that he is.
Why would you be shocked considering there wasn't a teleprompter available for last nights debate?
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