Applesauce » McCain camp sullies flags for political stunt

McCain camp sullies flags for political stunt

September 6th, 2008 at 06:50pm Pat Cunningham

Thousands of American flags waved by celebrants at Invesco Field in Denver on the last night of the Democratic National Convention (above) subsequently were bagged and placed in storage for use at other events.

Instead, the flags were taken without authorization and given to the McCain camp, which now says they were just casually discarded by those unpatriotic Democrats.

Fox News and the Drudge Report predictably have jumped all over the story.

Read more about it HERE. And, of course, bear in mind that Republicans are more patriotic than the rest of us, while Democrats hate America.

POSTSCRIPT: The Democrats would be well-advised to file a theft complaint with the police, who in turn might be able to find out who swiped the flags and gave them to the McCain camp.

UPDATE: And then there’s THIS.

Wouldn’t it be sweet to see this stunt backfire?

Entry Filed under: Democratic National Convention, American flag, John McCain

22 Comments Add your own

1. RAM | September 6th, 2008 at 7:25 pm

Be sort of fun to see some GOP thieves actually go to jail up in Minneapolis instead of journalists.
2. kaus | September 6th, 2008 at 7:38 pm

Wouldn’t it be sweet if the democrats were as green as they say they are and not be some wasteful. More of the same rhetoric of do as I say not as I do. Shades of Al Gore.
3. Pat Cunningham | September 6th, 2008 at 7:44 pm

Whatever that means.
4. gowader | September 6th, 2008 at 9:09 pm

It means the so called patriotic Democrats are not so patriotic. And they certainly are not as green as they claim. The only color I see is yellow!
5. Pat Cunningham | September 6th, 2008 at 9:18 pm

You wouldn’t have the guts to say that to a Democratic war veteran, would you, gowader?
6. SNuss | September 6th, 2008 at 9:29 pm

See a picture of DNC “trash” here: http://amerpundit.com/2008/09/01/good-news-american-flags-from-dnc-foundin-the-trash/
It was “green” of the Republicans to re-use the flags, rather than letting them go to the dump.
7. SNuss | September 6th, 2008 at 9:34 pm

How about a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_0mPmDnlvI
8. SNuss | September 6th, 2008 at 9:41 pm

One more: http://rightvoices.com/2008/08/28/new-game-wheres-the-flag-at-the-democratic-national-conventionhint-look-in-the-trash/

Seems pretty clear: The Flags were in the trash. That doesn’t make the Dems unpatriotic, just insensitive to proper Flag protocal. But, hey, it’s just a multi-colored piece of cloth, isn’t it? I mean, It’s not like it has any meaning to anyone.
9. Pat Cunningham | September 6th, 2008 at 9:49 pm

Snuss: Read this:

http://blogs.denverpost.com/opinion/2008/09/06/republican-recycling/

Take special note of the part where the reporter says:

“I just spoke with the person at Invesco who found the flags and he thinks both sides are exaggerating a bit. The person claims the majority of the bags with flags in them were near the trash, on a dock, and would have been thrown away. The person thinks it was probably an ‘oversight’ by the Democrats rather than any nefarious plot against the flag. But the person doesn’t believe anyone was coming to get them: ‘The flags were there for a week and a day and no one came looking for them.’

“One thing I know for certain: Barack Obama didn’t order anyone to throw out 12,000 American flags.”

Notice the photo of numerous flags neatly furled. That’s not the kind of care anyone would take if they were just going to chuck them.
10. Pat Cunningham | September 6th, 2008 at 10:12 pm

By the way, Snuss, the video to which you linked proves absolutely nothing and shows no evidence whatever of flags having been desecrated.
11. big dog | September 6th, 2008 at 10:21 pm

Pretty difficult to defend that one Pat. Noone stated that Barack Hussein Obama told the DNC group to throw the flags in the trash. The fact that they did this on their own their own is even worse because they all individually took it upon themselves to act in such a manner.

Desecrate = To violate the sacredness of; profane.

Throwing a flag in the trash or setting aside for several days in garbage bags next to a dumpster does not meet this definition. Come on!

The least they could have done is keep them in hiding with Barack’s flag pin.
12. Uncle Bouncy | September 6th, 2008 at 11:29 pm

I hope they wiped all of Bill Ayer’s footprints off the flags before they reused them
13. SNuss | September 7th, 2008 at 1:10 am

How is taking flags out of trash bags, and waving them at a political rally (as shown in the video) “sullying” them? Those who put them IN the trash bags did that. The still photos, from the other sources, show that quite clearly. But Pat, why are you so upset? Aren’t they just multi-colored pieces of cloth, with no real meaning?
14. gowader | September 7th, 2008 at 5:12 am

Maybe they should do like Bill Clinton, and have a massive flag burning protest. And they can give some to their terrorist friends and they can burn them to.
15. Len Nicolosi | September 7th, 2008 at 7:20 am

I think it would be wonderful if the Rockford Registar Star had another writer writing from the conservative point of view. Someone who would challenge the status quo and show the other side of a political view. Someone who wouldn’t be afraid to stand up for the conservatives in a liberal media saturated enviornment.
16. kaus | September 7th, 2008 at 7:46 am

Of course we already know what Obama and Pat think about flags being a measure of patriotism. However, The Democratic Party flag scandal is an example of how they also choose to run the country: wasteful spending, no budget cutting, no recycling, no good practice to what they preach on energy conservation.

The could have donated the flags, they could have sold the flags, they could have recycled the flags.

Obama loves to tell Americans to stop wasteful habits like putting air in our tires and getting tune ups for our cars (an outdated practice) but can’t get his own party to recycle. I wonder how much oil is used to make those flags and ship them to the DNC?
17. Pat Cunningham | September 7th, 2008 at 8:27 am

Kaus: Flags, in fact, are not a measure of one’s patriotism, something I learned in covering Ku Klux Klan and American Nazi rallies, where the folks in robes and brown shirts furiously waved the Stars and Stripes. Anyone who would use a flag to impugn the patriotism of a political rival, as we see in this case, thereby sullies that flag. True patriotism is a matter of dedication to principles, not to conspicuous display of the flag.
18. SNuss | September 7th, 2008 at 9:35 am

Pat sez: “Anyone who would use a flag to impugn the patriotism of a political rival, as we see in this case, thereby sullies that flag.”

But showing a significant lack of respect for our National symbol, by sticking it in the trash, ISN’T “sullying” or Flag? If nothing else, it shows a lack of principle.
19. Pat Cunningham | September 7th, 2008 at 10:14 am

Snuff: Where’s the proof that any Democrats threw flags in the trash? Oh, and why didn’t John McCain wear a flag pin for his speech at the Republican Convention?
20. bannernews | September 7th, 2008 at 11:00 am

I wonder if they put a Republican flag on the casket of Republican soliders and a Democratic flag on the casket of Democratic soliders when the bodies are shipped home from the middle East. Come on! What a petty little argument this flag argument is.

As a Republican who grew up in the sixties and saw some of my long-haired, hippie friends cut their hair, join the army, and come home from Vietnam in caskets, I would have thought this Repulican-Democratic battle for who is the most patriotic would have ended forty years ago.

As a dissolutioned Republican who has seen us go away from responsible spending, job-creating, non-interventionist party into a group of right-wing fear-mongerers, I hope John McCain does have the ability to change the party first and then Washington. I want John McCain to be the thoughtful, sincere man that appeared on the CNN program about his life, not the wise-cracking, snotty little jerk he appears as on the campaign trail.

Let’s all put pressure on both sides to talk about the issues of change, how they will be brought about and, particularly, how they will be financed.
21. Peter Gunn | September 7th, 2008 at 12:18 pm

The question that MUST BE ASKED !!!!

Why does John McCain and his Campaign Hate America ?

(Cue of the Cricket Symphony)
22. Craig Knauss | September 8th, 2008 at 8:37 am

Is there ANYTHING more nauseating than chicken-hawks criticizing someone else’s patriotism?