I do not care much for Karl Rove, the former Bush adviser since he is a wicked man that would do anything to achieve his goal. His mentality of the ends justify the means is and has been detrimental to American domestic and foreign policy the past 8 years. Nonetheless, as the saying goes, "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer, one must not totally dismiss him because he is clear cut of his agenda.
In a recent GQ interview, Rove speculated that the "flag lapel controversy" may come to bite Obama if he were to get the nomination. Rove is a skillful master at marketing and branding. It takes a genius to turn a Vietnam Purple Heart Veteran into a weak flip-flopper that perhaps never went to war in Vietnam. Although I am speaking of Kerry and the Swift Boat Veterans ruthless attack, the main point is that it worked.
Rove claims, "There are Democrats, particularly blue-collar Democrats, who defect to McCain because they see McCain as a patriotic figure and they see Obama as an elitist who's looking down his nose at 'em, which he is." That last tidbit, "which he is" is his spin on the topic. He plants these ideas in the media and it is this type of attack that turns into those wacky day long topics on cable news networks that entertain "Is Obama Patriotic?" feeding into the hysteria.
Obama claims, "I'm less concerned with what you're wearing on your lapel than what's in your heart. You show your patriotism by how you treat your fellow Americans, especially those ones who serve." This is the reason why he opts out of wearing the pin. I think this debate over such a trivial issue speaks great lengths on how desperate the GOP has become. There is no legitimate way to attack Obama on his positions that they have to resort to attacking his character. Furthermore, they do not attack his morals per se, but attack decisions that do not have an impact on the position he is trying to win. It will be intresting to see if these attacks do any damage during the general election.
