Obama Likes Flags
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James Joyner | Wednesday, February 18, 2009 |
The Washington Times accuses Barack Obama of a sudden “flag frenzy.”
Oh, say – can you see? Look. It’s President Obama, and he’s surrounded by American flags.
They’re on the dais in star-spangled glory. They’re at the town-hall meeting and the news conference, in bold folds of red, white and blue. The White House has rediscovered – or possibly reinvented – the patriotic cachet of Old Glory as a perfect frame for the new president.
That’s the same president who once would not wear an American flag pin. Things have changed.
This insightful analysis is followed by experts telling us that people often use flags when decorating settings for presidents and the likes of Michael Savage noting that dictators like flags, too.
Sigh.
I wasn’t upset when candidate Obama refused to wear a flag pin and, like Steve Benen, don’t find this in the least problematic. Presidents and flags go together like firecrackers and the 4th of July.
Even the sainted Ronald Reagan:
Presidents are, like it or not, a national symbol. In addition to being the nominal head of government, they’re also the figurative head of state. Flags and 21-gun salutes and other pageantry go with that.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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Well of course when GWB does it, it's flag waving and to be frowned upon.
The Frontline on the credit crisis had a funny image of Paulson coming out into a room with 2 flags, but the hallway he came from was nothing-but-flags.
As long as he manages to stay out of flight suits I'm good with it.
Far more problematic was Obama's decision not to be near the flag during his first new interview, that with Al Arabiya. Far more significant when the President as national symbol doesn't want to be associated with the flag.
Far more problematic was Obama's decision not to be near the flag during his first new interview, that with Al Arabiya. Far more significant when the President as national symbol doesn't want to be associated with the flag.
Right. Because absent the flag, some viewers might have thought that he was the president of Canada or England or maybe Costa Rica.
Right. Because absent the flag, some viewers might have thought that he was the president of Canada or England or maybe Costa Rica.
You're way behind on your nutty right-wing slurs. He's a Kenyan.
Forget the flags. Can they surround him with 10-12 more Bidens?
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