Obama Breaks Out The Flag Pin Again

Obama has decided that "fake patriotism" is OK and has dusted off his flag lapel pin. He was spotted during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania wearing the pin. This guy is a real piece of...work.

The flag pin is back on the lapel of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. No, really. Look very closely at the left coat lapel of Illinois senator and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama speaking in Pennsylvania Tuesday There's the famous flag pin back on his chest. Look closely at his left lapel in this photo from MSNBC on Tuesday.

You may recall Obama removed the lapel flag pin last fall as something of a gesture of independence if you're an Obama fan -- or an act of defiant antiwar non-patriotism if you're not.

At the time Obama simply removed the pin, which most politicians had worn on their suit coats since 9/12 as a sign of patriotism, solidarity with 9/11 victims and their families and national support for American troops.

However, when a sharp-eyed local ABC-TV reporter in Iowa asked him, half-jokingly, about it in October, Obama went on seriously at some length:

"You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for, I think, true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest.

"Instead," Obama added rather grandiosely, "I'm going to try to tell.... the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism."