PrintSeptember 28, 2008
Family told Obama not to wear bracelet with son's name
File this one under "If John McCain had pulled something like this the media would have..." (Fill in the blank.)
Apparently, the family of the dead soldier whose name Obama wears on a bracelet (a name he had trouble remembering during the debate) told him to stop wearing the bracelet because they didn't want to draw any more attention to themselves.
Speaking on a Wisconsin Public Radio show a few months ago, Brian Jopek, father of Ryan Jopek who lost his life to a roadside bomb in 2006, said his wife was surprised that Obama was still wearing the bracelet even after the family told him to take it off but didn't want to make a big deal of it because she supported his candidacy.
A transcript courtesy of Newsbusters:
Brian Jopek: Because of some of the negative feedback she's gotten on the Internet, you know Internet blogs, you know people accusing her of... or accusing Obama of trying to get votes doing it... and that sort of thing.
Radio Host Moberg: Yeah
Jopek: She has turned down any subsequent interviews with the media because she just didn't want it to get turned into something that it wasn't. She had told me in an email that she had asked, actually asked Mr. Obama to not wear the bracelet any more at any of his public appearances. Which I don't think he's...
Moberg: It has been a while since he's brought it up.
Jopek: Right. But, the other night I was watching the news and he was on, uh, speaking somewhere and he was still wearing it on his right wrist. I could see it on his right wrist. So, that's his own choice. I mean that's something Barack Obama, that's a choice that he continues to wear it despite Tracy asking him not to... Because she is a Barack Obama supporter and she didn't want to do anything to sabotage his campaign, so, if he's still wearing the bracelet then, uh, that of course is entirely up to him.
Warner Todd Huston adds:
I can only say that if the parents of the soldier whose bracelet John McCain is wearing had said in public that they want him to stop wearing their son's bracelet the news would have been coast to coast, and wall to wall, not just ignored in Madison, Wisconsin.Obama's use of this soldier that fell in the line of duty is tainted by his ambition and callousness. And the media is letting him get away with it.
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