Obama Now Wears His Patriotism

Barack Obama's apparently newly sensitive to public opinion, as it turns out that he won't leave home without his trusty flag pin:

Barack Obama, who once considered flag pins a shallow symbol, can't surround himself with enough patriotic trappings these days.

At the Fourth of July parade here, Obama sat in the reviewing stand with his wife and two young daughters, admiring the simple floats dedicated to rescue workers and local high schools.

He seldom goes out in public now without a flag pin stuck in his lapel. He devoted an entire speech to patriotism this week in Independence, Mo. Visually reinforcing the message, he stood in front of a quartet of large American flags.

None of this is an accident. Polling shows that on the threshold test any serious presidential candidate must pass, Obama has ground to cover.

A CNN poll released one day after the Illinois senator gave his patriotism speech showed that a quarter of registered voters surveyed questioned Obama's love of country. Nearly 30% of the respondents who described themselves as independents -- a coveted slice of the electorate -- believed he lacks patriotism, according to the survey.

So Obama wants to convince voters that he is every bit as patriotic as his Republican opponent. That's not an easy sell: Arizona Sen. John McCain, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.

There's more at the link.

See also, "The Two Sides of America Observe July 4th."