Author John Ridley thinks this is pandering and says if this is really important, ala wearing a flag lapel pin, that Obama should campaign in a red, white and blue Evel Knievel jump suit.
(Also, Obama's daughter Malia turned 10 on Independence Day...does that make her his "little firecracker"?) ~rave! www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-campaign05jul05,0,7019526.story chicagotribune.com Amid red and white, Obama tries painting Mont. blue Democrat makes appeal in GOP land The Washington Post July 5, 2008 Click here to find out more! BUTTE, Mont. With Sen. John McCain taking the holiday off, Sen. Barack Obama wrapped up a weeklong swing through Republican America on Friday swathed in the red-white-and-blue pageantry of a 4th of July parade and family picnic in the Rockies, trying to mesh his theme of activist change with an emphasis on family and patriotism. A politician who last fall shunned wearing a U.S. flag lapel pin as a "substitute for ... true patriotism" could hardly avoid such trappings Friday. He was joined by daughter Malia, who turned 10, as well as his wife, Michelle, daughter Sasha, 7, and his half sister's family. "Are we going to seize this moment?" Obama asked a crowd of about 1,500 Montanans. "Are we going to declare our independence from special interests, the oil companies and the gas companies that are preventing us from creating the kind of energy policy that will save our environment and free ourselves from dependence on foreign oil by investing on solar and wind and biodiesel? That's the kind of independence we need to declare today." Some Republicans have dismissed Obama's "values" tour as more of a "head fake" than a real foray into GOP territories he thinks he can win in November. President George W. Bush won 59 percent of the vote in Montana in 2004, and Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a first-term Democrat, has acknowledged the difficulties in his state. But campaign aides, Schweitzer, Butte Democrats and even some Republicans say Obama can win here. "People are sick and tired of the status quo here," said Erik Nylund, president of Montana's letter carriers union, who insisted that a membership usually split between both parties is leaning toward Obama. Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune
