We'll never know for sure why Barack Obama started, stopped, and started wearing the American Flag lapel pin after 911, or why he decided not to continue the White House participation in the National Day of Prayer yesterday. Call me crazy, but I see a parallel here.
Here's what Obama said when questioned about his missing American Flag lapel pin during his campaign for the presidency, when, according to the main stream media, the war in Iraq was going poorly.
"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, 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."
The National Day of Prayer was created in 1952 and signed into law by President Harry Truman. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan amended the law to state the day would be observed on the first Thursday in May. For the past eight years, President George W. Bush hosted an ecumenical ceremony at the White House on the day designated, and invited Protestants, Catholics and Jews to participate.
This year the White House, in fact the Executive Branch, did not participate in the National Day of Prayer, and the president, through his estimable spokesman, Robert Gibbs, left us with this:
"I think the president understands, in his own life and in his family's life, the role that prayer plays. And I would denote that the administrations prior to the past one did proclamations. That's the way the president will publicly observe the national prayer day. But, as I said, privately, he'll pray as he does every day."
I really miss Tony Snow.
