Mr. Obama: Take Off That Bracelet!
September 28th, 2008 at 12:25pm Kevin Patrick
Barack Obama continues to play politics with the lives of fallen soldiers in Iraq:
Madison resident Brian Jopek, the father of Ryan Jopek, the young soldier who tragically lost his life to a roadside bomb in 2006, recently said on a Wisconsin Public Radio show that his family had asked Barack Obama to stop wearing the bracelet with his son’s name on it. Yet Obama continues to do so despite the wishes of the family.…
Jopek began by saying that his ex-wife was taken aback, even upset, that Obama has made the death of her son a campaign issue. Jopek says his wife gave Obama the bracelet because “she just wanted Mr. Obama to know Ryan’s name.” Jopek went on to say that “she wasn’t looking to turn it into a big media event” and “just wanted it to be something between Barack Obama and herself.” Apparently, they were all shocked it became such a big deal.
But, he also said that his ex-wife has refused further interviews on the matter and that she wanted Obama to stop wearing the reminder of her son’s sacrifice that he keeps turning into a campaign soundbyte.
Of course this isn’t the first time Barack Obama has put politics ahead of the lives of our soldiers:
UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: An NRO reader has an excellent point on the bracelet issue:
While some are looking for confirmation whether Mrs. Jopek had asked Senator Obama to stop wearing (or using it) her son’s wristband, what all are ignoring is Sergeant Jopek supported the mission in Iraq and died supporting a cause he believed in. That is Obama’s greatest shame, that he has always failed to say that SGT Jopek gave all in a cause he believed in.
Yet that is just like what the liberal media failed to say when they propped up Cindy Sheehan. Not once to date in over 150 entries has the NY Times mentioned that Casey Sheehan 1) reenlisted knowing he would be deployed to Iraq, 2) volunteered for the rescue mission he died during, and 3) when told he did not have to volunteer, replied, “Where my Chief goes, I go.” (’Chief’ is the formal title for the head of a maintenance section in the U.S. Army. Casey Sheehan was a mechanic).
Sorry to say, but you can’t support the troops unless you support their mission and their victory - Obama supported neither, and its nauseating that he would even try to pretend he supports the troops. The only excuse I can think of for him - in an attempt to be generous - is to figure that he just doesn’t understand…that his ignorance of war and service is so monumental that he doesn’t understand what insult he’s offering to all veterans by his political stunt with the bracelet.
Entry Filed under: Campaign 2008, Democrats, Foreign Affairs, Kook Left, Patriotism, War on Terror
48 Comments
1. liberalD | September 28th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
obama is clearly playing politics and he is being obnoxious and should stop.
As well - McCain is clearly playing politics and is being obnoxious and should stop..
2. FmrMarine | September 28th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
oBOMBa
TAKE OFF that bracelet you classless, useless POS.
go back to filthy chicago, and your affirmative action job.
you are NOT fit to wear it, let alone become the commander in chief of our GREAT military.
3. searp | September 28th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Fmr: Let’s see: you obviously hate Obama, but I was struck that you seem also to hate Chicago. Seems like you hate affirmative action too. Maybe you could prepare a long post and just get it all off your chest in one go?
We have had all kinds of folks at the top of the executive, including playboy kind-of fliers and folks who got perpetual deferments when the country needed them. Don’t hear you ranting about them.
The way we determine fitness for Commander in Chief is by an election. Do you want to change this, too?
4. js | September 28th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
bite your tongue!!…we dont take people that masquarade in a church as christians but preach black supremacy and put them on the ballot…like the liberal marxist agenda has doen…no…we call them bigots where i come from…
because thats what they are…not the kind of people you put in charge of the most powerful army in the world…you dont put people who take marxism to heart out front….representing the best that america has to offer…
because its a lie!!
5. SEW | September 28th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
“Seems like you hate affirmative action too.” searp
Just like MLK. You must be a racist.
6. neocon | September 28th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
SEW,
Discriminating against white people is not racism in the mind of a liberal.
7. Max Power | September 28th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Flag pins and bracelets..
Perhaps we can attribute this fashion obsession to the large number of closeted homosexuals in the Republican party.
If I were you guys, I wouldn’t want to debate real issues either.
(McCain was wearing a flag pin during the debate, wasn’t he?)
8. liberalD | September 28th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
and mark- you can support the soldiers without supporting the war. I support them returning home safely asap
9. neocon | September 28th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
liberalD,
Wow, how magnanimous of you. However, my nephews, who have served two tours of duty in Iraq, do not want your support.
Does that matter to you? Or would you prefer to impose your desire on them as well?
10. neocon | September 28th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Max,
Could you please present a more vacuous argument? I know liberals bring little of substance to the table, but you exceeded even that standard, not too mention the pathetic stereotyping that Frederick is famous for.
11. Casper | September 28th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
liberalD,
That’s ok. My two daughters, my oldest daughter’s boyfriend, my nephew, and a dozen exstudents, who between them have served over 20 tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan would be happy for your support, or anyone elses.
12. SEW | September 28th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Max the homophobe and searp the racist. And liberalD, are yor referring to the troops in Germany, South Korea, or just those actively freeing Iraq from your AQI friends? Just those not actively engaged in fighting? Cut and run coward.
13. neocon | September 28th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Casper,
Have them come home. I, and my nephews would prefer not to have them involved, just as I would never have you instruct any member of my family.
Have a blessed afternoon
14. SEW | September 28th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
” My two daughters, my oldest daughter’s boyfriend, my nephew, and a dozen exstudents [sic], who between [sic] them” Casper the teacher
15. Casper | September 28th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
In two weeks, I’m having my students write letters to some of our men and women in uniform serving in Iraq It doesn’t matter who the kids or the soldiers support for president. They are all Americans.
16. neocon | September 28th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Casper,
I only hope that you instruct your kids that our military does not air raid villages and kill civilians as asserted by the man you support for President. Or that our military does not break into Iraqi homes in the middle of the night and rape and pillage as asserted by a prominent Democratic US Senator, or that they kill in cold blood as asserted by a prominent US Congressman.
Or that this war is lost as asserted by the Democratic Senate leader.
I know you say that you keep politics out of the classroom, but by not denouncing these statements, you are in fact endorsing them.
17. bongoman | September 28th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Really? You sure about that?
18. searp | September 28th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
I quote:
“go back to filthy chicago, and your affirmative action job”
I didn’t make that comment, FMR Marine did, just for anyone here who doesn’t read before they comment.
I simply invited this very angry individual to get it all off his/her chest.
19. searp | September 28th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
SEW: your comments are just crazy.
Do you think playing schoolyard insult games really does anything more than satisfy your psychological deficit?
20. neocon | September 28th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
bongo,
How about if you tell me where your village is and I will let my nephews demonstrate what you think our Marines do.
If you can’t put up, then shut up.
21. neocon | September 28th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
“psychological deficit”
Do you mean limited mental capacity? C’mon, if you’re going to insult, at least do it intelligently.
22. bongoman | September 28th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Azizabad
23. searp | September 28th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
No, I meant what I said, but thanks for asking.
My comments always provoke a lot of fellow commenters into foaming ad-hominem attacks, which I assume is because they would prefer not to address them directly. Their privilege.
Are your nephews Marines? Were you seriously suggesting that you would send them on some kind of mission to teach bongo about Marines? Did you ask them first?
24. neocon | September 28th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Azizabad is a good lessen learned by the Afghani’s. If they don’t support regimes like the Taliban and provide false information this wouldn’t happen. Unless and until then, I support more destruction until they fall on their kness and apologize to the civilized world for allowing the taliban to take harbor in their country. Any questions?
My put up comment was directed to you bong man, but again that went over your head. How many times have the Marines raided your village?
25. neocon | September 28th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
searp,
I have had many conversations with them about the likes of you and bong man, and they to believe that people of your ilk only serve to prepetuate chaos and bloodshed around the globe because of your moral relativism.
You are weak and pathetic group of flesh.
26. bongoman | September 28th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
That’s exactly the sort of justification I would have expected from you.
27. neocon | September 28th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
It’s not justification, it’s justice. Time to go back to school for you.
28. Dennis | September 28th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Mrs. Jopek was watching a press conference on television and noticed John McCain wearing a similar bracelet, given to him by the mother of Cpl. Matthew Stanley, also killed in Iraq. So when she had the opportunity she gave her son’s to Barack Obama.
Her ex-husband says this: “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 that of course is entirely up to him.”
Bottom line: the Jopek family does want Obama to wear the bracelet to honor their son, but not if it hurts Obama’s campaign. A non-story if I ever heard one. Obama is wearing it in good faith.
Obama keeps a thousand names in his head and I’m sure he knows Jopek’s name. I sometimes grope for the names of people I talked with yesterday, even though I know them well.
29. Observer20 | September 28th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
I’m going to have to agree with Dennis. We can question Obama’s patriotism all we want, but that’s just projecting our opinions into the matter, and the fact is an Obama supporter gave him her son’s bracelet. We have to assume she supports Obama’s stance on Iraq. The son’s position, however, is a different matter.
Of course, I sympathize with her desire for it to not become public knowledge or be politicized. Who would?
Perhaps we can place blame on Obama for not immediately remembering the name, but that’s just being an arm-chair psychologist. The only actual fact we have to go on is McCain clearly spoke the soldier’s name without having to look, but Obama did have to look. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about the soldiers.
Still, I guess in the political arena such an action could be huge.
30. Macker | September 28th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
I used to live in the Народный Социалистический Город-Государство Чикаго, before Richard M. Daley took over. As the years progressed, it became more and more gray for me each time I visited it. I can easily see why it is referred to as filthy…as long as the Daley Machine is there, and Senator Obama hails from there, it will be such.
31. bongoman | September 28th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
It’s also a guaranteed way to generate more terrorists. Iy my children were killed by a foreign power I’d be sure as hell after revenge.
32. phnx | September 28th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
According to Mr. Jopek, “She (his ex wfe) had told me that in an email that she had asked, actually asked Mr. Obama to not wear the bracelet anymore at any of his public appearances.”
Just what is it about this that you leftist apologists don’t understand?? Or is English a second language for you?
By wearing the bracelet, Obama is going against the wishes of the mother for political gain.
33. phnx | September 28th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
OBTW: Obama ad libbed that Mrs. Jopek gave it to him “you please make sure another mother is not going through what I’m going through?’”.
Not according to her.
“I didn’t get to say what I wanted to say. I just cried,” Tracy Jopek told the newspaper. “It wasn’t for anything but for him to know this is real, something he needed to know. . . I do believe (the war) needs to end, but I believe it needs to be done very carefully and very thoughtfully.”
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/bracelet-wars.html
Obama is full of BS.
34. Observer20 | September 28th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
phnx,
Thanks for clarifying. This does somewhat change my position. Obama shouldn’t have said she said those things if she didn’t. That’s called lying.
If we can also provide links that what McCain said about his soldier’s bracelet was the truth, then I believe McCain will win this argument.
35. Casper | September 28th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Of course phnx for got to include this part:
I wasn’t able to get through to Tracy Jopek, but she spoke to a reporter at the Associated Press today. She confirmed her ex-husband’s recollection that she’d emailed the campaign to ask them to request that the senator not mention her son on the stump.
“But she said she was “ecstatic” that Obama mentioned her son’s hero bracelet during Friday’s debate. That’s because he was responding to McCain citing a different griveing mother’s hero bracelet as a way to back his political views of the war in Iraq and citing the bracelet she’d given Obama was a good and appropriate way to remind people there are different views on this issue.”
36. Dave Ravelli | September 28th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
I found an article all about this subject on ABC.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/bracelet-wars.html
37. Patrick | September 28th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Put the bracelet back on.
http://www.nbc15.com/state/headlines/29864149.html
She’s ecstatic about it, because it was in response to McCain’s exploitation of the bracelet he was wearing. It was McCain who brought it up, not Obama.
38. the_lefty_fool | September 28th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Putting politics ahead of the lives of our soldiers? How is wearing this bracelet risking our soldiers’ lives even more? And it’s very very interesting the way you ignore the fact that Bush lied us into war, and then sent us there without giving our troops body armor. Perhaps your memory is faulty…or just really, really selective. (BTW, that’s code for: you have your head up your ass).
39. neocon | September 28th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Iy my children were killed by a foreign power I’d be sure as hell after revenge. - bong man
You’ll have to excuse me. I laughed so hard I nearly passed out. I don’t think anyone would be terrified of an angry liberal.
I also thought the Afghani’s would be more inclined to want to understand us. Isn’t that what liberals would want to do?
40. Kurt | September 28th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Fact is….Obama needed to take a look at the bracelet during the debate to get the fallen soldier’s name right…watch it on YOUTUBE….Obama cares not a thing about our troops…never did in Chicago (where im from, so I know) and does not now. Anybody who falls for this little routine that Obama is putting on is uneducated, or just a partisan hack, like Obama is to his precious Chicago machine.
41. Jeremiah | September 28th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Obama shouldn’t be wearing a soldier’s bracelet…How can he represent our soldier’s when him and his running mate have never served much less know anything about running military operations.
All he’s doing is exploiting this for political purposes…he acts like a big baby, waaaaa, waaaa, I got a bracelet too, I got bracelet too…see, see.
He cares NOTHING about our military, or our safety … he cares only about #1 Obama!
42. Observer20 | September 28th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Patrick,
It doesn’t matter what her feelings on the event were. What matters is if Obama lied in explaining the reason why she gave him that bracelet. That’s why it’s important that you verify that McCain was telling the truth when he stated as to why the mother gave him her son’s bracelet.
If one’s an “exploitation” that’s based on true events, and the other is an “exploitation” not rooted in facts at all, obviously the one based on facts has the better position.
43. Ricorun | September 28th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Another rag weighs in. I think it’s pretty clear at this point that this is a non-story, and ABC should be ashamed of themselves. And as political stunts go, McCain is the one who should be ashamed. He’s the one that brought it up. And he brought it up to imply that the families of fallen heroes were of one opinion about the wars — the one McCain advocates. Sgt. Jopek’s mom said this about Obama’s response to that nonsense: “His response in the debate was exactly that, a response, after John McCain put it out there first,” she said. “I think it was an appropriate response — he was just saying there’s another side to the story, there’s two different viewpoints.”
Mark in his topic said, “Sorry to say, but you can’t support the troops unless you support their mission and their victory” Sorry to say, but that’s ridiculous. The fact is, the mission (especially in Iraq) has changed several times. And even McCain has criticized the mission at times. Different people have different views, most of them in good faith. You might find that “nauseating”, but I think it’s the fundamental nature of democracy.
44. Jeremiah | September 28th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Different people have different views
Of course there are different views … there are those of us who go by what the people on the actual war-front … then there are those who believe every lying word the liberal controlled MSM spew out!
Yeah, big difference.
I trust Gen. Petraeus.
45. Arctic Fox | September 28th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
That’s a very cute story you got there.
Very WRONG, but very cute. From the Associated Press:
So she has no objections, but of course lets take the word of what her ex husband (not an Obama supporter) has to say about how she thinks, and not actually what she DOES think.
46. gotbrains? | September 29th, 2008 at 12:07 am
oh please, you toadies are pathetic.
47. FmrMarine | September 29th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
nobrains
“She wouldn’t directly say whether she wanted Obama to refrain from mentioning the bracelet again, but said she hopes the issue will just go away.”
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