Just want to make sure it's clear, this is an excerpt of the story from Philly.com - Posted by Will Bunch .

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Nash_McCabe_The_rest_of_the_story.html

To be extra clear, none of this is a criticism of Nash McCabe -- my heart goes out to her and her husband, and there is no evidence here that her views on Obama and the flag, which I personally think are misguided, are racially motivated.

Whether her views are racially motivated or not, her flag-pin litmus test is perfect: she is truly a pinhead.

My heart goes out to the rest of us, who have to suffer this type of simple-minded patriotism at the cost of sorting out real issues.

However, I hope that Mrs. McCabe is collecting a pile of these pins. They will be useful to burn in the dead of winter when she can no longer afford to heat her home.

Well, yes, she's had a hard life. But from the McClatchy investigation into how she ended up as one of the questioners at the debate:

But to understand why Obama rubs McCabe wrong is to go beyond the question of what a flag pin has to do with patriotism — it's not really about the flag pin, she said in a telephone interview Thursday — and consider McCabe's life. It's no Hawaiian prep school and Ivy League story, unlike Obama's. It's a slice of working-class Pennsylvania, the core of Hillary Clinton's support there.

First off, I thought Obama had attended public school in Hawaii, but maybe I'm wrong about that. But the subtext there...it's all about affirmative action and being "uppity". Sorry, but I can't read it any other way. Maybe I'm being unfair to McCabe, maybe she's not even aware of the racial basis for her "problem" with Obama. But it most definitely does exist. Because for whatever reason, she's not upset about Hillary's white middle-class upbringing and Ivy League education, and somehow seems to believe that Hillary's life has been one of "struggle" - never mind that she lived in the Arkansas Governor's mansion from age 31 to age 45 and the White House from age 45 to 53; since then she's had a rather posh home in New York - the first one she and Bill have ever owned, thanks to their 22 years in "public" housing. McCabe seems upset by Obama's "rocket-like rise to the top" but voices no similar objection to Hillary's rise on her husband's coattails. And not to put too fine a point on it, but Bill Clinton was the same age as Obama when he ran for the White House, yet McCabe voiced no issue with his "rocket-like rise to the top" at the exact same tender young age.

This woman has some deep-seated racist attitudes, whether she owns up to them or even recognizes them or not.

The irony here is after Obama decried the use of stupid symbolic wedge issues that distract from real issues, ABC decides to do a wedge-athon debate of bs "gotcha" and symbolic questions.

David Brooks defended this saying how candidates react to "symbolic issues" is important. Um, no it is not That's exactly the point.

Does anyone else get the feeling the press is mostly run by people with an 12 year old's ability to think rationally (not to say maturity level)?

If Obama wants those votes, all he has to do is wear a flag pin. That's it.

I understand why Obama doesn't want to wear a flag all the time. The constant display of the stars and stripes seems bellicose. It can even be creepy when overdone.

That said, Obama is running for President of the United States. We usually expect someone in the running to eat Chevrolets and shit apple pies. Seeing a presidential candidate without a flag pin is kinda like seeing the CEO of Ford driving around in a Lexus.

Obama can win some extra voters by wearing a flag pin. He thinks he can win over more by not wearing one a making a statement. That's his political calculation, and frankly it's working out pretty well for him.

First off, I thought Obama had attended public school in Hawaii, but maybe I'm wrong about that. But the subtext there...it's all about affirmative action and being "uppity"

You aren't the only one, Jenn. Obama was asked last week by a man in one of his audiences, according to what got posted here in comments, whether the elitism thing was really awfully close to calling him uppity.

And the man was white, if that matters.

I dunno - this is one of those stories that has ended up being nothing more than a planned gotcha. The press is trying to take Obama down. Or at least, ABC is, on behalf of the Clintons.

Freaking flag pins - stupid. Yellow flag ribbons - stupid,

the NYT - stupid. ABC - stupid. Hillary Clinton - stupid.

Obama has said it before, if its not the flag pin issue, it will be something else, and another thing, and then another thing until nothing is left to for them to dislike other than just Obama -- the man himself.

Obama can TRY to unify as many voters as he can, but he won't be able to get all the voters, and there is nothing we can do about that. But he is betting that he'll be able to pull in so many new, fresh, first-time voters that he will make up for those voters like Mrs. McCabe here who will never vote for someone like Obama -- and it seems to be working.

It is just pathetic how ABC decided to go out of their way to find "citizen questions" from anyone who was not simply a curious undecided voter.

Think about what would happen if they decided to look at the TPM boards for someone to ask a question and decided that Gotalife or Matt Weaver should get to question Obama or any one of the more aggressive Hillary haters on this site to question her?

By searching for an Obama hater and letter her question his lack of a Flag Pin was basically the same as letting Gotalife as Obama why he is a lier. It was a disgraceful debate.

To be extra clear, none of this is a criticism of Nash
McCabe -- my heart goes out to her and her husband, and there is no
evidence here that her views on Obama and the flag, which I personally
think are misguided, are racially motivated.

Then how do you explain the fact that Obama is the *only* candidate questioned on this?

Hillary doesn't wear a flag pin.

I agree that it's not really about flag pins. And I for one am GLAD Obama doesn't wear one, now that a fuss has been made; I want a president who doesn't change his actions with whichever way the breeze is blowing. When the vet gave him one, he wore it THAT DAY. Good enough for me.

I also agree that there's probably racism under McCabe's dislike of Obama. Her assumptions about Hillary don't wholly match the facts. But that doesn't make them less invalid to her, or the people in the barbershop described above, and telling them they're racist will just make them defensive, because they are probably honestly decent people who cannot see racism in themselves and would be offended to be accused of such.

That said, the McCabe story made me far more sympathetic/empathic to where she was coming from.

How do we educate people when the real issues are all almost subconscious.

I can't resist the urge to irreverancy:

I almost wish that Obama could have answered this question by saying "I don't need to wear a flag lapel pin because I have a tattoo of the American flag on my BIG BLACK DICK." And really, what could be more patriotic than having your dick tattooed with the flag?

See, this is why no one will hire me as a campaign manager or advisor.

Of course, when you look behind the curtain, you find out that she admits that it was not about the flag pin at all.

She is a Clinton supporter, and if you read the following report from McClatchy News, she pretty much does not like him because she finds him to be too uppity. You know what is really bugging her. Read it for yourselves, and you will find out that ABC knew damn well that she did not give a damn about the flag pin, except to use it as a way to put an uppity black man in his place. Boycott ABC News.

Watch CBS. Lara Logan is a great foreign correspondent, and Ms. Couric getting much better are her job.
Why not keep at least one Woman anchor on the Networks.

Come on guys. We owe all the great Women who have graced our lives at least that in return;

Now read the truth about ABC's flag pin lady. Here is the truth about her.

Obama questioner explains why she finds him annoying
Margaret Talev | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: April 17, 2008 08:40:13 PM

WASHINGTON — Nash McCabe is the voter from Wednesday night's presidential debate who noted that Barack Obama doesn't usually wear a flag pin and asked, "I want to know if you believe in the American flag."

ABC, which hosted the debate, had tracked her down after she was quoted in a New York Times story about white voters in small-town Latrobe, Pa., revealing her as 52, out of work and against Obama.

But to understand why Obama rubs McCabe wrong is to go beyond the question of what a flag pin has to do with patriotism — it's not really about the flag pin, she said in a telephone interview Thursday — and consider McCabe's life. It's no Hawaiian prep school and Ivy League story, unlike Obama's. It's a slice of working-class Pennsylvania, the core of Hillary Clinton's support there.

McCabe met her husband, Lloyd, in April 1983 at a dance. They married two months later. Six months after that, she says, he was injured in a coal mine accident. He hasn't worked since.

They never had children. He had back surgery. The muscle relaxers he took damaged his heart. He's had three bypasses, nine angioplasties, seven stents and a pacemaker. Three months ago doctors found a brain tumor. His choice: surgery that he may or may not survive, or life in a wheelchair.

Over 25 years of marriage, McCabe was the breadwinner. She said it took eight years to get her husband disability payments, during which time they racked up huge bills.

"I was a nurse's aide, a cashier," McCabe said. "From 1996 to 2000, I was a manager of a cleaning company. I started out as secretary and worked my way up to manager, and then the company decided to close. It took me almost two-and-a-half years to find a job that I got laid off from recently" as a clerk-typist. She has a high school diploma.

Sometimes the McCabes borrow money from her parents, who are in their 70s. She has a request in to the local food bank to see if she and her husband qualify.

"People who have sick spouses or children understand how hard it is," she said.

McCabe sympathizes with working-class people who got in over their heads during the housing boom. She opposes the Iraq war and thinks President Bush has hurt the country. She doesn't support Republican John McCain because he's too close to Bush.

On paper, her stances make her as likely to support Obama as Clinton.

But she sees a difference between the two. In Clinton, she sees someone who has struggled for years, just like her, and has earned the right to be president. In Obama, she sees someone who rose like a rocket, always has a smooth explanation for everything — whether it's about his former preacher or the flag pin — and who makes it all look too easy.

"That's what upsets me about Barack Obama," she says. "He takes everything so nonchalantly."

She admits that she's more likely to give Clinton the benefit of the doubt while looking for fault in Obama. For example, McCabe says that she once saw Obama on television and noticed that "he turned his back on the flag" before the Pledge of Allegiance ended. That irritated her to no end.

File this one under "another missed opportunity":

When that flag pin question was teed-up by George S./McCain/Hillary, I started muttering "Look to your right, Barck -- look to your right Obama!"

Of course, Hillary was not wearing a flag pin on her suit pant jacket either and, with such wide lapels, there was no reason she could or should not also be wearing one. Why, it was simply and un-American display!

But she sees a difference between the two. In Clinton, she sees someone who has struggled for years, just like her, and has earned the right to be president. In Obama, she sees someone who rose like a rocket, always has a smooth explanation for everything — whether it's about his former preacher or the flag pin — and who makes it all look too easy.

O she struggled - so hard. All the way through Wellesley, and then Yale law, then right to a partnership in a lawfirm, the Rose Lawfirm, right to the overwhelming struggle - o god it was hard - as First Lady of Arkansas. And she feels your pain, McCabe - sure she does, cause you know what happened to her next? She fought and struggled to get those seating arrangements just right for state dinners as First Lady. It's been hard, I tells ya. You and Hillary - kind of like hoboes together, sharing a box car.

I am sorry for your troubles, Ms. McCabe, but please quit deluding yourself into thinking Hillary Clinton is going to help you.

Since Hillary Clinton wants to see fit that I can't burn my flag any more, is it still okay for me to take a big, acrid dump on a flag pin?