Democrats Trash Flags, Republicans Wave Them

Not to questions anyone's patriotism or anything, but whatever could have possessed the organizers of the Democratic National Fiasco at Invesco Stadium last week to leave 84 trash bags of flags behind?

If you watched the ascension of Obama to his perch as the official Democratic presidential candidate, you may have noticed the unusual spectacle of tens of thousands of Democrats waving flags throughout the stadium.

But what happened to the flags after the styrofoam columns went back to Hollywood is a pretty interesting story in and of itself--and another example of the genius of the McCain campaign.

It seems that the Democrats left the 12,000 flags in garbage bags, "in and near garbage bins," according to the vendor who claims to have found them. The vendor then gave them to the McCain campaign (quite probably because he figured that John McCain had a pretty good idea how to treat a flag.)

As a result, the McCain campaign was handed a pre-filled template of American iconography:

Boy Scouts were sorting through 84 bags of flags in Colorado on Saturday, before a McCain supporter had veterans distribute them to the audience.

“We want to find good homes for these flags,” radio host Dan Caplis said at the rally, adding that whatever flags remained would be placed at memorials throughout Colorado.

Audience members, who booed when Caplis announced that the flags were left in Denver, waved the flags and chanted “U.S.A” before McCain arrived at the rally with his running mate, Sarah Palin.

How sweet is that? Boy scouts. Veterans. War memorials. "U.S.A." Sarah Palin.

The Obama camp has a lot to learn about politics, if they allowed this to happen.

Caught utterly flat-footed, a DNC convention spokesman could only sputter ineffectively:

Damon Jones, spokesman for the Democratic National Convention Committee, released a statement saying McCain should applaud the fact that thousands of American flags were “proudly waved” at their convention.

“But instead his supporters wrongfully took leftover bundles of our flags from the stadium to play out a cheap political stunt calling into question our patriotism,” he said.

Wow. Another example of total political incompetence. To say that McCain should "applaud the fact" that American flags were "proudly waved" at the DNC convention just underlines the notion that there is something unusual about Democrats waving flags. And it really doesn't matter if the flags were "wrongfully" taken (which is unexplained, as well). The apparent fact that they were in garbage bags is undisputed by Mr. Jones.

The flag code says that a flag is to be disposed of by burning, once it is no longer useful. Or, it can be thrown away if it is "worn, damaged or tattered beyond repair."

So, we are left with two possibilities. Either the Democrats don't know how to treat the flag, or when they are given flags, they destroy them.

Either way, it gave the McCain camp a chance to honor veterans, wave flags, and interact with Boy Scouts.

Grand-slam home-run.