“I’ve got a bracelet too.”

[darrels joy]

“I’ve got a bracelet too.”

September 27, 2008 9:33 am R.D. Walker Iraq, Politics
That was Obama’s comment - or sneer really - after McCain’s heartfelt words on the bracelet he wears bearing the name of a soldier killed in action. Here is McCain…

I had a town hall meeting in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, and a woman stood up and she said, “Senator McCain, I want you to do me the honor of wearing a bracelet with my son’s name on it.” He was 22 years old and he was killed in combat outside of Baghdad, Matthew Stanley, before Christmas last year. This was last August, a year ago. And I said, “I will — I will wear his bracelet with honor.”

And this was August, a year ago. And then she said, “But, Senator McCain, I want you to do everything — promise me one thing, that you’ll do everything in your power to make sure that my son’s death was not in vain.”

That means that that mission succeeds, just like those young people who re-enlisted in Baghdad, just like the mother I met at the airport the other day whose son was killed. And they all say to me that we don’t want defeat.

After that emotional statement Obama - not to be one-upped - responds with this.

Jim, let me just make a point. I’ve got a bracelet, too, from Sergeant - from the mother of [can’t think of the name, looks down to read name on bracelet] Sergeant Ryan David Jopeck, sure another mother is not going through what I’m going through.

No U.S. soldier ever dies in vain because they’re carrying out the missions of their commander in chief. And we honor all the service that they’ve provided.

What a childish, cynical response. “I’ve got a bracelet too.”

[mswrichb]

Our country and our military are going to be in big trouble if Obama gets elected!

[darrels joy]

Family Told Obama NOT To Wear Soldier Son's Bracelet... Where is Media?


By Warner Todd Huston (Bio | Archive)
September 28, 2008 - 03:53 ET

Barack Obama played the "me too" game during the Friday debates on September 26 after Senator John McCain mentioned that he was wearing a bracelet with the name of Cpl. Matthew Stanley, a resident of New Hampshire and a soldier that lost his life in Iraq in 2006. Obama said that he too had a bracelet. After fumbling and straining to remember the name, he revealed that his had the name of Sergeant Ryan David Jopek of Merrill, Wisconsin.

Shockingly, however, 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.


Radio host Glenn Moberg of the show "Route 51" ( http://www.wpr.org/regions/wau/route51/archives.cfm ) asked Mr. Jopek, a man who believes in the efforts in Iraq and is not in favor of Obama's positions on the war, what he and his ex-wife think of Obama continually using their son's name on the campaign trail.




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. This begins at about 10 minutes into the radio program. (Download radio show HERE)

TRANSCRIPT

Brian Jopek: Because of some of the negative feedback she's gotten on the Internet, you know Internet blogs, you know people accusing her of... or accusing Obama of trying to get votes doing it... and that sort of thing.

Radio Host Moberg: Yeah

Jopek: She has turned down any subsequent interviews with the media because she just didn't want it to get turned into something that it wasn't. She had told me in an email that she had asked, actually asked Mr. Obama to not wear the bracelet any more at any of his public appearances. Which I don't think he's...

Moberg: It has been a while since he's brought it up.

Jopek: Right. But, the other night I was watching the news and he was on, uh, speaking somewhere and he was still wearing it on his right wrist. I could see it on his right wrist. So, that's his own choice. I mean that's something Barack Obama, that's a choice that he continues to wear it despite Tracy asking him not to... Because 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, uh, that of course is entirely up to him.

Moberg: Maybe there's a difference between wearing it and making a point to bring it up in your speeches?

Even the snow job that the radio host tried to pull off to cover for Barack's refusing the wishes of the family of the KIA soldier who's bracelet he wears doesn't pass the smell test. After all, now that Obama has made it a big point in the debates, I guess the silent observance of Sgt. Jopek is no longer so silent and Obama is back to exploiting the death of a soldier even when he was asked NOT to do so by that soldier's parents.

To pile insult onto injury here, the Mother doesn't even want to force the issue of telling Obama to stop exploiting her son because she wants to see him win the election. Obama is not only taking advantage of this brave soldier's death, he is taking advantage of the good wishes of the man's Mother who doesn't want to hurt the campaign.

This all makes Obama look pretty calculating and blood chillingly callous, doesn't it?

And, why is the media not playing this story? The radio show on which this interview is heard happened all the way back in March. How is it the media missed this? Is it because they are also don't want to hurt Obama's campaign?

I can only say that if the parents of the soldier whose bracelet John McCain is wearing had said in public that they want him to stop wearing their son's bracelet the news would have been coast to coast, and wall to wall, not just ignored in Madison, Wisconsin.

Obama's use of this soldier that fell in the line of duty is tainted by his ambition and callousness. And the media is letting him get away with it.

(H/T D. Keith Howington of www.dehavelle.com)
(Photo credit: Washington Post)
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-...et-where-media

[SuperScout]

And in a typical lying spinning operation, one of Barack Hussein Obama's spinners said this morning on the FNC that Obama had the permission of the family to twear the bracelet. Phriggin' liars can't get their story straight. Yet another example of a liberal lying about a war hero.

[darrels joy]

The mother of a Wisconsin soldier who died in Iraq says she was "ecstatic" when Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama mentioned during Friday's debate the bracelet she gave him in honor of her son.
Sep 28, 2008 8:09 PM (18 hrs ago) By DINESH RAMDE, AP

"I am a mother, a mother who lost her son. It's hard to know what's right, what's wrong about this war. Very hard," she said. "And I know there are a lot of families who lost loved ones."

So she e-mailed the Obama campaign through its Web site asking that he not mention it during debates or speeches.
.....
She wouldn't directly say whether she wanted Obama to refrain from mentioning the bracelet again, but she hopes the whole issue will just go away.
By DINESH RAMDE | Associated Press Writer 6:37 PM CDT, September 28, 2008

Good luck with that.

''I just don't want any more soldiers to die in vain for something that we can't solve,'' she said. AP
February 17, 2008 BY NEDRA PICKLER

“My son loved this country very much, I love this country, but I don’t feel that staying in Iraq will vindicate my son’s death,” she said. “And it’s not over for us until this war is over. I just don’t want any more soldiers to die in vain for something that we can’t solve.”

She said she’s a Democrat who will vote for Obama in Wisconsin’s primary Tuesday. Like Obama, she said she was against the war from the start and had a hard time watching her son go to war.
February 17, 2008 FOX News

The young man's father, Brian Jopek, Staff Sergeant and Public Affairs Officer with the Wisconsin Army Guard who spent a year in Mosul is currently deployed to Guantanamo.

[MORTARDUDE]

I guess the right-wing-nuts have just missed the truth.....once again.

+++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/...n4485265.shtml

Mom Supports Obama's Bracelet Mention
Tracy Jopek "Ecstatic" About Democrat's Use Of Her Son's Name At Debate

MILWAUKEE, Sept. 29, 2008


(AP) The mother of a Wisconsin soldier who died in Iraq says she was "ecstatic" when Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama mentioned during Friday's debate the bracelet she gave him in honor of her son.

Tracy Jopek of Merrill told The Associated Press on Sunday she was honored that Obama remembered Sgt. Ryan David Jopek, who was killed in 2006 by a roadside bomb.

( my emphasis )

>>> Jopek criticized Internet reports suggesting Obama, D-Ill., exploited her son for political purposes. <<<<

"I don't understand how people can take that and turn it into some garbage on the Internet," she said.

Jopek acknowledged e-mailing the Obama campaign in February asking that the presidential candidate not mention her son in speeches or debates. But she said Obama's mention on Friday was appropriate because he was responding after Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee, said a soldier's mother gave him a bracelet.

"I've got a bracelet, too, from Sergeant - from the mother of Sergeant Ryan David Jopek, given to me in Green Bay," Obama said during the debate. "She asked me, 'Can you please make sure another mother is not going through what I'm going through?' No U.S. soldier ever dies in vain because they're carrying out the missions of their commander in chief. And we honor all the service that they've provided."

Jopek says Obama's comment rightfully suggested there's more than one viewpoint on the war.

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.

"I think these bracelets should be looked upon as an honor that both candidates wear them to respect the troops," Jopek said. "My request to both of them is that they honor the troops by lifting the conversation to the issues, and that they continue to live up to the standards our military deserves."

[MORTARDUDE]

Originally Posted by mswrichb

Our country and our military are going to be in big trouble if Obama gets elected!

Wow......have you been in a cave the last 8 years ? Bush and his minions almost performed perfect financial fascism...........The government takeover of the financial system, with NO oversight of any kind at all !!!

Larry

[darrels joy]

I guess the left-wing-nuts have just missed the truth.....once again.

She gave him the bracelet. She asked him not to use it as a prop. He did anyway.

She is an Obama supporter so she backs up his use of it when her previous statements are brought up.


She was naive to think a politician with no military experience would not use the support of a military mother as part of his campaign. Either that or she wanted him to use it.

Her ex, the man's father, does not agree with her politics or the use of her son for Obama politics. He is currently serving.


I, too, can buy a $12 Heros bracelet and do anything I want with it.

Joy

[SuperScout]

Originally Posted by MORTARDUDE

Wow......have you been in a cave the last 8 years ? Bush and his minions almost performed perfect financial fascism...........The government takeover of the financial system, with NO oversight of any kind at all !!!

Larry

1. You haven't been attacked by Al Qaeda in seven years, right?
2. The 'bail-out' hasn't passd yet, right?
3. The Democrats have been in control of Congress for two years, and things really started going down hill after they assumed power, right?
4. You are aware that the Democrats squelched any investigation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac several years ago, when Mr. Raines, Barack Hussein Obama's close friend was in charge, right?
5. You are aware that Maxine Walters, D-CA, said any investigation of Freddie Mac and/or Fannie Mae would be a racist witchhunt, right?

If not, then it seems like you've been living in a cave for the past several years.