About that bracelet...

by Josh Orton, Sun Sep 28, 2008 at 09:01:32 PM EST

Earlier today, Jake Tapper posted an item about the commemorative bracelet given to Barack Obama by the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq. The mother had, apparently, contacted the campaign back in February to request that Obama stop referencing her son; back in March the mother's ex-husband told Tapper:

"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, she has turned down any subsequent interviews with the media because she just didn't, she just didn't want it to get turned into something that it wasn't. She 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."

But before the mother of the soldier could react to Obama's mention in the debate (and before anyone could verify the mother's wishes first-hand), class-act Jonah Goldberg commanded Obama to "Take Off the Bracelet, Senator."

If only the families of fallen soldiers had more advocates like our man Jonah.

Oh, wait:

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.

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.

Ms. Jopek told the AP she was "ecstatic" when Obama made the reference.

In all the time that's past, even since before the invasion, some right-wing bloggers STILL haven't learned not to demagogue the service of our troops.

Unreal.