Comedians who can’t think of any Obama jokes should check out this post by Steven Heller at the New York Times‘ Campaign Stops blog. During the primaries, Obama said American flag lapel pins were a “substitute for … true patriotism”. But now “the presumptive Democratic nominee is seldom seen at public events without ‘old glory’ on his lapel,” writes Heller. “Since Mr. Obama promotes himself as the candidate of change, maybe he should start wearing a different kind of lapel pin that signals his patriotism as well as other values he wants to communicate. To provide him with options, I asked some illustrators and designers to suggest alternatives.” Here are my three favorite alternatives. Finishing in third place is illustrator Oliver Monday, who argues that buttons are the new lapel pins:
Runner-up is Daniel Young’s mirror-flag pin:
Young designed it as a compliment to Obama, who “tries to reflect the better nature of the country”, but the mirror might be a perfect symbol for the narcissism of Obama and his fans. And it also looks an awful lot like a white flag, which President Obama will be hoisting over Baghdad. But the best is Ray Bartkus’s approach:
“No lapels; no lapel-pin issues.” Of course, I don’t actually expect any of these to make it past the late-night TV censors. Surely they know that only racist Islamo-homo-phobic yahoos from Findlay, Ohio, talk about Obama’s flag-pin flip-flop.
