Sunday, September 28, 2008

Family Told Obama Not To Wear Soldier's Bracelet

You won't be reading about this in the mainstream media, which covers up everything negative about Sen. Barack Obama and makes up lies about McCain if it can't find anything negative to report about him. I pointed out Obama's big gaffe in Friday night's debate when he was quick to add, "I have a bracelet too", after Sen. McCain told the story of a soldier killed in Iraq and the bracelet he was wearing in his honor at the request of his mother. Sen. Obama stumbled after holding up his wrist with the bracelet, forgetting the soldier's name. He had to look down and read it from the bracelet, mispronouncing the soldier's name in the process. Now it turns out that Obama had received a request from the soldier's family to stop wearing the bracelet, a request he obviously ignored. Newsbusters reports:

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" 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. (h/t D. Keith Howington of www.dehavelle.com)

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.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Its just disgusting that Obama would use someone else's pain to further himself. He is a selfish man!

Hoosier in the Heartland said...

Of course, the ex-husband disagrees...he is (according to news reports) a McCain supporter, and his ex-wife supports Obama.

Obama is wearing the bracelet with the ex-wife's blessing, not the ex-husband's.

Chris Worden said...

My grandmother was despondent when she went into a nursing home eighteen months ago.

Because she's a huge Colts fan, I tried to get her an autographed photo from Tony Dungy for her room.

I wrote to Dungy in care of the Colts. I said that I had no idea how much a photo and the postage would cost, but I'd pay whatever, and as proof of my good intentions, I included a postage paid envelope to the American Diabetes Assocation with a check, as Dungy was part of the ADA's national fundraising effort.

A month later, I got a "thank you" letter from the ADA, but as of today's date, I have received no reply from Dungy. Do I have the right to publicly slam Dungy as a selfish man?

Of course not. Because as an educated man, I can easily ascertain that some peon at the Colts organization opened the mail, forwarded the check, and forgot to respond, which explains why I didn't even get a letter saying something akin to "Neither Tony Dungee nor any member of the Colts will provide autographed photos."

But when you are desperate to sully Senator Obama, you'll act as if he personally got the request and wore the bracelet anyway.

The problem is that this lady communicated her request via e-mail. Obama for America receives literally tens of thousands of e-mails per week. I've sent three e-mails to the campaign, the first of which was in March, and I have not received a personal response yet.

If you can prove Obama knew of this request and still wore the bracelet, Advance Indiana, DO IT.

But don't insult all of our intelligence by acting like not-speedy-enough staff work by college kids charged with sorting the massive piles of e-mail to the Obama campaign into the right piles is the same as Senator Obama's callous indifference to someone's suffering.

You'll get people like "mollysheep" who buy into your ridiculous hype. (Of course, she probably hates Dungy now, too).

Concerned Taxpayer said...

Well, what else would you expect from a democrat?

Gary R. Welsh said...

I note that none of the Obama supporters attempt to explain Obama's failure to remember the name of the officer whose name appeared on the bracelet without looking down to read it. Again, how could you were a bracelet for months on your wrist and not remember the guy's name?