Barack and the National Anthem- how do you feel?

[Stranger_On_A_Train]

@KneadToKnow

First the flag pin, now this. It’s like this man has no respect at all for empty symbols of patriotism.

Clearly, Obama is a terrorist.

Or worse yet [Joe McCarthy voice]a Communist[/Joe McCarthy voice]. I have in my hand a list of two hundred and seventy-eight Communists in the State Department…

@Ravenman

You know who else wouldn’t put his hand over his heart for our national anthem?

Hitler.

Yeah, but he was pretty big on the whole flair-on-lapels thing, as were the Soviets, so that kind of redeems them. Obama, on the other hand, is clearly Satan Incarnate.

@tomndebb

Remember, he spent a fair amount of his youth outside the U.S. (particularly in the lower elementary grades where this stuff is taught). I would not be surprised to discover that he simply missed that little bit of cultural indoctrination.

More evidence of his lack of patriotism. This country was founded on indoctrination and hollow symbols, and anyone who can’t mindlessly respect that has no business holding public office. Fifty-four forty or fight!

@villa

Even after 12 years in the States, I am still amazed at how widely the national anthem is played here. To me, the greatest disrespect shown it is its overuse; it has become so commonplace. The same has become true of the flag. It seems to have become just another add on, and that isn’t IMHO very respectful.

We don’t have any royalty to embarrass us, and so despite the World Wrestling Federation and chief executives of the last few Presidential regimes working overtime in that regard, we still have to look for opportunities elsewhere to make a pitiably mockable spectacle of ourselves.

@Boyo Jim

Yes, but it’s a* dry * heat.

Hey, why is the wall moving?

Stranger

[BrainGlutton]

When I was little and my Dad was in the Air Force, we often went to the movies at a base theater, where the National Anthem was always played before the movie started. Everyone stood up, but nobody put their hands on their hearts; that’s for the Pledge of Allegiance. (Originally, BTW, during the Pledge of Allegiance the flag was saluted with the right arm held straight out – I’ve seen pictures – but Hitler put that gesture in bad odor.)

[EddyTeddyFreddy]

@Shodan

Look, Obama lacks much experience in being in the national spot light. He is going to be prone to these kind of gaffes.

Treat it as you would if Bush had done the same, and I am sure we will get over it just fine.

Ignore it as irrelevant to substantive issues, then? No problem.

[Diogenes_the_Cynic]

@BrainGlutton

When I was little and my Dad was in the Air Force, we often went to the movies at a base theater, where the National Anthem was always played before the movie started. Everyone stood up, but nobody put their hands on their hearts; that’s for the Pledge of Allegiance. (Originally, BTW, during the Pledge of Allegiance the flag was saluted with the right arm held straight out – I’ve seen pictures – but Hitler put that gesture in bad odor.)

I was an Air Force brat too, and went to some schools on military bases, and my memories match yours. You stand up and take your hat off. The hand over the heart is for the Pledge, not the Anthem. You’re not swaering an oath when you stand for the Anthem so there’s no reason to put your hand over your heart. I think those who put their hands over their hearts for the Anthem are in error or were taught wrong.

Who’s the official authority on any of this anyway?

[tomndebb]

@Liberal

Snopes said he sometimes does and sometimes doesn’t. Take that to whatever logical conclusion suits you.

I’d say that was evidence of some level of knowledge–not that the whole thing is not really silly, anyway.

[Terrifel]

There are any number of valid reasons why Barack Obama didn’t place his hand over his heart during the National Anthem.

Maybe he has no heart.

Maybe he has a heart, but it’s on the wrong side of his body.

Maybe his heart is stored elsewhere, inside an urn consecrated to Satan.

Maybe he hates America and all that it stands for.

Maybe he was thinking about something else.

Maybe he’s attempting to attract Bush supporters, and will be running into doors and assaulting other heads of state in the future.

Maybe he’s trying to smoke out those who find such behavior objectionable, so they can be targeted later by his elite “Obamanator” death squads.

Maybe he was trying to distinguish himself from Hillary Clinton, by drawing attention to his chest and its relative lack of bosoms.

Maybe he had to keep his hands clasped in front of him, the better to conceal the enormous erection he always gets whenever the National Anthem is played.

Maybe he had to keep his hands clasped in front of him, the better to conceal the enormous erection he always gets whenever Hillary Clinton is nearby.

Maybe he had to keep his hands clasped in front of him, the better to control the trained marmoset living in his Dockers, who otherwise leaps out and works the crowd for change whenever it hears music of any kind.

Maybe he was deep in the Twenty-Third Meditative Cycle of the Lamasery of Asaru, to which he retreats whenever he hears either the National Anthem or Bachman Turner Overdrive, lest he otherwise automatically lapse into berserk fury and rend his garments asunder, driving his enemies before him while bellowing “Barack smash! Barack is the hand of vengeance! Glory to almighty Thor! Valhalla! Valhalla!”

Maybe he thinks that overt flag-worship is unbecoming to a politician.

[CrankyAsAnOldMan]

How do I feel? I feel like he’s doing exactly what I was taught to do.

I put my hand over my heart for the pledge of allegiance, because that’s what I was taught. But I was not taught to do this for the national anthem. Maybe what I was taught is out-of-date, or maybe my elementary school was run by a bunch of unpatriotic assholes, but exclude me from the “we were all taught” generalization in the OP.

I confess I have often looked around at sporting events and wondered why people were putting their hands over their hearts.

I’ve seen a document that seems to back up what I was taught, but it was from the 1940s.

Let me know if you need to know where my elementary school is located, so it can be properly torched to the ground.

[fluiddruid]

Closed per the request of the OP.