If Politics Is The Manipulation Of Symbols..

...Then how does this play?

Barack Obama:

"Someone noticed I wasn't warring a flag lapel pin but I am less concerned with what you are wearing on your lapel than what's in your heart... We have to lead on our values and our ideals."

More, from ABC News:

"You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin,” Obama said Wednesday. “Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest.”