Shortly after 9/11, the conservative media and right-wing politicians found an effective way of silencing anybody who didn’t agree with them: call them unpatriotic. One of the reasons our press and politicians rushed into the Iraq war was because they were afraid of appearing unpatriotic. This kind of closed-minded “if you aren’t with us, you’re against us” attitude still prevails today, seen most recently in President Bush’s appeals to the House to approve a new FISA bill.

Well, it worked before, so conservatives are going to try it again. Recently many conservatives have been questioning Obama’s patriotism, citing the senator’s choice to not wear a American flag pin and a single instance of forgetting to place his hand over his heart during the national anthem. I’ve always said that if this is the worst that conservatives can find to attack Obama with, then he must be a better guy than I thought. For the record though, here are some pictures that prove presidents don’t have to put their hand over their hearts during the anthem.

Obama fights back on questions about his patriotism – [CNN]