Marathon Pundit: Another Obama flag flap

It's taken a while for this incident to make the rounds of the blog-o-sphere, but last month, while our National Anthem played at Sen. Tom Harkin's annual steak fry in Iowa, my senator, Barack Obama, was the only person on the rostrum who didn't place his hand on his heart.

Earlier this month, a sharp-eyed Iowa reporter noticed that unlike the other presidential candidates, Obama doesn't wear a flag pin on his lapel, claiming such an adornment is a substitute for "true patriotism."

But Obama does understand the importance of symbols. As Ben Smith pointed out in July on Politico, Obama, again in Iowa, positioned himself with in a way to conform to the teachings of guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder the Transcendental Mediation movement.

Sen. Barack Obama drew his heartiest welcome of a two-day swing through Iowa in the state's capital of inner peace.

To the frustration of the cameramen in the Fairfield town square, Obama delivered his remarks facing east, with the setting sun behind him blotting out their shots.

But here, there’s a power even higher than the television networks: Obama had positioned himself in alignment with the rotation of the earth, in accordance with the teachings of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, whose followers moved en masse to this small Iowa city more than 30 years ago.