Trashed in Colorado

In which we ask the question, "Should Dems give props to the McCain campaign?"

Downtown Denver: the cameras roll and the crowd goes wild. Waving American flags, smiling, watching the fireworks - what a show!

Then the speech is over. The cameras are turned off. With no more use for them, the American flags and empty coke cups and used kleenex are tossed away - many into trash receptacles, others simply on the ground.

Not smart. This, on the other hand, is. (Assuming no flags were harmed in the Minneapolis/St Paul production...)

This morning, Republicans tell me that a worker at Invesco Field in Denver saved thousands of unused flags from the Democratic National Convention that were headed for the garbage. Guerrilla campaigning. They will use these flags at their own event today in Colorado Springs with John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Before McCain speaks today, veterans will haul these garbage bags filled with flags out onto the stage — with dramatic effect, no doubt — and tell the story.

“What you see in the picture I sent you is less than half of total flags,” a Republican official emailed. “We estimate the total number to be around 12,000 small flags and one full size 3×5 flag.”

Video update:

I should add that I believe this flag issue indicates nothing whatsoever about Barack Obama, other than that his supporters obviously had no further use for those flags.

Update: Hmmm...

But Democratic convention organizers claimed the flags were not going to be discarded — but instead were snatched from the site of Obama’s historic address to carry out a “cheap political stunt.”
<...>
Damon Jones, spokesman for the Democratic National Convention Committee, released a statement saying McCain should applaud the fact that thousands of American flags were “proudly waved” at their convention.

“But instead his supporters wrongfully took leftover bundles of our flags from the stadium to play out a cheap political stunt calling into question our patriotism,” he said.

Obama has faced attacks on his patriotism since the beginning of the Democratic primary race and has set up a Web site specifically designed to fight such charges.

The McCain campaign has denied questioning Obama’s patriotism, and even released a statement Friday calling Obama’s most recent comments on the matter “hysterical.”

Obama said Friday that Republicans are trying to make the election a personality contest, and that “what they’re really saying is ‘we’re going to try to scare people about Barack. So we’re going to say that you know, ‘Maybe he’s got Muslim connections or we’re going to say that, you know, he hangs out with radicals or he’s not patriotic.’”