Catch of the Weekend: Ryan David Jopek’s Mother Told Obama NOT To Wear Slain Son’s Bracelet
Keith Howington of Dehavelle.com is the source of this “Can You Top This?”shocker (HT Warner Todd Huston of NewsBusters).
The original audio interview involved is at Wisconsin Public Radio between Brian Jopek, father of slain soldier Ryan David Jopek, and “Route 51″ show host Glenn Moberg is here (scroll down to March 20, 2008 at link; go to about the 10:01 mark).
Here is the relevant portion of the transcript (this is beyond what Huston posted, as I believe it’s important for set-up), which begin after Mr. Jopek gives a bit of a defense of the mission:
Moberg: Let’s fast-forward to the present time. A few weeks ago, in the Wisconsin Primary election, there was a speech by presidential candidate Barack Obama, who was wearing Ryan’s, Ryan’s military bracelet, a bracelet that your wife Tracy and your daughter Jessica gave to him during an appearance in Green Bay.
Obama: We’re here, because of the mother that I met in Green Bay, Wisconsin, who gave me this bracelet that I’m wearing. Inscribed on it is the name of her son Ryan. He was 20 when he was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq. And next to his name it says, “He gave …. All gave some, but he gave all.” We are here because it is time to ask ourselves as a nation if we are serving Ryan and his compatriots, and all our young brave men and women as well as they are serving us. They need us to end this war, and bring them home, and give them the care and the benefits that they deserve. They need change, Houston.
Houston? As in “Houston, we have a problem?” Seems a bit flip, considering the speech topic.
Here’s how Moberg picked it up after the speech excerpt (bolds are mine):
Moberg: For better or worse, Brian, your son’s sacrifice has now become part of the political campaign. Can you tell us why Tracy wanted to give him the bracelet to the extent that you can, because I know that you personally do not want to become, or at least I imagine you don’t want to become, part of the political conversation here.
Brian Jopek: I want to make clear that Tracy and I are no longer married. She’s my ex-wife. Basically Glenn, from what I understood, in some e-mail exchanges with Tracy and from reading some of the stories that came out at the time, she just wanted to put a name, y’know, Mr. Obama to know Ryan’s name. That’s all. It was just something that she had intended, uh, to just hand to him. She wasn’t looking to turn it into a big media event, which of course is what it ended up being. She just wanted it to be something between Barack Obama and herself. And actually, because of some of the negative feedback she’s gotten on the Internet, you know Internet blogs, you know people accusing her of… or accusing Obama of trying to get votes doing it… and that sort of thing.
Moberg: Yeah -
Jopek: She has turned down any subsequent interviews with the media because she just didn’t want it to get turned into something that it wasn’t. She had told me in an email that she had asked, actually asked Mr. Obama to not wear the bracelet any more at any of his public appearances. Which I don’t think he’s…
Moberg: It has been a while since he’s brought it up.
Jopek: Right. But, the other night I was watching the news and he was on, uh, speaking somewhere and he was still wearing it on his right wrist. I could see it on his right wrist. So, that’s his own choice. I mean that’s something Barack Obama, that’s a choice that he continues to wear it despite Tracy asking him not to… Because she is a Barack Obama supporter and she didn’t want to do anything to sabotage his campaign, so, if he’s still wearing the bracelet then, uh, that of course is entirely up to him.
Moberg: Maybe there’s a difference between wearing it and making a point to bring it up in your speeches?
If there ever was a “difference,” Glenn Moberg, that difference has vanished. You are such a tool.
I ask this question sparingly, because it’s overused, but it realy fits this situation — Who in the bleep does Barack Obama think he is?
If what Brian Jopek says about his ex-wife’s wishes is true (does anyone seriously doubt it?), add Tracy Jopek to the list of those Obama and his radical backers have stepped on, and over, on the way to achieving their blind ambition.
Expect a full-court Obama press to have Tracy Jopek come out and say “Oh, it’s OK. Don’t believe those e-mails I sent my ex.” Expect the press to then pronounce the controversy “contrived” and “over.”
Horse manure. Obama’s cold, craven opportunism has been exposed, and no after-the-fact cleanup operation will ever change that.
Why should anyone believe that Obama has any intention of giving soldiers and veterans “the care and the benefits that they deserve” when he won’t even honor the simple request of a slain soldier’s mother?
______________________________________
UPDATE: Jason at Darke Blog — “Sick and shameful.”
UPDATE 2: The “after-the-fact cleanup operation” came in, but it changes nothing — “She DID ask him not to wear it.” The fact that she appreciated Obama’s debate mention is irrelevant. Again, who in the bleep does Obama think he is to deliberately go against a dead soldier’s mother’s stated request?
The contrived story is this one
BTW here is what the mother and sisters intention were for Ryans bracelet
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=720053
Comment by Me — September 28, 2008 @ 11:03 am
While I agree that Obama should have kept quiet instead of saying “me too, I also wear a bracelet” (and then not even knowing the soldier’s name, oy vey), there is a bit of he-said she-said between a divorced couple, which makes the whole episode open to misinterpretation. The mother may tell the father in an email something that she really didn’t do etc…
Comment by Citykin — September 28, 2008 @ 11:14 am
#2, I’m sure he can produce the e-mails, which would end the he-she claim.
#1, your link is non-responsive to the questions of whether she wanted him to wear it briefly, or even at all. She was honored that he did, but that does NOT mean she asked him to, or that she wanted him to continue doing so.
She also expressed a position opposite to O’s on the war, saying she wanted to pull out carefully and thoughtfully, while O has said that he doesn’t care if genocide takes place on our withdrawal — far from careful and thoughtful by any normal definition.
Comment by TBlumer — September 28, 2008 @ 12:34 pm
Hey, what a great and powerful ad to have some member of the Jopek family speka directly into the camera and tell this story? Problem is, McCain would never do it, and he is telling the 527s not to help him!
Does the guy even want to win? I think this is a farewell tour more than a campaign and Palin is his pick to lead the party after it totally implodes with this election.
Comment by Rob — September 28, 2008 @ 1:05 pm
[...] more at Bizzyblog, and Darke blog, and many other places on the internets. Tags: bracelet, gaffe, obama, [...]
Pingback by NixGuy.com | More On That Bracelet — September 28, 2008 @ 10:17 pm
There’s an update. The spin is running full tilt, but she did confirm my original story.
And, apparently, while she’s still an Obama supporter, no one in the family seems to have the same view of Iraq that Obama does. It’s only his “no soldier dies in vain” comment she approved of; she’s not aware of his previous “they’re dying in vain” speeches, other than the first one she heard which was the reason she told him not to use the bracelet in “speeches and debates”.
http://www.dehavelle.com/tags/bracelet/
===|==============/ Level Head
Comment by Level_Head — September 29, 2008 @ 3:47 pm
#6, thx. Meant to get to this, so your prod was useful. See Update 2
Comment by TBlumer — September 29, 2008 @ 4:00 pm
The mother of a Wisconsin soldier who died in Iraq says she was “ecstatic” when Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama mentioned during Friday’s debate the bracelet she gave him in honor of her son.
Tracy Jopek of Merrill told The Associated Press on Sunday she was honored that Obama remembered Sgt. Ryan David Jopek, who was killed in 2006 by a roadside bomb.
Jopek criticized Internet reports suggesting Obama, D-Ill., exploited her son for political purposes.
“I don’t understand how people can take that and turn it into some garbage on the Internet,” she said.
Jopek acknowledged e-mailing the Obama campaign in February asking that the presidential candidate not mention her son in speeches or debates. But she said Obama’s mention on Friday was appropriate because he was responding after Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee, said a soldier’s mother gave him a bracelet.
“I’ve got a bracelet, too, from Sergeant _ from the mother of Sergeant Ryan David Jopek, given to me in Green Bay,” Obama said during the debate. “She asked me, ‘Can you please make sure another mother is not going through what I’m going through?’ No U.S. soldier ever dies in vain because they’re carrying out the missions of their commander in chief. And we honor all the service that they’ve provided.”
Jopek says Obama’s comment rightfully suggested there’s more than one viewpoint on the war.
Comment by SandraM — September 30, 2008 @ 6:09 pm
#8, changes nothing. He broke a promise. Just because she says it’s okay now doesn’t change that.
Comment by TBlumer — September 30, 2008 @ 8:52 pm