On the GOP candidate for governor who refuses to salute the American flag
Talking Points Memo has identified the weekend attempt by Republican candidate Ray McBerry to defend himself from smears as hilariously inept.
The description is probably apt. The states’ rights candidate violated the first rule of an explanation – never,ever actually repeat the charges made against you. But McBerry ignored that rule, and declared that he never hit on his female campaign manager, and he never acted improperly toward underaged girls.
GOP candidate Ray McBerry
See this Sunday post for details.
But McBerry may have done even more damage, to his own minor candidacy and to the campaigns of the six other candidates in the Republican field.
Throughout the 2008 presidential campaign, the Internet was swamped with rumors that Barack Obama refused to salute the American flag. Republicans needled the Democrat for his refusal to wear a flag as a lapel pin. Disgraceful, members of the GOP tsked.
But McBerry has now confessed – in his very own words – that he refuses to salute the U.S. flag with 50 stars. This is no rumor. The candidate says that some people think:
…that I am somehow unpatriotic because, as a Georgian who cherishes the constitutional Republic given to us by our Founding Fathers and wishes to see it restored, I choose to salute the Georgia flag and the original Betsy Ross American flag instead of the current federal flag which represents the present unconstitutional leviathan in Washington.
Whatever his reasons, this is a fellow who has shared the stage – at one time or another – with all six other Republican candidates for governor. And he says he doesn’t salute the American flag.
If I were John Oxendine, Karen Handel, Nathan Deal, Eric Johnson, Austin Scott or Jeff Chapman, that would worry me a great deal.
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20 comments Add your comment
Marlboro Man
March 15th, 2010
1:43 pm
Loony Toons.
potstirrer
March 15th, 2010
1:59 pm
Once AGAIN the truth IS stranger than fiction!!
Chaun
March 15th, 2010
2:20 pm
I wonder if they will ask him for a copy of his birth certificate as well? Just a thought.
rightofcenter
March 15th, 2010
2:23 pm
Jim, please enlighten us as to why this should bother any of the other candidates – they are not responsible for him or his campaign, anymore than you are. Did it concern the other Democrats running for president to share a stage with loonytoon Dennis Kucinivich?
honest abe was a republican
March 15th, 2010
3:03 pm
of course they should ask him to show his ORIGINAL birth certificate…him, and all other politicians, Dem or Repub…including the President. which, on a serious note, has he(Obama) ever presented his original? just wondering, some say he has, some say he hasn’t…Obama doesn’t say the pledge of alligiance either, does he? don’t think he’s been seen in church, that’s why he took a vacation at Christmas time and didn’t want to answer any questions about what his children recieved under the tree,,’cause he doesn’t celebrate Christmas…
McBerry’s got my vote,,simply because that’s some real “Change”…unlike what we heard 2 years ago..
You Asked
March 15th, 2010
3:04 pm
Wait until he hears about the Louisiana and Gadston purchases. He’s gonna flip out!
Billy Bob
March 15th, 2010
3:21 pm
Of all Republicans there are a small percentage who have an ideology similar to McBerry. Out of all Republican activists, the percentage is greater, but still relatively small. Generally, at the state level, these folks make no real difference, particularly when their candidate lacks experience and makes stupid mistakes like this. At the local level, i.e., state house and senate, school board, etc., these extremists can make a big difference. Ask Bobby Franklin (R-Marietta), Mike Coan (R-Lawrenceville), ad nausuem, who elected them for the past dozen years. McBerry will fade into the past, but before he does he be trotted out by Democrats as the poster boy for Republicans in general, despite their knowledge that he represents a small percentage of extremists. That’s politics; a nasty business reflecting the baser instincts of makind. If McBerry was a loyal Republican, with less ego, he’d drop out; but he’s neither. He’s a RINO with an ego with no place to go.
wondering
March 15th, 2010
3:25 pm
Seriously, why do we have political parties, and why does the process favor only having two?
Bubba
March 15th, 2010
3:31 pm
Gee, this freak show is fun!
Dean N
March 15th, 2010
3:46 pm
I gonna head back north, if this idiot is elected. I bet he’d salute a swastica.
Aaron Burr V. Mexico
March 15th, 2010
4:03 pm
Thus proving once again that Lincoln’s mistake was not simply burning the South to the ground and turning it into the worlds largest national park.
Reverand Write
March 15th, 2010
4:08 pm
Honest Abe, are you that stupid? The president went to my church for 20 years. Of course he’s a Christian and yes he submitted his birth certificate. Stop watching so much Fox
There goes another one
March 15th, 2010
5:31 pm
@wondering -
Because our voting system is winner-take-all, which promotes the two party system. Democrats are still bitter today because Ralph Nader entered the 2000 Presidential race, which drew Democratic votes away from Al Gore. The end result is that there is nothing to be gained and everything to lose if enough of a faction splinters from a party. It pretty much guarantees that the other party will win.
Proportional representation voting systems encourage multiple parties and is the most widely used system in the world.
oldfart
March 15th, 2010
6:09 pm
Can the parties not control who gets to run in their primaries? I know J.B. Stoner ran as a Democrat and that had to be an embarrassment to them. Seems if they are that far out on the fringe and not allied with the party platform that they should have to run as an independent.
John K
March 16th, 2010
8:43 am
I think honest abe went to snopes to cut and paste all the lunatic rumors about Obama.
As for this guy, well, Georgia never ceases to amaze.
deegee
March 16th, 2010
2:58 pm
On the weekends he probably dresses up in some sort of historical garb and goes out to the woods with a bunch of dorks and shoots antique rifles.
Warbler
March 16th, 2010
4:37 pm
No candidate is perfect for everyone. Although Mr. Galloway thinks McBerry is “hilariously inept” (why is this funny to you?), Jim shows that he is just a political animal who revels at the fight, but fails to understand the courage and dedication to the truth necessary to take an unusual stand like this. Most here will prefer to elect a POLITICIAN (they are lying if their lips are moving) who says what they want to here, insincere or not. Go ahead, vote for the usual piece of crap. Keep the existing system in place, keep losing liberty, make sure the corrupt machine has sufficient grease, and keep writing columns about people you don’t understand because they are cast from a superior mold and refuse to lie about themselves to their supporters.
Whether or not his stance is popular, this MAN looks you in the eye and tells the truth. You know up front what you are getting. The intelligent question is, does Ray McBerry represent more of what is conservative and constitutional, or less? If the answer is the former, is the difference significant as far as job requirements, or just not aesthetically pleasing. Sadly, in this business, and for most of you, style IS more important than substance.
Georgia Native
March 16th, 2010
6:54 pm
Let the smearing tactics begin. Why does a Georgia Governor have to pledge alegiance to the American Flag. He said he would pledge alegiance to the Betsy Ross flag. I’ll bet half of you out there don’t even know what that is. I don’t think Jim Galloway is really a conservative, the right calls people like him a neo-con. That’s someone that pretends to be conservative because it benefits him.
Georgia Native
March 16th, 2010
7:22 pm
Did you know that the author of the Pledge was one Francis Bellamy, a defrocked Baptist minister from Boston who identified himself as a Christian Socialist and who preached in his pulpit that “Jesus was a socialist.”
GAisOK
March 16th, 2010
9:17 pm
McBerry probably said too much. But it doesn’t detract from his underlying qualification for the office of Governor. If you find yourself entertained by this then you’re probably not all that serious of a journalist, Galloway. How about judging him on the merits?