What exactly IS a "gound"?

I grew up in small town America--the "real" America, if you will. I was in high school when the first Gulf War broke out and can remember when, during the pregame of a basketball game (this was Indiana, so basketball's HUGE) the town unfurled an immense flag. It was drilled into the kids not to let it touch the ground because, well, it was the American flag.

So even though I'm a big flaming liberal these days, I still tend to respect the flag--not in the "you can't burn it!" kind of way, either. So I get a touch angry when I see people who claim to be "better" Americans than the rest of us doing something like this, something they would just scream about if it happened at a rally for Obama or Clinton or Biden or Pelosi.

Here's hoping that new Pew Poll (53-39!!!) is a sign of things to come.

Please don't tell me I am the only person that doesn't see this a that big of a deal.

It's not like this was an intentional slight to American on the part of the McCain compaign, or the crew in charge or breaking down after the event. Unless they stomped on the flag while giving all of Amercian the finger after the camera man stopped filming, let it go... it was an accident. Shit happens.

Whatever, if we don't care about flag-burning (or -desecrating) when lefties do it, we can't pretend to be offended when righties do it. I don't give a shit, there are bigger reasons to be angry at these people than their legal political expressions.

@3 & 4 - Let me spell this out for you since you seem a little slow on the up take.

The point of all of this is is that if this had happened at an Obama rally we would be hearing about it for days and days on end. All the right wing yahoos would be jumping up and down and screaming about of how, like the flag pin issue, that this was proof that Obama and those at his rally were un-american.

Hey, @2. =) I'm from Indiana as well - my flag protocol comes from Girl Scout days. I still won't let the flag touch the ground and it makes me cross when people fly shredded old flags.

Now that said, I don't think people should not be able to burn or desecrate the flag - but I also feel that if anyone's going to be holier-than-thou patriotic then they better damn well follow the flag code.

@6--Way to represent! I'm from New Castle with roots in Hammond and Hamilton County.

It's gratifying to see liberals standing up for flag etiquette, for once.

As another flaming, 1st-amendment loving liberal who still does his best to respect the flag and follow the code, this whole episode points to the bigger problem with over the top, jingoistic flag displays.

I don't care much for flag lapel pins, flag bumper stickers, flag decorations and above all, huge-ass flags used as nothing more than a prop at a campaign event or football pregame show. Really, there was no other way to take down that flag except to bring in a genie lift and drop the whole thing to the ground.

What's wrong with designing other scenery for your event, and letting the flag simply be a flag?

Shit, just call me Andy Rooney.

Flag fetishism is retarded. This video is a perfect example of why it's stupid to get all mystic and supernatural about a piece of cloth. That big flag is expensive -- are they just going to replace it? Are they supposed to hire 20 people to hold it off the ground and fold it in the magic flag triangle? What a waste that would be. We should complement McCain for ignoring this silly ginned-up flag etiquette. If only more would follow his example.

I agree with you, #10 - let's make a Very Public Complement to JM.

Should do his campaign a world of good.