October 2007:

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, D-Ill., said he will no longer wear an American flag lapel pin because it has become a substitute for “true patriotism” since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

He commented on the pin in a television interview Wednesday and then again on Thursday at a campaign appearance in Independence, Iowa.

“My attitude is that I’m less concerned about what you’re wearing on your lapel than what’s in your heart,” he told the campaign crowd Thursday. “You show your patriotism by how you treat your fellow Americans, especially those who serve. You show your patriotism by being true to our values and ideals. That’s what we have to lead with is our values and our ideals.”

He had been asked about the pin Wednesday in an interview with KCRG-TV in Cedar Rapids.

“The truth is that right after 9/11 I had a pin,” Obama said. “Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security.”

Today:

US President Barack Obama puts on a ribbon reading “We Remember” given to him by a family member of one of the victims aboard United flight 93 on September 11, 2011 after laying a wreath at the Wall of Names at the newly dedicated Flight 93 memorial on the site wherethe plane crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. (AFP/NICHOLAS KAMM)