Jopek Family Disagrees on the Use of the Braclet

Yesterday I posted on how Obama mentioned the braclet given to him the Jopek family against the wishes of the family--who didn't want to make their son into an "big deal". There's a correction to that story that needs to be mentioned.

It would appear that the family isn't in agreement on incident. The father clearly stated his opinions in the interview text quoted in the previous post. In the NewsBuster story it was noted that the mother did not want to come forward as she was an Obama supporter and didn't want to negatively affect his campaign.

She has now stepped forward and issued this statement:

His response in the debate was exactly that, a response, after John McCain put it out there first,” she said. “I think it was an appropriate response — he was just saying there’s another side to the story, there’s two different viewpoints.

Ed Morrissey adds:

Ms. Jopek also said her ex-husband mischaracterized her viewpoint during his interview on a Wisconsin public radio talk show. She asked Obama to stop talking about the bracelet out of respect for the feelings of other Gold Star families who still support the war. She was afraid the issue would get exploited by anti-war groups, and apparently she doesn’t want to become the next Cindy Sheehan. Ryan’s father Brian may feel differently about his son’s sacrifice (Brian is currently stationed in Guantanamo Bay), but Brian Jopek didn’t give Obama the bracelet.

We can criticize Obama for his delivery and for forgetting Jopek’s name in that moment of the debate, but Obama didn’t disrespect Tracy Jopek’s wishes.

I still think it is sort of odd for Obama to pick this family as the cornerstone of his example. But on the other hand we've already talked about the Jopek family more than they both wanted, so it is best to let the issue drop, at this point.