1. The Republican Party in Kent County, Mich. releases an unbearably loooong B-grade web ad questioning Obama's patriotism ahead of his visit this evening to Grand Rapids. "Everyday, with more than 300 million separate voices, in thousands of communities large and small, we raise our families, celebrate our freedom, remember our heritage and strive to live up to our values," says the bombastic narrator as the color slowly, dramatically fades from a rippling American flag. "But Barack Obama sees a different America. From his elite point of view [insert 'bitter' comments, hamas 'endorsement' here]... So next time Barack Obama says he offers change you can believe in, ask him to show you his flag." Somewhere, a bald eagle is weeping.

2. Obama shows up in Missouri yesterday wearing--gasp!--a flag pin on his lapel, which he apparently donned at some point between Washington D.C. and Cape Girardeau:

3. Conservatives set their creaky "flip-flop" machinery in motion. "What gives?" writes Byron York of the National Review, noting that Obama also wore the pin in West Virginia and Michigan this week. "This is the man who said in 2007, 'The truth is that right after 9/11 I had a pin. 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. I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest.' What has changed?"

Asked that very same question yesterday in Missouri, Obama said, "Sometimes I wear it, sometimes I don't"--sort of like John McCain. But something tells us that in this case "sometimes" means either "every day between now and the fourth of November" or "never again."

UPDATE, May 15: Top Obama strategist David Axelrod on Obama wearing the flag pin, to Forbes.com: "I think he'll be doing more of that." Mystery solved.