Talking about Obama and his flag pin is a distraction. Talking about George Allen’s High School Confederate flag pin was somehow “the biggest news”:

MATTHEWS: That’s going to haunt that guy. That’s Republican Senator George Allen of Virginia calling a rival campaign worker a macaca. Here to assess the damage is The Washington Times’ John McCaslin and The New Republic’s Ryan Lizza. Ryan Lizza, you broke some stories before about George Allen. What were they? LIZZA: The biggest news in this piece I wrote was this spring was that — his relationship with the Confederate flag. I mean, the strangest thing is it goes all the way back to high school. He wore a Confederate flag lapel pin in his high school picture. MATTHEWS: Does this fit? LIZZA: So it’s a pattern here. MATTHEWS: What’s the pattern? LIZZA: The pattern is insensitivity on race and intolerance and a guy that just doesn’t really get it.