Man Disrupts Obama With Demand For Pledge Of Allegiance

August, 05, 2008 in US

By: Caren Bohan - Reuters
IMAGE Jae C Hong/AP
   

21:41:55

BEREA, Ohio - A Barack Obama event in Ohio on energy issues was disrupted on Tuesday by a man from the press area who called on the crowd to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Noticing a commotion across the room just after he started  speaking, the Democratic presidential candidate said, “What’s everyone yelling about?”

A man with photography equipment asked why no one had said the Pledge of Allegiance.

“We can do the pledge,” Obama said, leading the audience of 2,700 people in a recitation of it.

“We usually do an invocation and a pledge before we start so I don’t know what happened but I’m glad you reminded us,” the Illinois senator said afterward.

A spokeswoman said the early program of many of Obama’s events often includes a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

The man who spoke from the press platform declined to give his affiliation when asked about it by reporters and said only that he was “John Q. Public.”

Courtesy of Reuters