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Warren, Michigan: It showed up on Monday, right there on his lapel, as he addressed veterans in West Virginia: a flag pin.
There it was again on Tuesday, in Missouri, as he spoke to workers at a garment factory.
And it was there on Wednesday as he toured a Chrysler plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan, near here in the Detroit suburbs.
Seven months ago, Senator Barack Obama said he did not feel compelled to wear a flag pin, saying he would prove his patriotism in deed, not apparel.
What gives?
Was it the woman in Indiana who pulled him aside, gently suggesting that he wear one?
Was it part of a larger embrace of all those things presidential candidates simply have to do on a campaign, along with eating cheese steaks in Philadelphia or chugging Miller in Milwaukee?
Or was it in reaction to continued questions like the one this week from a local reporter in South Charleston, West Virginia, who asked how Obama could attract "blue-collar, white voters in this state", adding, "They think you are un-American."
"Sometimes I wear it, sometimes I don't," Obama said when he was asked about the pin on Monday, the first day he had donned it since a veteran handed him one in April in Pennsylvania. But Obama is now turning his attention to white, working-class voters whose support has been elusive in recent primaries.
E-mail campaigns
Obama has been the target of e-mail campaigns reporting that he is Muslim (though he is Christian) and questioning his stand on flag pins, but he is not alone in sporting a bare lapel. Sen Hillary Clinton, his Democratic competitor, and Sen John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, do not always wear them.
But it was Obama's decision not to regularly wear the pin that drew attention when, on October 3 - eight months into his campaign - a television reporter in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, asked why he had no flag pin on his lapel. The controversy went away, until he started winning nominating contests. Then it dogged him, in Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania and Indiana.
On his plane on Wednesday, Obama called it a "phony issue" as he was not opposed to flag pins. "It was a commentary on our politicians and folks in Washington who sometimes are very good about saluting our soldiers when they come home," he said, "but then don't follow up with budgets that make sure they're getting treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder."
Recently in Indiana, he was asked about the pin at back-to-back events.
Betty McManama, 87, a retiree from Columbus City, Indiana, suggested that affixing a flag pin to his lapel might be a wise idea. "I think it would be nice if you did," McManama said. "It sure wouldn't cost you much...."
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