Politicians and TV heads sometimes tease each other for wearing or, more often, for NOT wearing flag pins. Obama was the target of such a tease in the recent ABC-sponsored debate. The way I see this most important issue is like this: if the flag pin is not a flag then, it doesn't matter if someone wears one or not because it's just an ornament, like Mad Albright's huge lapel spiders. They were not in indicator of her patriotism, they were just kitsch.
If the flag pins are not flag, then they are (probably) Chinese-made kitsch.
If the flag pins ARE flags, then, should their wearers be oh-so-careful handling them and disposing them? For example, they should never touch the ground - there is such a regulation, I heard. Then, once worn out, they should be ceremonially burned or given away to the special Marine Corps flag destruction unit.
If the flag pins are flags, then so are all apparel items, including underwear and possibly certain specialty condoms that have the image of the flag on them. Our brave police forces should make sure that all flag underwear is either burned or properly disposed of by the Marine Corps flag disposal unit.
In my view, flag pins are not flags. They are kitsch. An indication that they are so was Lou Dobbs expressing flag pin size envy the other night the fact that some other CNN TV head had a flag pin that was bigger than his.