Obama Took a Potty Break During the Pledge of Allegiance Once (and Several Other Important Issues ABC Missed)

Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos did an outstanding job questioning Senator Obama during the PA debate. But even though they spent the first hour on many substantive issues--such as Obama's pastor's comments--they missed several key points that voters deserve to know.

Amongst them are these:

Obama took a potty break once in first grade during the Pledge of Allegiance.

In kindergarten Obama finger-painted an American flag with the incorrect number of stars.

Obama's second grade teacher was quoted as saying "I think Switzerland is cleaner than America" and yet Obama still describes her as a "good teacher."

The pilot of Obama's charted campaign plane was at a baseball game three years ago and forgot the words to the Star Spangled Banner and yet Obama has refused to distance himself from him.

Obama's fourth cousin was accused of shoplifting a pack of gum seven years ago, and yet Obama was photographed hugging him at a family reunion just four years ago.

Asked to respond to these new concerns Hillary Clinton remarked--

"The media continues to give Obama a free ride. How else can you explain that he isn't having to explain this part of his public record? By the time I was in first grade I not only knew the correct number of stars on our precious flag I had sewn hundreds of flags with my father and mother to hand out to blind cancer patients in Altoona, PA on the Fourth of July. How can the people of Pennsylvania feel comfortable with any candidate who would think that a bodily function is more important than the Pledge? I think Obama shows disdain for working people who never go to the bathroom during patriotic moments. I once held it for 48 hours just because I was thinking about our brave war dead from Western Pennsylvania. And we all might have relatives with a past. But Obama has known about his cousin's key role in organized crime and done nothing about it! This so-called cousin didn't just steal a pack of gum, there were many packs taken by his friends. This is an insult to all those hard working ordinary law-abiding Americans in Philadelphia who play by the rules and that I've spent thirty-five years fighting for ever since I was born near where they live and loved it. And I want you to know that Bill and I once actually canceled a state visit by the pope because we remembered that I had inadvertently picked up a mint at a hotel lobby in Pittsburgh--one of 80 countries I've visited while under fire--and when we got back to the White House it occurred to me that I hadn't paid for it so we flew all the way back to return it. It turned out the mint was free, but I live by an inner code and got that code from the gun owners of Western Pennsylvania when my dad took me bowling--which I do well, by the way, since it is a really American thing to do--to learn right and wrong from people who don't "cling" to religion but love God, not because they are "bitter" but because they love America. You all in the media have sifted my record for 30 years now, it's really time you look harder at Obama! What else did his teachers do?"

Frank Schaeffer is a writer and author of "Crazy For God: How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back"