Sound Off: Was Tim Kaine's Blue Star Service Pin Too Small?

The North Carolina Republican Party used Twitter (@NCGOP) to nail Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine for wearing a Honduras flag lapel pin during his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention:

@timkaine wears a Honduras flag pin on his jacket but no American flag. Shameful.

Except Senator Kaine was wearing a Blue Star Service pin, often worn by family members when a relation is serving in the U.S. military during armed conflict. Kaine’s son, Nat, is serving in the U.S. Marines with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, and is about to deploy to Eastern Europe with the Marine Corps' Black Sea Rotational Force.

First Lt. Nathaniel Kaine, left, a Marine infantry officer and son of Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential pick, hands a Tanzanian park ranger a certificate of appreciation during a graduation ceremony in Matambwe, Tanzania, in 2015. (Photo: Cpl. Lucas Hopkins/Marine Corps)

Ben Amey, a reporter for WNYT-TV in Albany, NY pointed out what the pin meant and then the @NCGOP deleted their original tweet. Senator Kaine spent a year as a missionary in Honduras during his college years. Here's what the Honduran flag (adopted in 1866) looks like:

And here's a larger version of the Blue Star Service pin:

Obviously, they both feature blue stars.

Here's the question: did Senator Kaine court controversy by wearing such a small pin? Should he have explained himself during the speech? Or it is frustrating that American political tweeters don't know what a Blue Star pin means? Sound off!