The public will look at him differently now when he speaks, can't go back to be the "old" Obama. He has to get more specific now. Not just "hope" and "change" but "Marx" and "Mohammed"...
Posted on 04/12/2008 11:49:02 AM PDT by LJayne
In their attempts to spin away from Barack Obama’s stunningly stupid remarks at a San Francisco fundraiser last weekend, Democrats and the Obama campaign have focused on only the least objectionable portion of the comment as a means to frame the national discussion. In a single sentence where Obama called small-town Midwestern voters overly religious bigots who cling to their guns out of frustration with George Bush, the Democrats have decided to build their defense on “bitter”. Here’s the original remark:
And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
And here’s the pushback, courtesy of Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post, who spoke with two Democratic consultants:
Carter Eskew, Democratic media consultant: “It will be a problem because it reinforces an image of aloofness and elitism. It’s a verbal gutter ball–reinforcing the visual one. I say ‘may,’ because the first half of the quote has merit and Obama might be able to–as he did with Wright–take it to another place with at least some success.” ….
John Anzalone, Democratic pollster: “I grew up in a blue collar environment. ‘Bitter’ was a more-than-appropriate description of blue collar families, especially middle-aged men who were living the American dream and content on their union wages in manufacturing who then faced a hopeless future. … I think this whole line of attack by Clinton and McCain is [BS] and contrived. What do they know about economic anxiety. You think families in the Rustbelt care about the nuance of an adjective when they are hurting?”
Bitterness, however, wasn’t the objectionable part of the statement. Hillary Clinton chose to chase that particular rabbit around the track, and some of the media followed, although not all. Obama’s camp seized on that and has tried adopting bitterness as its strategy, claiming that small-town voters are right to be bitter about an economic expansion that has created the lowest unemployment we have had in any 25-year period of this nation’s industrial history.
But that’s intellectually dishonest. Let’s break this statement into its component insults:
* “[T]hey cling to guns…” Cling to guns? Americans have “clung” to guns since the founding of the Republic. It’s such a core value to this nation that its founders placed it second on the Bill of Rights, right after freedom of speech and religion. Speaking of which … * “or [they cling to] religion …” People don’t become religious because the economy hits a few bumps in the road. Obama may have chosen his religion based on politics, but most people follow a religion out of a deeper sense of spirituality. I can’t think of a more condescending and contemptuous analysis of religious dedication than this statement. * “or [they cling to] antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment…” Small-town voters are bigots and xenophobes; there’s no other way to read the first part of this statement. The second part, about them being “anti-immigrant”, is a non-sequitur. They may be anti-illegal immigrant, but that’s a far different issue. Obama offers no proof that small-town voters are xenophobes, but the Frisco audience didn’t demand any, either. It’s part of their own bigotry that makes them see middle America in those terms. * “or [they cling to] anti-trade sentiment …” And this is just jaw-droppingly hypocritical. This comes from the same candidate who opposes the Colombian free-trade agreement and wants to throw NAFTA out the window. Who’s clinging to anti-trade sentiment? Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Big Labor.
It would be difficult to be any more condescending or insulting in so many ways to so many voters in a single sentence. It reveals a deeply elitist and shockingly callow candidate. It’s the “Let them eat cake” of 2008.
Watch the media and the Democrats over the next few days. They want to drink deeply the bitter dregs and try to divert attention from the truly objectionable portions of Obama’s statement. Get your e-mails ready to remind them of the rest of Obama’s broadside against middle America.
“That ought to hold the little bastards” - rumored gaffe from a children’s tv host.
Oh, don’t worry - he’ll make more. He has a strong base of supporters who believe this is the truth and applaud him for saying so. Wouldn’t you like to have them as neighbors (not)?
I love his every word.
Obama’s “changes” are slowly but most certainly slitting his own racist throat.
I remain a typical white person, clinging to my guns and religion.
I certainly don’t put my faith in government to solve my problems.
Well, you know what they say...what's down in the well will come up in the bucket...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Elitist—He was addressing a bunch of SF millionaires and billionaires—what could be more elitist? See:
http://www.zombietime.com/obama_visits_billionaires_row/
This little riff of his was an overtly ideological statement and should be understood as such. Clearly, Obama has no idea what small-town America is really like, and he really doesn't understand the American people very well. However, never having been in a small town for longer than it takes to give a campaign speech does not himder him fom espousing his marxist view of the downtrodden dispirited and angry proletariat. That is what this diatribe was all about--Obama's view that America is a racist, sexist, pre-revolutionary capitalist state that oppresses its workers. In his twisted nightmare view of reality, we are all just one inspiring speech short of overturning capitalism and embracing a socialist state--with him as the MMFIC.
A certain song just popped into my head:
The preacher man says it’s the end of time
And the Mississippi River, she’s a-goin’ dry...
The interest is up and the stock market’s down
And you only get mugged if you go downtown...
I live back in the woods, you see,
My woman and the kids and the dogs and me...
I got a shotgun, a rifle, and a four-wheel drive
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive...
I can plow a field all day long,
I can catch catfish from dusk till dawn...
Make our own whiskey and our own smoke, too,
Ain’t too many things these old boys can’t do...
We grow good old tomatoes and homemade wine,
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive...
Because you can’t starve us out and you can’t make us run
‘Cause we’re them old boys raised on shotguns...
We say grace, and we say ma’am,
If you ain’t into that, we don’t give a damn...
We came from the West Virginia coal mines
And the Rocky Mountains, and the Western skies...
And we can skin a buck, we can run a trout line
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive...
I had a good friend in New York City,
He never called me by my name, just hillbilly...
My grandpa taught me how to live off the land,
And his taught him to be a businessman...
He used to send me pictures of the Broadway nights,
And I’d send him some homemade wine...
But he was killed by a man with a switchblade knife,
For forty-three dollars, my friend lost his life...
I’d love to spit some Beech-Nut in that dude’s eye
As I shoot him with my old forty-five
‘Cause a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive...
Because you can’t starve us out and you can’t make us run
‘Cause we’re them old boys raised on shotguns...
We say grace, and we say ma’am,
If you ain’t into that, we don’t give a damn...
We’re from North California and South Alabam’,
And little towns all around this land...
And we can skin a buck, we can run a trout line,
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive
A country boy can survive
Country folks can survive...
Hint to BO, ya know us hillbilly redneck types might not have the resources that an Ivy League education provides but we can understand English.
There are bitter people but to characterize them as those who go to church and bear arms is ELITIST and music to the ears of those maxed out SF liberal contributors. Barry was just tickling the ears of his fat cat donors, how was he to know he would get outed by a “citizen journalist” for the Huffington Post?
I was just at the DUmmie playground (only for a couple of minutes, then I had to go throw up) where there is post after post lauding his BRILLIANCE as if this whole entire episode was an intended campaign move!
OBAMA THE UNITER? Surely you jest (sarcasm..off)!
the word “cling” suggests a desperateness....hopelessness.
He is saying Pennsylvanians are hopeless and desperate enough to cling to these things which they would not if they only had jobs.
If they would just turn to him - they could quit clinging to religion and guns and concentrate on more noble things...like killing babies.
LOL!
I was a little kid when that shark episode was being hyped.
I bought into the hype. I was fascinated by the Fonz attempting something so incredibly dangerous!
I do remember being a little disappointed by how....unexciting, the actual jump was.
“If he were white”
He is as much white as he is black.
Raised by typical whites - so I guess you could argue he is more white than black.
He’s embarassed to be white, sounds like many a white liberal, yep.
The public will look at him differently now when he speaks, can't go back to be the "old" Obama. He has to get more specific now. Not just "hope" and "change" but "Marx" and "Mohammed"...
That is why I don’t like Liberals, sort of. They all vote, or give speeches on empathy whilest never even experiencing or being in that procedure. Empathy is OK but not as a ruling grid because sometimes it makes you think that you know what the people want.
That is how a Democrat votes, not on compassion or on sympathy or charity but empathy, that somewhere(and you might not know or the person doesn’t exist) somebody is hurting and you must vote to give them the medicine.
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