Obama, Now on the Defensive, Calls ‘Bitter’ Words Ill-Chosen

NY Times ^ | April 13, 2008 | KATHARINE Q. SEELYE and JEFF ZELENY

[neverdem]

Senator Barack Obama fought back Saturday against accusations from his rivals that he had displayed a profound misunderstanding of small-town values, in a flare-up that left him on the defensive before a series of primaries that could test his ability to win over white voters in economically distressed communities.

For a second day, Mr. Obama sought to explain his remarks at a recent San Francisco fund-raiser that small-town Pennsylvania voters, bitter over their economic circumstances, “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them” as a way to explain their frustrations.

Acknowledging Saturday that “I didn’t say it as well as I should have,” he explained his remarks by focusing on his characterization of those voters’ economic woes. He meant, he said, that voters in places that had been losing jobs for years expressed their anxiety at the polls by focusing on cultural and social issues like gun laws and immigration.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton activated her entire campaign apparatus to portray Mr. Obama’s remarks as reflective of an elitist view of faith and community. His comments, she said, were “not reflective of the values and beliefs of Americans.”

Mrs. Clinton suggested that Mr. Obama saw religious commitment, hunting and concern about immigration as emotional responses to economic strain rather than as deeply embedded values.

“I grew up in a church-going family, a family that believed in the importance of living out and expressing our faith,” she said at a rally in Indianapolis. “The people of faith I know don’t ‘cling to’ religion because they’re bitter. People embrace faith not because they are materially poor, but because they are spiritually rich.”...

--snip--

“It could mean he’s rendered himself unelectable,” Mr. Saunders said. “This is a perfect example of why Democrats lose elections.”

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

His greater problem is that many more people understand his core beliefs.

[BunnySlippers]

According to DU, Obama is going duck hunting in PA after church with his grandmother!!!

[oldenuff2no]

All those fly over states with those little towns elect our presidents. The electoral college is still alive and well. This candidate is terminal.

[goldstategop]

Cultural issues ARE important to Americans. Obama and the Left have never understood it and never will. Its more than just some ill chosen words. Its the Left's worldview about cultural issues like patriotism, faith in God and guns in the household. Which has nothing to do with people's pocketbooks.

"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

[billorites]

"It's not surprising then they get bitter. They cling to guns, or religion, or antipathy to people who aren't like them, just like my cracker Grandma."

[infantrywhooah]

You can’t unring the bell you racist idiot. You dropped your guard and let your true feelings spew out and now you have to stand in the pile of crap you laid for at your feet.

I find it so funny that politicians have to spend so much time backpeddling every time they open their pieholes. “Oh I didn’t mean it that way....” “I was misquoted....” “I used a bad choice of words, what I really wanted to say was....”

[sageb1]

I think you're right. See the following:

Terrorist Fundraisers 4 Obama

[Army Air Corps]

He says that he just didn’t use the right words. So, this is the product of an education from Columbia and Harvard? Not much of an endorsement for the education that one receives from those institutions.

[TChad]

[flowerplough]

“ ...or antipathy to people who aren’t like them”?

Come to think of it, Obama and his latte lib donors, the ones who asked for tips and pointers on how to handle us flyover Pennsylvania rednecks, aren’t much like me, hayna? Or no?

[neverdem]

Front page on the Sunday NY Times!

[goldstategop]

How did he mean to describe the Little People? Obama comes from the Leona Helmsley School Of Life.

"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

[Enchante]

"“They’re going to say that we’re weak on national security,” Mr. Bayh said, “that we’re a bunch of high taxers and spenders, and out here in the middle of the country we don’t understand people’s values."

Uh, yup, that's called "speak truth about Demagogues" -- why is it that the Demagogues are always desperate to present a false front to the public? Oh, that's right, b/c no Demagogue would get elected outside of the bluest metro areas if people really knew what the candidate stood for.

[goldstategop]

Liberals hate conservatives. Just head over to DU to get a look at all the venom they spew there at people who are not like us.

"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

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

“A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity.” -— (Sigmund Freud, General Introduction to Psychoanalysis, 1952)

[Spok]

Not ill-chosen; revealing.

[goldstategop]

Of course they are. That's who liberals are. Its a shame they get so defensive about telling the truth. Why not come out and say it? I loathe Jeremiah Wright but he doesn't weasel around his core beliefs. Would that liberals in general were just as honest.

"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

[goodnesswins]

KEEP Talkin’ Obama.....please....keep talkin’

[CharlesWayneCT]

He meant, he said, that voters in places that had been losing jobs for years expressed their anxiety at the polls by focusing on cultural and social issues like gun laws and immigration.

It seems that he meant exactly what we thought -- and that is the problem. Social issues are not an afterthought for people who are anxious about the "real world".