Posted on 04/12/2008 9:09:39 PM PDT by 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.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Hoist meet Petard
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I'm thinking the opposite. If we are going to have civil disturbances like Recreate '68, let the donkeys get rid of Obama at their Convention. Lets see how their most loyal voting block deals with it in November.
Let Hillary promote mandatory health insurance. It's been a flop in MA.
“I don’t think he’s demeaning religion or guns,” Mr. Gray said. “He’s saying the use of those issues as wedge issues plays on the bitterness that people have and diverts attention from the real economic issues, like the disparity between the wage earner and the rich.”
Dems and a good portion of our own lazy pubs think everyone is jealous of the so called "rich". They are all underprivileged in my small town opinion. I truly feel sorry for everyone of them. They will never be satisfied.
Truth is people think the country is headed in the wrong direction because they don't want to become dependents of the corrupted state. Dems can never tell the truth it seems. They see the whole world from their own empty hole of misery and unhappiness.
Thanks for the link.
Oh my...are you on his campaign staff? This was pure spin, so pure and full of bull that even the MSM isn’t goign to accept it. He’s basically lying about what he meant; any fool can see that.
To alienate small town residents, the religious, gun owners and people against illegal immigration in such a short space of time is remarkable.
Obama gave this speech in Marin county. MARIN COUNTY! Barbra Boxer country, Where trust fund hippies drive their Prius down to the organic food outlet for tofu and couscous. He knew what he was saying and he knew who he was saying it to.
I don't think so. The MSM has been apologizing for Sen. Obama throughout the campaign thus far. They don't want him to apologize for himself.
Obama described Rev. Wright as his mentor, and BHO sat through 20 years of Wright's hate speech. Now, we've learn what Sen. Obama thinks of Americans living in small-and medium-sized communities.
Ok, that got a chuckle out of me... even at this late hour...
If Obama makes it to the general election, we are in trouble. If he wins the presidency, we will have riots. If he loses, we will have riots. Yes, I am a pessimist on this point. If I sound racist, well, I know I am not. I just know how this will work.Scares me to death. Nevermind if he were to win and destroy us from within.
Well, I grew up in a small town, and I'm sittin' here reading my Bible to see how I can have some antipathy t'wards those not like me, and cleanin' my gun, and don't know very good howta express myself, but he shure sounds like the Rev. Wright.
Does anyone know what that logo on Obama’s posters mean..that circle with the white ball and red and white stripes?
was the remark captured on audio tape?
videotape?
Now he’s thrown his religion under the bus.
He forgot about small town people visibly expressing their frustration by holding their hand over their heart during the Pledge or the National Anthem.
—he’s dead-—
don’t count the chicks until he is dead and buried for good—what a clown to say this stuff in Pa (at least the parts outside of Philthy Philly and stupid Pittsburgh)-—I pray you are right
Nice spin, but I'm not buying it. Here's the full transcript of the April 6th fundraiser in San Francisco. You decide for yourself if he was correlating such behavior with the voting booth.
Personally I think the transcript shows a very disjointed mind, and he comes accross as a ditz to be perfectly honest.
source:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama-no-surprise-that-ha_b_96188.html
So, it depends on where you are, but I think it's fair to say that the places where we are going to have to do the most work are the places where people feel most cynical about government. The people are mis-appre...I think they're misunderstanding why the demographics in our, in this contest have broken out as they are. Because everybody just ascribes it to 'white working-class don't wanna work -- don't wanna vote for the black guy.' That's...there were intimations of that in an article in the Sunday New York Times today - kind of implies that it's sort of a race thing.
Here's how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long, and they feel so betrayed by government, and when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn't buy it. And when it's delivered by -- it's true that when it's delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama (laugher), then that adds another layer of skepticism (laughter).
But -- so the questions you're most likely to get about me, 'Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What's the concrete thing?' What they wanna hear is -- so, we'll give you talking points about what we're proposing -- close tax loopholes, roll back, you know, the tax cuts for the top 1 percent. Obama's gonna give tax breaks to middle-class folks and we're gonna provide health care for every American. So we'll go down a series of talking points.
But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it's not surprising then that 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.
Um, now these are in some communities, you know. I think what you'll find is, is that people of every background -- there are gonna be a mix of people, you can go in the toughest neighborhoods, you know working-class lunch-pail folks, you'll find Obama enthusiasts. And you can go into places where you think I'd be very strong and people will just be skeptical. The important thing is that you show up and you're doing what you're doing.
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