... but... but... but:
I mean: c'mon. ;)
Posted on 04/13/2008 1:28:33 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Small-town Pennsylvanians aren’t bitter; they’re optimists, steeped in family and tradition, and upset that Barack Obama would characterize them as gun-toting zealots.
That was the message Mayor Chris Doherty had at a news conference Saturday called to rebut comments recently made by Mr. Obama, D-Ill.
Mr. Doherty and supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., including other mayors and union officials, rallied outside the county courthouse, saying Mr. Obama’s remarks reflect a disconnect.
“For a man who just spent six days crossing this state saying he was listening, obviously he wasn’t listening, because he missed us,” Mr. Doherty said.
At a fundraiser outside San Francisco, Mr. Obama said people in small-town Pennsylvania cling to guns, religion and anti-immigration sentiment because they are bitter about the Rust Belt economy.
Former Scranton Mayor Jim Connors said the remarks demean people here as hicks. Mr. Obama wants to transcend stereotypes, but then he stereotyped others, Mr. Connors said.
Standing in front of the John Mitchell statue, Mr. Doherty called hunting a tradition, borne not out of spite but culture and pride. The area’s churches, he said, were built on hopes of improving life and fostering families, not because the population here is downtrodden.
Mr. Doherty pointed to economic growth and investment. He said it’s necessary to combat that negative image.
“That’s not the truth,” he said.
At Mr. Doherty’s side were Mr. Connors and the mayors from Jessup, Taylor, Freeland and Moosic, along with New Hampshire state Sen. Lou D’Allesandro.
Taylor Mayor Richard Bowen said Mr. Obama’s comments hit home beyond Pennsylvania, and he predicts it will cost the senator voters who are on the fence.
Mr. Connors said what most offends him is that Mr. Obama said these things on the other side of the country behind closed doors. Mr. Connors bet Mr. Obama wouldn’t have made such remarks in Altoona.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Obama’s campaign held its own conference call. Mayor John Fetterman of Braddock said the underlying sentiment is sincere. Small-town Americans, he said, are frustrated and angry.
“Everyone acknowledges Mr. Obama may have slipped in different words if he could do it over again, but it’s not patronizing, it’s not condescending, it’s not elitism,” Mr. Fetterman said.
Efforts by the Times-Tribune to reach U.S. Sen Bob Casey Jr., who supports Mr. Obama, were not immediately successful Saturday.
Rosemary Boland, a Clinton delegate and president of the Scranton Federation of Teachers, said while she isn’t quite offended, she disagrees with Mr. Obama and finds the remarks immature.
“He should be very careful with his words and pick the right words to use,” she said.
Contact the writer: jburton@timesshamrock.com
It is time to END OPEN SEASON ON WHITE "FOLKS."
This thing is growing legs like the Jolly Green Giant on human growth hormone. I think this is it for Barry.
... but... but... but:
I mean: c'mon. ;)
One can only imagine the sermon Rev J Wright could give over this episode.
Even as recently as yesterday, I most likely still would have opined "no" -- given how effectively his fawningly sycophantic MSM servitors had managed to shield him from all but the faintest scorings of hard, lasting damage previously, re: the Reverend Wright affair -- but now I genuinely find myself wondering if this business might not just end up being Obama's own personal "Dean scream" or "Muskie's tears" moment, after all. ;)
Both Senator Muskie and Governor Dean’s meltdowns occurred much earlier in those then much shorter primary seasons. I shouldn’t wonder if the superdelegates mightn’t ask someone like former Vice President Al Gore to accept the nomination, in lieu of either Senator Obama or Clinton, as they are both so badly damaged now. This has to be the strangest election since at least 1968.
But Obama had gone further in the SF speech, he blamed "the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration". He painted the small-town Americans as victims, and Obama may get the support of those small-towners who accept that "victim" role; the same support Rev. Wright gets when he tells his congregation that they are "victims". All part of Obama's strategy to expand the "victim" population and then harvest the "victim" vote.
Good point. And -- interesting little ancillary "fun factoid," here: did you know that the late Hunter S. Thompson took "credit" in his political writings, years after the fact, for Muskie's untimely teary meltdown?
Thompson's claim was (and I'm doing this solely from memory right now, so let's all hope I'm not screwing things up too badly) that some sort of mood-altering (*kaff*kaff*) "medicine" he'd been toting around at the time had "accidentally" kinda somehow found its way into Muskie's coffee, an hour or so prior to said gent's next (and soon to be famous) scheduled stump speech.
Now, given Thompson's not-infrequent (albeit still darkly entertaining!) tendencies towards... ummmmmm... well... "embroidery," let's say, in much of his work, this really is the sort of claim requiring several doduble handfuls of salt as a chaser, plainly... but: HMMMMMMMMM. ;)
The terrifyingly prescient Mrs.KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle was wondering aloud along precisely those same lines, earlier this evening... although, in her case, substitute "John Edwards" for "Al Gore." ;)
Maybe Obama is just making a case that he doesn't listen at all, to anybody. That could explain how he spent all those years not listening to Jeremiah Wright.
Oh, he listened...and continued with his élitest, condescending views.
I R TRAPD IN CHURCH CUZ I LOSTED MY JOB!
Yup. I'm fed up with the white political correctness I've had to endure against the likes of Jesse, Al and now The Black Pretender to the Presidency.
Screw 'em. Let the Negroe take his koran and go back to Nigeria.
/rant
Ah, but Thompson was also well known for his “recreational” drug use, so that particular story may just be true. I read “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72” many moons ago, and that is just the kind of thing that HST might try.
LOL
What does Senator Robert Casey Jr think about these comments?
Casey Jr is a big supporter of Obama!
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