Obama on small-town PA: Clinging religion, guns, xenophobia

Politico.com ^ | 04/11/08 | Ben Smith

[JRochelle]

Mayhill Fowler has more from Obama's remarks at a San Francisco fundraiser Sunday, and they include an attempt to explain the resentment in small-town Pennsylvania that won't be appreciated by some of the people whose votes Obama's seeking:

You go into 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.

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.

That's pretty broad list of things to explain with job loss.

[JRochelle]

I am reevaluating my hate.

I really loathe Hillary but this Obama guy is trying to get me to hate him more.

[Williams]

Obama hates the America we have, like all the leftists his love is of the America they intend to create after they tear this one down.

Isn't it obvious Obama hates religion? No one would place religion in that list of "negative" things unless they totally disrespect believers.

Same goes for daring to oppose illegal immigration, in Obama's mind. And in supporting the 2nd amendment.

Obama did this in his "race" speech as well - referring to perfectly wholesome things like anti-crime sentiment as somehow being bad things resulting from capitalism.

Add to this his view of "babies" as a punishment.

Obama holds bizarre left wing views through and through. His view of small town America itself is frightening. Decent people are "clinging" to religious belief because of capitalism.

Funny, Obama watched Rev Wright rant like a clown for twenty years, but that brand of religion never troubled him.

Obama views all mainstream traditional views as diseases to be eradicated.

[darkangel82]

Obama, just STFU already, @sshat.

[JRochelle]

No way.

This guy will lose on a level we have not seen since Reagan beat Mondale.

[Krankor]

This is beyond believable. I mean, this guy is in San Francisco dissing small towns in the midwest. Isn’t there some kind of constitutional requirement the President has to at least like America? These comments will mark the beginning of the end of his campaign.

[Admin Moderator]

Huffingtonpost.com is not welcome on Free Republic.

[FredZarguna]

Yep. Who'd've ever thunk there could be an election where the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy would view HRC as the lesser of two evils?

[Martins kid]

So Obama is now insulting small town America. Remember this in November.

[MrB]

Hey, don’t forget the “trick” that he learned, to not come across as a young angry black man - it makes (white) people feel relieved and accepting.

This is from his book about his father.

[JRochelle]

Sorry!

[JRochelle]

The only politician who would be worse that Obama as President would be Ted Kennedy.

I can’t think of anyone worse.

[EGPWS]

You go into 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.

Job's are gone for decades...nothing has replaced them...someone needs to be blamed....

Sir Obama, (you ding dong) we, to this date, still are the most sought after place of employment and residency via our freedom because we STILL have both for the offering!

Does that not frustrate you to no end?

[Miss Didi]

A Snow White Story

The seven dwarfs always left to go work in the mine early each morning.

As always, Snow White stayed home doing her domestic chores.

As lunchtime approached, she would prepare their lunch and carry it to the mine.

One day as she arrived at the mine with the lunch, she saw that there had been a terrible cave-in.

Fearing the worst, Snow White began calling out, hoping against hope that the dwarfs had somehow survived.

'Hello, hello!' she shouted. 'Can anyone hear me? Hello!'

For a long while, there was no answer.

Losing hope, Snow White again shouted, 'Hello! Is anyone down there?'

Just as she was about to give up all hope, there came a faint voice from deep within the mine, 'Vote for Obama!'

Snow White fell to her knees, and prayed, 'Oh, thank You Lord! At least Dopey is still alive.'

[Iron Munro]

When Barack Obama gets elected they will have jobs mowing lawns and cleaning toilets for people like Rev. Wright, Louis Farrakhan, Michelle Obama and other black hate mongers.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

We live in central PA. Obama wasn’t going to win here anyway, but this will just make it worse for him; his comments are those of a bigoted and ignorant person.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

"You go into 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. 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."

Something he learned at Harvard perhaps? Or some professor at Columbia told him this? It is right out of Richard Hofstadter's "paranoid style" theory, the standard Ivy League dismissal of all non-liberal opposition.

Sounds like more excuses to divert attention from the trash-mouth reverend. Gee, it couldn't be that they are just creeped out by the race-baiting former Muslim preacher?

[FredZarguna]

The only politician who would be worse that Obama as President would be Ted Kennedy.

Policywise, they're the same. In terms of the aparat they would appoint, no difference. But at least you could criticize Ted without being called a racist. [Understand, as a pigmentally challenged person, I'm only criticisizng the half of Obama which is white. That half is an ass.]