Posted on 04/11/2008 7:54:25 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Sen. Barack Obama was criticized Friday by his two fellow presidential candidates for statements he made recently at a San Francisco fundraiser that could be viewed as derogatory toward rural America.
"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," Obama said Sunday, according to the Huffington Post web site.
"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," Obama reportedly continued. "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."
Obama does not allow reporters into fundraisers held at private residences, so they were not reported at the time.
The comments could fuel suggestions that Obama can be arrogant. They began circulating on the Internet Friday and drew rapid responses from both Sen. Hillary Clinton, his rival for the Democratic nomination, and Sen. John McCain, the likely Republican nominee.
"It's a remarkable statement and extremely revealing," McCain adviser Steve Schmidt said in a statement. "It shows an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking, it is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans."
Clinton, campaigning in Pennsylvania, also suggested Obama sounded like an elitist.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
If you’re angry misfit who is bitter at life, the Democrat Party is the place for you!
YEEEARGH!
No way to clean that up.
This coming from the woman who had to have a special commode built for her while she travelled China when she was first lady that cost over $25,000.
Elitist, Hillary Clinton does not even give a tip to some minimum wage paid waitress. Elitist...she's even more despicable than the hapless Obama.
What a pair of incompetent nincompoops. The dimwitted democrats deserve these two, Americans do not.
“Full of bitterness and despair? It sure doesn’t describe me or my family!”
But even if it did, what is wrong with that? Isn’t that why we have elections, we choose new people, etc? If we’re full of bitterness and despair, we elect new people. If people are bitter and desperate, does that somehow mean their opinions and concerns don’t count?
So people only like religion and guns and criticize illegal immigrations because they’re stupid and jobless? I liked religion and guns and criticized illegal immigration before I was jobless, so there.
Barry O - "The dumba$$ redneck honkies can't fathom the depth of my audaciousness nor the testicularity of my insight."
Michelle O - "Which one of Deval Patrick's speeches did you steal that from Paleface? My shoes are killing me. Let's get outta here you big jerk."
It would be more representative if he said it to Pennsylvanians than a bunch of elitists in San Francisco.
Think about it.
I just got out my summer, white visor hat and painted "Typical White Gramma" on it - Now I'm gonna hafta get a holster for my pistol and a big gold cross to hang around my neck...
Ronald Reagan and "W" won, in large part, because they see America and it's people in a positive light = with the obamamama couple, America is a mean place full of gun-toting, Bible thumping, anti-gay, bitter people.
Kudo's to whoever managed to surreptitiously tape this 'real obamama moment'. (He doesn't allow media to these high mucky-muck meetings, so he thought he could speak freely. In other words: just be himself. Put this together with all the rest, this should be that one straw to many. We will see. CNN sure isn't giving him a pass on this one. And if the media smells blood in the water, they'll turn on a dime. We need to all pray on this)
I've spent a lot of time in some of those small Pennsylvania towns and the people there are on average more gracious, humble, sophisticated than Bo'll ever be......
“Keep talking, Barry!”
How can this racist elitist jerk win an election for anything?
Has the country gone stark raving mad?
Can’t wait to see the t-shirts.
Typical white person stuck in Scranton and bitter.
I keep saying the same thing. Has the country gone bonkers?
I figured it was age creeping up. My father used to say the same thing b ack in 1968 but of course the country started to go mad then.
I think we are in full lunatic mode.
It is incredibly funny that the Liberal hypocrits who populate the big cities rail against the many things that are at the pinnacle in their own homes.
In the big city you’ve got: High crime, a disparate difference between poor and rich, ethnic gangs and racism and bigotry, low Environmental standards, high number of STDs, abortions, and they keep on electing people who succeed in getting more of these kinds of policies enacted. Liberalism: The Politics of Projection.
Somehow a small town in Pennsylvania is podunk city but a trash hole like Baltimore is Obama’s idea of how America really is. I guess that living in a city that gave rise to the first gun control laws because of gang warfare is a model city.
If I can recall the Know-Nothings centered around New York not some small town in Pennsylvania. It is within the big cities that are balkanized and separated into different immigration groups that register fear of others, not a small town. A small town is more peaceful, quiet and has been settled by many Legal Immigrants living in harmony rather than in an industrial mentality.
Is that pic for real?
If it is, good Lord!
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