Posted on 04/12/2008 7:34:30 PM PDT by blam
Barack Obama 'belittles' small town America
By Tim Shipman in Washington
Last Updated: 12:52am BST 13/04/2008
Barack Obama's presidential campaign has been knocked off balance after the Democratic White House frontrunner was caught on tape apparently belittling the fears of small town Americans who have lost their jobs.
Senator Barack Obama speaks at a town hall meeting at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana
The senator from Illinois was forced into a frantic damage limitation exercise after a recording emerged in which he appeared to dismiss impoverished blue collar workers as bitter individuals who have turned to God, guns and immigrant bashing to make themselves feel better.
His rivals and political commentators seized on the comments, pronouncing them a watershed moment that raises questions about whether he understands many of the people he hopes to lead - for whom religion and the right to bear arms are positive and wholesome aspects of their lives, not a crutch fashioned from bitterness.
In comments which may seriously damage his chances of winning the forthcoming Pennsylvania primary election, Mr Obama told fundraisers: "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.
"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."
Mr Obama has recently narrowed Mrs Clinton's lead to between four and seven points in the latest polls, after pouring record sums of money into television advertising in the state.
In the last three weeks alone, he has spent more than $6m, three times that of his rival. As a result, an average voter in the major cities and the Philadelphia suburbs, the key to the election, can expect to see each Obama advert more than 20 times.
A media monitoring group last week said he has now screened 100,000 commercials nationwide this year - five times the number John Kerry aired as he won the 2004 nomination.
But he has struggled to win over blue collar workers, hit hardest by the economic downturn and competition from overseas jobs. The forum in which he made the comments - an upmarket fundraiser with wealthy Californians last weekend - appeared to reinforce claims by his opponents that Mr Obama is an arrogant elitist, with little feeling for ordinary voters.
Michael Goodwin, a columnist for the New York Daily News, accused Mr Obama of "de-legitimising the way people choose to live in America" and argued that the furore would be even more damaging for Mr Obama than the previous row over inflammatory comments by his pastor Jeremiah Wright.
He said: "This is like Wright on steroids. It is a disaster for Obama. I happen to come from one of those small towns in Pennsylvania. I know what people there feel about religion and guns and immigrants.
"It's not about just hating other people. They don't embrace religion out of hate. They don't hunt or use their guns for target practice out of hate. You cannot denigrate religion in that way."
Democrat strategist Robert Zimmerman said: "This raises questions about whether he can truly unite the country, as he pledges to, and whether he really believes that we're one America."
A jubilant Grover Norquist, the conservative anti-tax campaigner said: "That sentence will lose him the election. He just announced to rural America: 'I don’t like you'. Now you can vote against that guy not because you don't like him. You can vote against him because he doesn't like you."
Mrs Clinton told voters in Pennsylvania that she does not consider them to be bitter. "I meet people who are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive, who are rolling up their sleeves," she said.
"Pennsylvania doesn't need a president who looks down on them. They need a president who stands up for them."
Steve Schmidt, a senior aide to the Republican candidate, John McCain, said: "It shows an elitism and condescension toward hard-working Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking."
Mr Obama, campaigning in Indiana, refused to apologise. He insisted he was not out of touch and attempted to recast his words in a more sympathetic light. "When I go around and I talk to people, there is frustration and there is anger and there is bitterness," he told a rally in Terre Haute.
"They’re frustrated, and for good reason. They've seen their economies collapse. They have lost their jobs. They have lost their pensions."
He claimed both Mrs Clinton and Mr McCain are themselves out of touch, accusing the former First Lady of being beholden to lobbyists in the financial services industry and the Republican nominee of waiting too long to come up with a plan to tackle the subprime mortgage crisis.
Always the mark of a bigot and a dictator.
I remember the threads about that well. I called every office McCain had to get my name on the list. Most tried to tell me he didn’t say what I saw and heard him say on the video. Only one wasn’t condescending about it. He was clearly irritated at having been told to try to spin it.
Maybe he meant all three!?! Nahhhhh, no politician’s lackey would be that honest.
"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."
Exactly correct.
The Democrats would love to turn "small towns" (ie., towns that have lost coal and manufacturing jobs) into government-addicted wards of the (Democrat-controlled) welfare state, like so many urban black neighborhoods did in the decades since Johnson's politically ingenious "Ingrate Society".
The problem that Obama and the rest of the Democrat scumbags face is that there is still a lot of pride and adherence to traditional American values in those "small towns".
I actually cut BO a little slack on this.
Considering his audience, I think he was attempting to explain to other Democratic elitists why they should not be so condemning of “ordinary Americans.” That they do have reasons for what, to the elitists, seems to be self-defeating and despicable behavior.
Have you read how Democratic activits on DU and elsewhere talk about “ordinary Americans?” How they think they can win an election by spewing hatred and contempt for most voters is a real good question.
I disagree with BO, but I think this statement is being somewhat taken out of context.
His nose is so high in the air that he’s drowning in the rain.
Apparently he was talking to a bunch of Pastor J Wright's referenced rich whiteys on Billionaires Row in San Francisco at the Getty mansion. hmmmm I would love to know who outed him and them.
The elitism to which the lackey referred could be inferred to those working inside the hallowed halls of the Congress and the House of Lords, excuse me, the Senate.
If anybody knows elitism, it's Hillary and Johnny Mac.
Does anyone know the venue for the “bitter” statement? Did this occur at the Billionaire’s Row event that Zombietime documents?
Obama Visits Billionaires Row
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1998779/posts
I know. All three of the Presidential possibles fit the bill like few others on the scene today. It’s like Halloween and each one is trying to outdo the others by dressing up as one of history’s biggest megalomaniacs. Take your pick from day to day.
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