H
Harry Dope
Guest
Obama on small-town voters: Bitter, xenophobic, religious; Update: McCain
camp unloads; Update: People "don't need a president who looks down on
them," says Hillary; Update: Audio added; Update: Obama camp responds -
weakly
An outrageous Kinsleyan gaffe? Sure. But give it a day or so, to let the
Jedi mind trick work its magic. Then the left will tell us what he "really
meant":
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.
What's most offensive? The condescension displayed here by the
intelligentsia's candidate of choice? The sheer breadth of the stereotype,
which would send Team Obama screaming from the rooftops if a white
politician drew a similarly sweeping caricature of blacks? The crude
quasi-Marxist reductionism of his analysis, which he first introduced in his
speech on race vis-a-vis the root causes of whites' "resentment" - namely,
exploitation by the bourgeoisie in the form of corporations and D.C.
lobbyists? Or is it the shocking inclusion of religion, of all things, in
the litany of sins he recites? What on earth is that doing there, given His
Holiness's repeated invocations of the virtues of faith on the trail? Note
the choice of verb, too. Why not just go the whole nine yards and call it
the opiate of the masses?
If you missed the Standard's post a few weeks ago on the various complaints
about "distractions" that creep into Obama's rhetoric, read it now. This is
of a piece with it. Everything in the Obama universe, including gun rights
evidently, that doesn't fit his agenda is a byproduct of external forces
conspiring to manipulate the masses to keep his agenda at bay. Exit
question: How does Hillary leverage this? Does she dare get the video and
stick it in an ad?
Update: She's not going to get a video ad out of it. It wasn't delivered as
part of a speech; how could it have been, given the obnoxiousness of the
rhetoric? He said it to a bunch of megarich donors in San Francisco last
week. This is how he talks to the liberal elite.
Update: The best part of this story? It's HuffPo, of all sites, that broke
it. His disciples can't even claim bias in the reporting.
Update: Here we go. Your move, Hillary.
Asked to respond, McCain adviser Steve Schmidt called it a "remarkable
statement and extremely revealing."
"It shows an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is
nothing short of breathtaking," Schmidt said. "It is hard to imagine someone
running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans."
Follow the link for Jonathan Martin's assertion that Republicans are itching
to "play the elitism card" against Obama, which is journo-speak for "itching
to show the public just how elitist Obama is in reality."
Update: Score. Go for the throat, shameless liar!
"It's being reported that my opponent said that the people of Pennsylvania
who face hard times are bitter," Clinton said during a campaign event in
Philadelphia. "Well that's not my experience. As I travel around
Pennsylvania. I meet people who are resilient, optimist positive who are
rolling up their sleeves."
"Pennsylvanians don't need a president who looks down on them," she said.
"They need a president who stands up for them, who fights hard for your
future, your jobs, your families."
Update: An intriguing quote from KP:
"It comes off very badly," Democratic strategist Kirsten Powers said of the
small-town America remarks. "They are things that I think in a liberal world
sound totally normal, and outside of that world I don't know that he
appreciates how it sounds. And it just sounds very elitist, and it sounds
like he's looking down on people."
Update: HuffPo's posted the audio. Sounds like an accurate transcription to
me.
Update: Obama answers. No denial, no clarification, just an awkward change
of subject to McCain. When does he deliver the Great Speech on Condescension
to get himself off the hook for this one?
"Senator Obama has said many times in this campaign that Americans are
understandably upset with their leaders in Washington for saying anything to
win elections while failing to stand up to the special interests and fight
for an economic agenda that will bring jobs and opportunity back to
struggling communities. And if John McCain wants a debate about who's out of
touch with the American people, we can start by talking about the tax breaks
for the wealthiest Americans that he once said offended his conscience but
now wants to make permanent,"
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/04/11/obama-on-small-town-voters-bitter-xenophobic-religious/
--
"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a
three-strike law and then wants us to sing God Bless America. No, no, no,
God damn America, thats in the Bible for killing innocent people.God damn
America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for
as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme"
Obama Mentor Rev. Wright
camp unloads; Update: People "don't need a president who looks down on
them," says Hillary; Update: Audio added; Update: Obama camp responds -
weakly
An outrageous Kinsleyan gaffe? Sure. But give it a day or so, to let the
Jedi mind trick work its magic. Then the left will tell us what he "really
meant":
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.
What's most offensive? The condescension displayed here by the
intelligentsia's candidate of choice? The sheer breadth of the stereotype,
which would send Team Obama screaming from the rooftops if a white
politician drew a similarly sweeping caricature of blacks? The crude
quasi-Marxist reductionism of his analysis, which he first introduced in his
speech on race vis-a-vis the root causes of whites' "resentment" - namely,
exploitation by the bourgeoisie in the form of corporations and D.C.
lobbyists? Or is it the shocking inclusion of religion, of all things, in
the litany of sins he recites? What on earth is that doing there, given His
Holiness's repeated invocations of the virtues of faith on the trail? Note
the choice of verb, too. Why not just go the whole nine yards and call it
the opiate of the masses?
If you missed the Standard's post a few weeks ago on the various complaints
about "distractions" that creep into Obama's rhetoric, read it now. This is
of a piece with it. Everything in the Obama universe, including gun rights
evidently, that doesn't fit his agenda is a byproduct of external forces
conspiring to manipulate the masses to keep his agenda at bay. Exit
question: How does Hillary leverage this? Does she dare get the video and
stick it in an ad?
Update: She's not going to get a video ad out of it. It wasn't delivered as
part of a speech; how could it have been, given the obnoxiousness of the
rhetoric? He said it to a bunch of megarich donors in San Francisco last
week. This is how he talks to the liberal elite.
Update: The best part of this story? It's HuffPo, of all sites, that broke
it. His disciples can't even claim bias in the reporting.
Update: Here we go. Your move, Hillary.
Asked to respond, McCain adviser Steve Schmidt called it a "remarkable
statement and extremely revealing."
"It shows an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is
nothing short of breathtaking," Schmidt said. "It is hard to imagine someone
running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans."
Follow the link for Jonathan Martin's assertion that Republicans are itching
to "play the elitism card" against Obama, which is journo-speak for "itching
to show the public just how elitist Obama is in reality."
Update: Score. Go for the throat, shameless liar!
"It's being reported that my opponent said that the people of Pennsylvania
who face hard times are bitter," Clinton said during a campaign event in
Philadelphia. "Well that's not my experience. As I travel around
Pennsylvania. I meet people who are resilient, optimist positive who are
rolling up their sleeves."
"Pennsylvanians don't need a president who looks down on them," she said.
"They need a president who stands up for them, who fights hard for your
future, your jobs, your families."
Update: An intriguing quote from KP:
"It comes off very badly," Democratic strategist Kirsten Powers said of the
small-town America remarks. "They are things that I think in a liberal world
sound totally normal, and outside of that world I don't know that he
appreciates how it sounds. And it just sounds very elitist, and it sounds
like he's looking down on people."
Update: HuffPo's posted the audio. Sounds like an accurate transcription to
me.
Update: Obama answers. No denial, no clarification, just an awkward change
of subject to McCain. When does he deliver the Great Speech on Condescension
to get himself off the hook for this one?
"Senator Obama has said many times in this campaign that Americans are
understandably upset with their leaders in Washington for saying anything to
win elections while failing to stand up to the special interests and fight
for an economic agenda that will bring jobs and opportunity back to
struggling communities. And if John McCain wants a debate about who's out of
touch with the American people, we can start by talking about the tax breaks
for the wealthiest Americans that he once said offended his conscience but
now wants to make permanent,"
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/04/11/obama-on-small-town-voters-bitter-xenophobic-religious/
--
"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a
three-strike law and then wants us to sing God Bless America. No, no, no,
God damn America, thats in the Bible for killing innocent people.God damn
America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for
as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme"
Obama Mentor Rev. Wright