Looks like Barack misspoke (or a slip of tongue that revealed his elitist background?) during a fund raiser in San Francisco. I suppose that will cost him a few votes in PA. Gotta be more careful next time.... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama-no-surprise-that-ha_b_96188.html Full transcript: OBAMA: So, it depends on where you are, but I think it's fair to say that the places where we are going to have to do the most work are the places where people feel most cynical about government. The people are mis-appre...I think they're misunderstanding why the demographics in our, in this contest have broken out as they are. Because everybody just ascribes it to 'white working-class don't wanna work -- don't wanna vote for the black guy.' That's...there were intimations of that in an article in the Sunday New York Times today - kind of implies that it's sort of a race thing. Here's how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long, and they feel so betrayed by government, and when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn't buy it. And when it's delivered by -- it's true that when it's delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama (laugher), then that adds another layer of skepticism (laughter). But -- so the questions you're most likely to get about me, 'Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What's the concrete thing?' What they wanna hear is -- so, we'll give you talking points about what we're proposing -- close tax loopholes, roll back, you know, the tax cuts for the top 1 percent. Obama's gonna give tax breaks to middle-class folks and we're gonna provide health care for every American. So we'll go down a series of talking points. But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of 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. So it's not surprising then that 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. Um, now these are in some communities, you know. I think what you'll find is, is that people of every background -- there are gonna be a mix of people, you can go in the toughest neighborhoods, you know working-class lunch-pail folks, you'll find Obama enthusiasts. And you can go into places where you think I'd be very strong and people will just be skeptical. The important thing is that you show up and you're doing what you're doing.
Clinton's response (http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/04/11/880232.aspx) included, in part: "...It's being reported that my opponent said that the people of Pennsylvania who've faced hard times are bitter. Well, that's not my experience. As I travel around Pennsylvania, I meet people who are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive who are rolling up their sleeves." My question: Which the heck part of PA was she in when she found those people?!
I don't know about the religion bit, but when times are tough, people are less inclined for civil rights reforms or programs that benefit the poor. They're also more likely to resort to violence. One could make a case that inflation and high gas prices were one of the underlying causes for the LA and Tibetan riots. The CEO of Shell worries that sustained high gas prices will cause another riot in a poor urban area if that isn't fixed. Obama's being honest. I guess he's too direct because not every Pennsylvanian is "bitter". I'd shake my head if this thread devolves into some outrage over a mythical "double standard".
There might be some truth in it. But it is a generalization spoken in front of a bunch of rich people in SF. Politically this was not a good move. I don't think it will be a big deal. It only gave people more ammunitions.
yeah obama is the elitist - born to an absentee father and raised by his furniture salesman grandparents, who worked on the south side of chicago after HLS for the community passing up a lucrative privat career - and Hilary, upper middle class suburb, wellesley, yale, law firm partner, corporate board member is the woman of the people.
Regardless of his background these quotes come off as elitist no matter which way you slice them. I'm sure there will be an apology coming soon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madelyn_and_Stanley_Dunham His grandma was the first ever female VP of Bank of Hawaii.
I do not think that Obama's statements were elitist. I think, however, that those statements are extremely ill advised. You generally do not keep a large following by describing people who have been down on their luck as bitter and chuckling as you say that the message is not going to be well received because he is black. So you essentially call them tacitly racist and then follow up with calling them bitter and stating that they "cling" to guns and religion. Just not the best move he could have made.
Totally agree. He tried to explain what he meant this evening - and it makes sense - but there was still no reason to say it. Basically, he's insulting people who's votes he hopes to get. Dumb thing to say all around. He was fine with they bitter part - it was the "clinging to guns" and "clinging to faith" stuff that I think was dumb. Hopefully he's learning all this stuff now while he's in the primary where it really doesn't matter too much. These kinds of things in the general election would be a much bigger problem for him. He's going to get his ass kicked in PA anyway.
Obama replies/clarifies: <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Sc9PepjyDow&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Sc9PepjyDow&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
I agree it was a totally lame statement on his part in SF, basically stereotyping poor voters in PA as the God, guns & gays crowd. This will definitely get more play in the media; Hillary is thanking god for this slip. I think it was a good move to respond quickly and strongly. It was weird to see him get an audience on it's feet with a message of anger, though, instead of optimism. He's made an interesting twist, and I'm sure he'll stick to this as media keeps asking him about it in the coming days. He says that the God & guns voters have turned to voting on social issues because they've given up hope voting on economic issues; "they can't trust Washington." He turns McCain & Hillary's "elitist, out of touch" responses against them, claiming they are the ones out of touch if they don't recognize Americans are mad about the state of things. I don't think it will be enough to make lemonade out of lemons. He turned defense into offense and attacked McCain and Hillary directly for being "out of touch." It was ballsy, but it also assures that this story will remain in the media for the coming days as they continue to throw barbs. I'll be very interested to see what happens next.
And she paid for Obama to go to the best private school in Hawaii and lived in a high-rise apartment.
Generalization is part of the every day language of any politician. Any time a government officials speaks of what "the American people" want, that's a generalization.
And he was, by all accounts, the least well-off person there. What is your point? Oh you have none - other than to claim the girl from the affluent northern Chicago suburbs who went to Wellesley and Yale and sat on the board of Wal-Mart is more working class than the guy who worked at Altgeld Gardens. Silly exaggerations like that are one of many reasons why she lost a race that she thought she had won.
Very, very dumb. It makes it seem that Obama feels that "clinging" to faith is a silly idea. A person's faith is an integral part of who they are. That being the case, of course a person's faith will influence how they see the world, and thus, how they vote. Insulting people for this is just stupid. It appears Obama was clinging to his gun, and it shot him right in the foot.
Neither one of those morons know what it's like to be poor. That's my point! They are BOTH career politicians that have never worked in the REAL world. How are they in touch with the so called "bitter" "typical white people" that actually WORKS for a living? They both look down on Americans.
I agree with Refman as well. Interesting that you said it was better for Barack to make these sorts of mistakes before the general. You mean there's something good coming out of still having an actual race for the nomination? Usually, by now, we're way past that and busy having a coronation tour. Trim Bush.
