Who is really insulting the voters of Pennsylvania?

[hedgehog]

Things must be getting boring because Hillary and assorted pundits are jumping up and claiming that Obama insulted the good people of Pennsylvania. Here's what he said, with the portion that's been extracted as an insult highlighted:

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.

[Jacobin]

1. I should like to insult the voters of PA for electing Santorum to the

senate.

Otherwise, who gives a rat's ass?

[otohara]

2. Truth

cigarettes cause cancer and watching jobs ship overseas makes people bitter.

[durrrty libby]

4. "cigarettes cause cancer " And BO smoked for more than 20 years

Why is this not vetted? Who wants a president with an acute or terminal illness?

Emphysema? Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease or Lung Cancer?

What stage of the disease process is he in?

The people have a right to know

[newmajority]

3. The real thing that freaked out Team Hillary here

Is that Obama had the "nerve" to say that the Clinton administration didn't do much for these people. And by implication, actually hurt them worse, with outsourcing brought about by Clinton era trade agreements. And that cuts deep into Hillary's LIE that she opposes corporatist "free" trade.

[rug]

5. These GDP polls remind me of toddlers reaching for their blankies when they're worried.