Obama just exposed rovian "Wedge Issues". And, how they won't work this time.

[tekisui]

He passionately explained how people are duped into voting against their best interest. Why they have voted on guns, gays and god. And how they get royally screwed every time.

He spoke truth tonight, and stood up against divide and conquer politics. The media feeding frenzy, with coordinated pile-ons from Clinton and McCain, gave him the microphone and the stage to get an important message out.

Go, Obama!

[tekisui]

1. Every Democrat, including Hillary Supporters should be applauding

his remarks in tonight's town hall.

[Iris]

6. ok

:applause:

[NJSecularist]

23. Of course they won't though.

They are for nobody but themselves. They see the Democratic party in their own vision, nobody else's. They work to destroy any Democratic party that isn't in their own self-deluded image.

[Hepburn]

32. Hillary supporters are incapable of applauding....

...they are too busy sticking their fingers in their ears in order to avoid the truth.

JMHO

[virginia mountainman]

2. Sounded like he DISMISSED those who views he disagrees with..

Not too happy about it as a gun collector...not happy at ALL.....

I don't collect firearms BECAUSE, "i have no hope" I collect them out of historical interest...A nice dose of elitism from the Ivory tower...

[PoliticalAmazon]

5. No, insulting people who don't agree with her is Hillary's gig. n/t

[merh]

7. what are you talking about

please explain

[Stephanie]

13. Why don't you look at what he actually SAID >

Senator Obama’s comments in response to the Clinton and McCain campaign’s attacks

TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA – At a town hall meeting in Indiana, U.S. Senator Barack Obama made the following comments in response to the Clinton and McCain campaign’s attacks:

“When I go around and I talk to people there is frustration and there is anger and there is bitterness. And what’s worse is when people are expressing their anger then politicians try to say what are you angry about? This just happened – I want to make a point here today.

“I was in San Francisco talking to a group at a fundraiser and somebody asked how’re you going to get votes in Pennsylvania? What’s going on there? We hear that’s its hard for some working class people to get behind you’re campaign. I said, “Well look, they’re frustrated and for good reason. Because for the last 25 years they’ve seen jobs shipped overseas. They’ve seen their economies collapse. They have lost their jobs. They have lost their pensions. They have lost their healthcare.

“And for 25, 30 years Democrats and Republicans have come before them and said we’re going to make your community better. We’re going to make it right and nothing ever happens. And of course they’re bitter. Of course they’re frustrated. You would be too. In fact many of you are. Because the same thing has happened here in Indiana. The same thing happened across the border in Decatur. The same thing has happened all across the country. Nobody is looking out for you. Nobody is thinking about you. And so people end up- they don’t vote on economic issues because they don’t expect anybody’s going to help them. So people end up, you know, voting on issues like guns, and are they going to have the right to bear arms. They vote on issues like gay marriage. And they take refuge in their faith and their community and their families and things they can count on. But they don’t believe they can count on Washington. So I made this statement-- so, here’s what rich. Senator Clinton says ‘No, I don’t think that people are bitter in Pennsylvania. You know, I think Barack’s being condescending.’ John McCain says, ‘Oh, how could he say that? How could he say people are bitter? You know, he’s obviously out of touch with people.’

“Out of touch? Out of touch? I mean, John McCain—it took him three tries to finally figure out that the home foreclosure crisis was a problem and to come up with a plan for it, and he’s saying I’m out of touch? Senator Clinton voted for a credit card-sponsored bankruptcy bill that made it harder for people to get out of debt after taking money from the financial services companies, and she says I’m out of touch? No, I’m in touch. I know exactly what’s going on. I know what’s going on in Pennsylvania. I know what’s going on in Indiana. I know what’s going on in Illinois. People are fed-up. They’re angry and they’re frustrated and they’re bitter. And they want to see a change in Washington and that’s why I’m running for President of the United States of America.”

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gGBWx9

[Liberal Gramma]

19. Actually, Obama supports gun rights

and I don't think he meant people who own guns do so out of frustration and despair. I think he meant that people care deeply about these kind of issues and dishonest pols use issues like these to divide people and get them to vote against their own economic interests. Why would someone who was laid off when the plant closed and his unemployment has run out vote Republican unless it's because a politician has appealed to his fear that the liberals are going to take away his gun, force abortion on unwilling women, allow illegal immigrants to take away our jobs? That's what wedge issues like gun control, abortion, and immigration do: separate people from voting their broader interests.

[blogslut]

24. I'm glad you collect them

Firearms are magnificent tools. They're really quite beautiful. I don't own any guns but I can certainly understand the appreciation for them. I've lived in the country with rattlesnakes, coyotes and the threat of rabid animals. I understand the concept of guns as a form of self-protection.

What I think you're missing here are the ways that people cling to single issues and damn the rest. Barack Obama doesn't want to take your guns away. He wants you to consider other issues. He doesn't want to take your faith away. He wants you to realize that there are many faiths and they all deserve respect. He wants, what I want. He wants us to stop dividing ourselves into these meaningless camps.

How can you not see that?

[george_maniakes]

29. obviously people dont always cling to religion either because they have "no hope " ...

but some people, if they think the political system is fucked anyways, might vote for the more pro-gun republican guy over the democrat.

[Hepburn]

33. Oh, how nice.....

...in love with instruments of violence. Have any other great hobbies? :eyes:

[knixphan]

3. one more GOBAMA!

Divide and conquer politics will not do.

[blm]

4. How many times do Dems need to see Hillary joining Bush and McCain against other Dems?

Cripe - Bill spent 3 weeks defending Bush in 2004 when the Dem nominee was attacking him on Iraq decisions.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/06/19/clinton.iraq/

We had Carville calling the WH on election night to sabotage Ohio Dem voters:
http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2006/oct/07/did_carville_tip_bush_off_to_kerry_strategy_woodward


We had Hillary validating Bush and McCain's lie that 'Kerry insulted the troops' in 2006:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk1k0nUWEQg

How many times do we have to WITNESS Clintons attacking and smearing other Dems more than they ever did Bush or McCain?

[tekisui]

31. It really bothers me seeing Hillary and McCain tag team.

[H2O Man]

8. Yep.

It isn't going to work this time.

Nominated.

[C_U_L8R]

9. Hillary must be blowing a gasket over this

Obama took her phrase twisting and hung it around her neck.

Bravo.

[NanceGreggs]

11. You'd think she would have figured out by now ...

... that when she throws a boomerang at her opponent, it's going to come back and hit her in the ass.

[C_U_L8R]

14. oh.... and such a tempting target

must... not ... go .... there....
must... resist...
can't... hahahhahahahhahahahha

but dear god, if anyone in this land deserved a swift kick in the ass, it's Hillary.

[City Lights]

20. "Bitter" is the word that comes to mind.

:evilgrin:

[NanceGreggs]

10. Well said, tekisui! K&R!!! n/t

[bleever]

12. Thank you for making this its own post, because

you nailed it, just as Obama did.


Great job.

[tekisui]

16. When I heard him say:

"Nobody is looking out for you. Nobody is thinking about you. And so people end up- they don’t vote on economic issues because they don’t expect anybody’s going to help them. So people end up, you know, voting on issues like guns, and are they going to have the right to bear arms. They vote on issues like gay marriage. And they take refuge in their faith and their community and their families and things they can count on. But they don’t believe they can count on Washington."

My jaw dropped. A Presidential Candidate said this! Books have been written about it, and it has been studied, but I never thought I wold get that kind of honesty from a Candidate.

[bleever]

17. That right there

is the genius required to express what is too obvious to be articulated easily.

Wisdom and true leadership do not shrink from seeming paradox; they encompass and transcend it.

[K Gardner]

21. AMEN !

[supporter77]

15. Obama Lied to the American People - Hillary never voted for the bankruptcy bill !!!!

Hillary Clinton never voted for the Brankruptcy Bill of 2005. Hillary Clinton was the sole Senator not voting on the bill, because that day Bill Clinton had heart surgery

From Senator Clinton's official statement on the bill:

This bankruptcy bill fundamentally fails to accord with the traditional purposes of bankruptcy, which recognize that we are all better off when hard-working people who have suffered financial catastrophe get a "fresh start" and a second chance to become productive and contributing members of society. With the passage of this legislation, which makes obtaining this fresh start more expensive and more difficult, we are ensuring that many responsible Americans will continue to be buried under mountains of debt, and unable to take back control and responsibility for their lives.


In the days before S.256 was finally brought to the floor Senator Clinton voted for every amendment which would have added consumer protections to the bankruptcy bill. Amendments which were repeatedly rejected by both the Republican majority and far too many Democrats. She even voted against cloture in an attempt to keep the final bill from coming to a vote at all.

Several commentors correctly noted that Hillary Clinton supported the earlier bill (although she voted for amendments adding consumer protections in that bill as well). She wasn't the only Democrat to change her position (voting for the 2001 bill and against the 2005 bill) and I'm not qualified to compare the differences between them.

However, several articles have discussed her change of position, including this recent article in the NYTimes.

For what it's worth, Democratic Senators Akaka, Cantwell, Dorgan, Feinstein, Leahy, Levin, Lieberman, Mikulski, Murray, Nelson (Fl), Schumer and Wyden switched in the same direction as Clinton. John Edwards, who also voted for the 2001 bill, suggested he would have switched his vote as well.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/08/clinton-and-the-bankruptcy-law/

http://jinchi.blogspot.com/2007/03/hillary-clinton-and-bankruptcy-bill-of.html

But as nyt.com reports...

she supported the bill in 2001 because

Explaining Senator Clinton’s support for the bill in 2001, Phil Singer, a campaign spokesman, said, “She helped forge a compromise in the 2001 bill intended to ensure that custodial parents got child custody payments.� She opposed the bill later, he said, because “unfortunately, that provision was stripped from the 2005 legislation

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/08/clinton-and-the-bankruptcy-law/


lies..lies..and more lies from Obama...

[tokenlib]

18. But she said she voted for it and was glad it didn't pass.....

So even if she voted for it once in her life---once is enough. It was opposed by every consumer group in the country. And I condemn all the other DLC types who voted for it.

[stillcool]

26. huh?

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0316-03.htm
Published on Friday, March 16, 2001
Going Backwards
36 'Democratic' Senators Vote For Credit Card/Banking Industry's Bankruptcy 'Reform'
...and they wonder why so many Democrats voted for Ralph Nader.

GW Bush and the credit card/banking industry won a huge victory last night as 36 'Democrats' joined their Republican 'colleagues' and voted to pass S-420 - the Bankruptcy bill.

I've never seen a bill that was so one-sided. The cries, claims and concerns of vulnerable Americans who have suffered a financial emergency have been drowned out by the political might of the credit card industry.


"This is the most anticonsumer piece of legislation that the Congress is considering," said Edmund Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group in Washington, D.C.
The Associated Press is calling it a big win for Bush and "the second business-friendly measure to pass both houses of the new Congress"
among The Sell Outs:
Hillary Clinton (New York) [e-mail]

Slammed for Vote On 2001 Bankruptcy Bill
By Damian Paletta
Word Count: 651

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Clinton is on the defensive for another vote aligned with President Bush early in her legislative career: this one for a measure to make it more difficult to erase personal debts through bankruptcy.

As the focus of debate for presidential candidates shifts from Iraq to the economy, Sen. Barack Obama has stepped up criticism of Sen. Clinton's 2001 bankruptcy vote, just as he has hammered her for her 2002 vote authorizing the Iraq War. The Illinois Democrat is citing Mrs. Clinton's bankruptcy vote as an example of why he is better-suited to protect consumers in an ...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120113997862512117.html

[Major Hogwash]

22. I don't think they've ever dealt with anyone like Obama, who will tell it like it is, before.

We know the "Straight Shooter Express" is more of a barcar these days.

[Cha]

25. And the m$$$m aren't liking it one BIT!

:scared:

[Califooyah Operative]

27. Indeed. nt

[anonymous171]

28. Not this time!

[TragedyandHope]

30. The MSM is bitter

that Obama isn't playing by their rules. He tells it like it is and completely bypasses their obsolete, simplistic framing of the political debate. He doesn't aim for the lowest common denominator and speak down to the public like kindergartners who can't be trusted to make their up their own minds. The MSM is clearly afraid of losing their audience if they try to cover complex, nuanced issues that can't be expressed in three words or less.

[ecdab]

34. The funny thing here is that Obama just took at shoot at the heart

of the Republican electoral strategy, and Hillary is trying to bury him for doing so. That tells me more than a thing or two.

[tekisui]

35. Yep. And she is playing assist to Grampy McDubya.