PA Victory for Obama thanks to statement....

[quantass]

Now i have no stake in the whole Presedential race (at least i dont think so as a Canadian) but from my point of view Obama's statements along with Hilary's response (and endless response for the next coming weeks to deflect from her inadequacies) could spell victory for the Illinois senator, if handled correctly.

As a refresher of Obama's *FULL* statement, from Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama-no-surprise-that-ha_b_96188.html):

"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," Obama said. "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."
...
Mayhill Fowler (reporter, Huffington): To give Obama his due, he spoke about working class Pennsylvanians likely because he had been thinking about them a great deal. And he spoke, as he often does away from large rallies, in a calm, even, matter-of-fact way. Every town hall meeting I've observed, from California to Iowa, Nevada to Texas, has showcased Senator Obama's core decency and high measure of regard for each individual.

The above statement, along with Obama's reiteration yesterday in Indiana, to me and I suspect many other thinking human beings (and especially hard-hit PA citizens) says the man is in fact relating and deeply concerned about the cause and effects of issues. It absolutely baffles me how ANYONE can misinterpret what he is saying. IT IS TRUTH!!! Are you fucking blind! Hilary's comments smack of absolute politic speech -- superficial, opportunistic, artificial. Theres NO WAY any PA citizen could honestly agree with what she describes. There isnt a human being on this planet who wouldnt be bitter under those circumstances.

Because its the truth I suspect Obama will continue this message into PA and Clinton/McCain will continue their disingenuous interpretation of his message. This would be a brilliant thing because truth outweighs bullshit and could open the eyes of many PAs onto who Clinton really is. The biggest issue is getting the media on his side. We all know too well how the media is less about objective information and more about infotainment and corporate agendas.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. My money's on Obama. Politics as usual needs to come to an end.

Your thoughts.

[wndycty]

1. K&R

I got to show you love for your comments in: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5468610

[quantass]

4. Thanks. Damn you write well.... n/t

[crankychatter]

10. Canadian schools are like US Parochials

higher standards

[roguevalley]

12. go to americablog.com and see cafferty et al eviscerate Clinton/McCain

[anonymous171]

2. Good post!

:kick:

[Eurobabe]

3. It's easier for the media and HRC/JSM to take things out of context

so they have an ad to run. :eyes:

[ClayZ]

5. K and R

My money is on OBAMA, too!


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5468877&mesg_id=5468931

[TwilightGardener]

6. Americans don't want the truth. They want an Ivy-League educated, accomplished, successful

high-achiever who insultingly pretends to be a working-class, Toby Keith-listening, beer-drinkin', gun-worshiping, "small-town-values"-believin' regular Joe or Jane. This cognitive dissonance is killing us as a nation--this is why we can't have good, honest leaders anymore. We don't just want our politicians to know the price of milk and gas anymore--now they have to pander to the idiots who insist that a President be just as much of an ignorant dipshit as they are. That's why we had 8 years of Chimpy.

[customerserviceguy]

7. I have to say

I'm quite disappointed in this statement by Sen. Obama. It sounds patronizing to say this the way he said it.

What if McCain told a group of people in a blue state, "The reason you're liberal, believe in new-age religions, and are against the troops is because you've been unsuccessful in business or in your investment portfolio. If you had made a pile of money in the stock market, you wouldn't be so resentful of Republicans."

He'd be blasted for his attitudes, and that's how Sen. Obama is being "misinterpreted". I've realized for quite some time that Sen. Obama is seen as the latte-drinker's candidate, and Hillary is seen as the beer-drinker's candidate, and frankly, this part of this speech did nothing to change that.

[TwilightGardener]

9. Yeah, I've never had Republicans mock folks like me as unpatriotic, cut-and-run,

anti-family, anti-baby, anti-American terrorist sympathizers who want the government to take care of me. You're right, Republicans are ALWAYS so respectful of the people who vote Democratic. LOL!

[customerserviceguy]

16. And they do mock ordinary Americans

but not when they try to sell themselves as being able to bring the country together as the principal reason for electing them.

Don't get me wrong, I'm an Obama supporter, but this was a very ham-handed way for a man whose eloquence I admire to express himself. If he had focused on rural America's distrust of government, or broken promises, he would have been far more successful. His comments clearly show that he doesn't understand their concerns.

Out in rural America (even the part that votes Democratic, I lived in Western WA) people don't see their guns as some sort of fetish that they fondle to make them feel bad over losing a job. They see them as being used for recreational pursuits, such as hunting (to put a bit of food on the table) or for harmless target shooting. Also, they see them as protection, out in the nether reaches of a county, it can take a half hour for a sheriff to show up if you have a dangerous situation.

Similarly, people don't cling to even fundamentalist religion because they're upset the local factory closed, they have those religious traditions because their family, friends, and neighbors form a heightened sense of community with common religious belief structures.

And raising the antipathy of "people not like them" just out-and-out calls them racist. Sen. Obama ignores the fact that very many people in very predominantly white communities throughout the West and Midwest came out to support him over Sen. Clinton, who they associate with "more of the same". They may have some latent racism, but believe me, they don't like being called racist. I've found FAR more racism among white people here in that part of NY closest to the city than I ever saw out in timber country on the Olympic Peninsula.

Raising the "anti-immigrant" thing was ill-advised, as well. Undocumented workers often are quite burdensome out in rural communities that have a low tax base. They are often attracted to agricultural jobs in those areas, but the farmer with agricultural-use taxation on his land is not the one paying for the burden on the schools, the hospitals, and the law-enforcement resources. People who were used to leaving their doors unlocked and walking safely down town streets get fearful when they pick up the weekly paper, and see Hispanic names predominate in the police blotter section of the small town newsrag. And believe me, they read the thing from front to back, every issue out there.

I expect John McCain to insult my intelligence for not seeing Iraq the same way he does, but I don't expect Sen. Obama to do a similar thing.

[TwilightGardener]

17. I didn't read his remarks as people "fondling their guns" because

they're screwed economically. I read it as: people vote for certain tried-and-true interests (such as gun rights) because they don't expect a politician's promises to do anything about their economic plight to make a difference. They are skeptical, and thus they measure a candidate's worth by cultural issues, rather than more meaningful (but more complex and less-measurable) economic, trade, and war policies. You seem to think that Obama was making a planned speech to the masses here. He didn't--he made his remarks to someone at a closed fundraiser who asked him why there were so many Rust-Belt people that didn't trust him, and he spoke the truth. If that disturbs you, then, oh well. I think he honored his audience's intelligence by being honest, as opposed to the pandering political-calculation bullshit that Hillary always pulls--it's Hillary and McCain who are insulting our intelligence on a daily basis.

[customerserviceguy]

18. A poor choice of words

"cling to", in this case. Yes, I satirized it by using the word "fondle", but then, I'm not running for President. The word "cling" has obvious comparisons, very few of which are positive. We think of Peanuts' Linus as "clinging" to his security blanket, and that's what a lot of people are going to visualize when they read Sen. Obama's words about their guns and their religion.

I certainly acknowledge that Sen. Obama was speaking to a closed fundraiser in California, but with YouTube and camera cellphones, nothing said to anyone should be considered to be truly private anymore, especially when you are in the fishbowl of electoral politics. I know that Hillary often says different things to different people, but most of the time, she tries to have a stilted sense of internal consistency about it.

In any case, Sen. Obama certainly served up some red meat for Sens. McCain and Clinton to feast on with his remarks on religion; coming so quickly on the heels of the Rev. Wright controversy, they were especially ill-timed. As an atheist, I feel that religion is a crutch for many people, but I sure don't toss it in the faces of people I'm asking to trust me.

We've got a lot more to come on the gun thing--if Hillary is still viable when the Supreme Court comes out with its ruling, this issue will be front and center for at least a month, no matter which way the ruling goes. If Sen. Obama does not acknowledge the feelings of rural Americans in regard to possession of firearms (even if he respectfully disagrees with them), he's going to find his support from Western caucus states that overwhelmingly voted for him in deep jeopardy. They may be obligated to vote for him on a first ballot, but they might well vote to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations first.

[spartan61]

8. I so agree with what you wrote. It baffles me that anyone could

call Obama an elitist about this. He IS speaking the truth and the people in PA (and MI,OH, and the rest of the country) are bitter and frustrated. How many years have we been promised better days ahead only to be disappointed again and again? With Obama, I finally feel there is hope. Both Bill and Hillary have turned me completely off...and I used to be an avid Clinton supporter. Go Obama!!!

[MissWaverly]

11. some parts of PA have been ravaged by industry

they are slowing coming back but it's been a long, hard road, there was nothing to protect the environment or the workers from industry so some places do resemble your worst scenario for unchecked exploitation. I am not surprised he said that. I grew up in western Pennsylvania looking at slag dumps that turned the creeks green with their run off. I have great respect for the people in Pennsylvania but I think Obama was right. You go in a supermarket and the entire wall of the store is stocked with shelves for cigarettes, I have seen this no where else but there.

[SunsetDreams]

13. K&R

[Bensthename]

14. Agreed, Clintons NAFTA has been horrible for PA. If Obama uses that she is toast.

[uponit7771]

19. Bet cha he's loading the barrel with NAFTA bullets, Hillary went too far IMHO

[quantass]

15. Obama's backlogged with Clinton ammunition for the final week. n/t