The media, Hillary and McCain are full of crap. Small town America, opportunity and Iraq (Updated)

[ProSense]

Small U.S. towns bear scars from Iraq

Updated 2/19/2007 4:21 PM ET

By Kimberly Hefling, Associated Press

MCKEESPORT, Pa. — Edward "Willie" Carman wanted a ticket out of town, and the Army provided it. Raised in the projects by a single mother in this blighted, old industrial steel town outside Pittsburgh, the 18-year-old saw the U.S. military as an opportunity.

<...>

When Carman died in Iraq three years ago at age 27, he had money saved for college, a fiancee and two kids — including a baby son he'd never met. Neighbors in Hawthorne's mobile home park collected $400 and left it in an envelope in her door.

<...>

Across the nation, small towns are quietly bearing a disproportionate burden of war. Nearly half of the more than 3,100 U.S. military casualties in Iraq have come from towns like McKeesport, Pa., where fewer than 25,000 people live, according to an analysis by the Associated Press. One in five hailed from hometowns of less than 5,000.

Many of the hometowns of the war dead aren't just small, they're poor. The AP analysis found that nearly three quarters of those killed in Iraq came from towns where the per capita income was below the national average. More than half came from towns where the percentage of people living in poverty topped the national average.

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Diminished opportunities are one factor in higher military enlistment rates in rural areas. From 1997 to 2003, 1.5 million rural workers lost their jobs due to changes in industries like manufacturing that have traditionally employed rural workers, according to the Carsey Institute.

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Tell us how http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/1/85359/24244/36/488126">NAFTA helped? Tell us how the Colombian trade deal will help? Tell us how 5 years of an illegal war helps?

US GIs in Iraq suffer worst week of '08

By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 59 minutes ago

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed an American soldier in Baghdad on Saturday, capping the bloodiest week for U.S. troops in Iraq this year. Clashes persisted in Shiite areas, even as the biggest Shiite militia sought to rein in its fighters.

At least 13 Shiite militants were killed in the latest clashes in Baghdad's militia stronghold of Sadr City, the U.S. military said. Iraqi police said seven civilians also died in fighting, which erupted Friday night and tapered off Saturday.

The U.S. military said the American soldier was killed in a blast Saturday morning in northwestern Baghdad but did not say whether Shiite militiamen were responsible.

The death raised to at least 19 the number of American trooper

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US military deaths in Iraq at 4,031

The outrage is phony, and Hillary knows all about being a phony:

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com">Hillary Responds to Obama's Comments on the People of PA (Video)

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/23/14417/7638/731/434555">Hillary to Obama: 'Shame on you' (Video)

Hillary Clinton Joins In (Video)

Update:

A ‘bitter turn’ — Clinton goes nuclear, Obama goes on the defensive

Posted April 12th, 2008 at 4:45 pm

When it comes to the political world, I get the sense “bitter-gate” — yep, the story apparently now gets a “gate” — went from zero to 60 in just a couple of seconds.

Obama is pushing back hard…

(Video)

…while Clinton is sounding an awful lot like a Republican candidate.

(Video)

It’s unfortunate, but in some ways, this flap reinforces why a prolonged Democratic primary process is bad for the party. We now have two dominant forces — the Republican machine and the Clinton machine — simultaneously arguing, vehemently and loudly, that the likely Democratic nominee is an elitist, out-of-touch liberal who doesn’t like working families and embraces un-American values. It’s absurd, but that’s exactly the message dominating the political landscape right now.

As Noam Scheiber put it, “Strange how the Clinton approach to strengthening the Democratic Party is remarkably similar to the GOP’s approach to strengthening the Democratic Party.”

Now, it’s probably not quite that simple. Clinton smells blood in the water, and figures this is arguably her last real chance to bury the frontrunner.

But therein lies the biggest problem: Obama’s remarks were clumsy, but the forced outrage is excessive and disproportionate.

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Hillary has perfected the Reub hissy fit.




Edited title, change PA to America.

[PM7nj]

1. They're disgusting.

I have tried not to be too harsh toward Clinton and her supporters, but then she does shit like this and it just makes my angry... and bitter!

[azmouse]

2. Yet another excellent well-researched post from you.

Great information! Thank you.

[ProSense]

3. Out of touch:

UPDATE: Obama Macacaed?? Clinton Supporter?? I Just Saw Why Obama Will Be the Next President

by EmperorHadrian
Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 10:25:41 PM PDT

Obama is being attacked by Hillary and McCain for speaking the truth. I have news for Hillary and McCain, neither of whom has lived outside of Washington DC since the Reagan/Bush era. People in states like Pennsylvania are bitter. They have lost their jobs, their livelihoods, their health insurance, and their chance to send their kids to college. Their local economies have collapsed, while insular politicians like McCain and Hillary have been touting the wonders of the "free market" and "free trade". What is insulting is the suggestion that Obama, the son of a single mother and a goat herder, is the elitist. And yet, McCain (the son and grandson of two admirals) and Hillary (who earned $110 million over the last 7 years) are the average Joes. But this has proven why Obama is going to be the next president. McCain and Hillary say that voters are "optimistic" despite losing their jobs and livelihoods. Voters have been seeing through this poll-tested faux reality for 20 years. It is McCain and Hillary, not Obama, who are out of touch.

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Hillary and McCain do not understand what a movement is: it's that thing that has the status quo protecting assholes scratching their heads and screaming cult!

[bigdarryl]

4. So McCain Clinton ticket is calling Obama out of touch when he was raised by a....

Single white mother father left him and his mother was poor and these two Washington insiders had the nerve to say he is out of touch with working people.MAN!!! what has this country come to

[Scurrilous]

5. K & R

:thumbsup:

[ProSense]

6. These people are probably bitter

And, if Hillary doesn't think people are bitter, she might talk to some of the creditors owed large sums by her campaign. I imagine some of them are bitter since they're now talking about taking Hillary's campaign to collections. But for Hillary to talk to real people means she would have to step out of the overly-scripted, focus group tested, elitist, out-of-touch bubble that she's lived in for 16 years. Instead, she's just delivering GOP talking points in order to hurt our chances of beating McCain in the fall.

link

Ouch! Hillary's campaign debt:

Clinton Campaign May Soon Be Getting Call From Collections Agency

[truedelphi]

8. I will designing an ad for Obama: AMerica it is three Am and when the phone

Rings with yet another call from a debt collector, I will answer the phone and tell that debt collector that when I am elected President we will get rid of NAFTA, end cheap imports from China and build up America's manufacturing base.

[ProSense]

7. Congressional Republicans, Afraid of Obama, Throw Hail Mary Pass to Try to Keep Him From Nomination

Congressional Republicans, Afraid of Obama, Throw Hail Mary Pass to Try to Keep Him From Nomination

by DHinMI
Sat Apr 12, 2008 at 04:53:00 PM PDT

Via Jake Tapper:

Focusing this time on Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., the National Republican Congressional Committee is trying to damn local Democrats with the comments about small towns made by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

"Jason Altmire Should Stop Flirting With Obama Campaign," says an NRCC news release sent to local media in the Keystone State. "Time for Superdelegate to Say Who He Supports."

NRCC Communications Director Karen Hanretty then says, "Congressman Jason Altmire, a superdelegate who’s been flirting with Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and who has received $10,000 from Obama's Hope Fund PAC, should denounce Sen. Obama’s statement that Pennsylvania voters are ‘bitter’ and ‘cling to guns or religion’ because they ‘can’t count on Washington.’

Barack Obama's comments about the bitterness of Americans let down by their government has prompted derision from the Clintons, John McCain and the Congressional Republicans, who are all saying roughly the same thing. Is it good for Democratic politics to have message discipline between Hillary Clinton and the GOP?

The motives behind the attacks on Obama are also similar. Of course Clinton is trying to deny Obama the nomination. She can't win, as is obvious to anyone who can figure out the delegate math, unless Obama drops out. So this is just another pathetic attempt at what the journalist Elizabeth Drew, writing about Clinton's tactics in this campaign, calls "molehill politics." If Obama is eventually seen as unelectable, then he'll have to step aside and Clinton will become the nominee. At this point, that's her only way of winning the nomination.

So molehill politics it is, trying to create a controversy where there is none, trying to distort Obama's statements, and trying to deny the truth in what he said in favor of pushing sunny nostrums about how people getting screwed by our economic system of the last 40 years are upbeat, optimistic and resilient (all while jobs leave their communities, their kids leave home for big cities or become soldiers because they can't afford to become students, homeowners and parents, and they feel the government hasn't done a damn thing to help them out).

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[ProSense]

9. Relying on bogus retention argument, McCain opposes modernized GI Bill

Relying on bogus retention argument, McCain opposes modernized GI Bill

[politicasista]

10. K&R

:kick: