I was camping all weekend and caught the tail end of MTP. What the HELL

[Laura PourMeADrink]

is the big deal over?

I just read the transcript. I see a thoughtful, intellectual assessment (that we are not used to
hearing - just like the "race speech") of a segment of society.

What is the big deal? Why were they saying that this is the "end of his campaign" ?

Is there more to this whole thing?

[crankychatter]

1. they'll keep "deanscreaming" him - I think it's a losing strategy

this time

[stellanoir]

2. My ridiculous elder brother who voted for * twice

said the very same thing over lunch today.

[panader0]

3. Much ado over nothing

Hillary grasping at straws.

[nichomachus]

4. No

People -- including some Democrats, unfortunately, are so used to being treated like children and repeatedly lied to by PR consultants that when someone tells the truth, all hell breaks loose.

[BeatleBoot]

5. It's no big deal. Don't worry about it.

Much ado about nothing.

[Nitrogenica]

6. Just because they say it, doesn't make it so.

It sounded as if they said "it's over" because they want it to be over.

It was as plain as day to me, their whole posture was to take him down with their falsehoods.

Has "Meet The Press" become irrelevant? I think it is getting more and more irrelevent every time they have that panel on the show.

I think the American people are tired of every one of those pundits.

[Divernan]

7. Wait till you see the pics of HRC belting down a shot and a beer with a bunch of guys at some PA bar

(As to what news you missed this weekend)

Like she does that every Saturday night! Beleive me, Pennsylvania women, especially of her (and my) generation, do NOT drink like that. Next she'll be stuffing a pair of socks in a flight suit. I know Maggie Thatcher, Angela Merkle or Indira Ghandi did not have to be that undignified to get elected.

[2rth2pwr]

8. It's just beginning

Here is what Sen. Obama said:

"You go into 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. 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."


Here is what Sen. Obama now says he said:


"So I said, 'Well, you know, when you're bitter you turn to what you can count on,' " he continued. "So people they vote about guns, or they take comfort from their faith and their family and their community. And they get mad about illegal immigrants who are coming over to this country or they get frustrated about, you know, how things are changing. That's a natural response."


1. Note how version #1's "cling" becomes version #2's "vote about" and "take comfort from"—as the condescending dismissal becomes empathetic understanding.


2. Note how version #1's "religion" and "antipathy to people who aren't like them" becomes version #2's "faith" and "their family and community" —as fundamentalist xenophobes now become beleaguered folks who band together against the unfairness.


3 Note how version #1's "anti-immigrant" becomes version #2's "mad about illegal immigrants" —as the nativist who opposes all immigrants, legal and illegal, now becomes understandably angry only about those coming here illegally.


4. Note how version #1's "as a way to explain their frustrations" becomes version #2's "they get frustrated about" as the misguided scape-goaters become those who react understandably to adversity.


5. Note no explanation in version #2 for version #1's "anti-trade sentiment"—and no wonder since Obama himself is embarrassed that so far he's voiced far more "anti-trade sentiment" than those he caricatured.


6. Note how version #1's "And it's not surprising then they get bitter" becomes version #2's "your'e" and "you" and "Thats a natural response", as the condescending use of the embittered and distant "they" now morphs into a kindred "you" and the quip "not surprising" becomes the sympathetic "natural."


7. Note how version #1's idiotic logic that Middle-America has only become religious or pro-gun in the last 25 years as a result of job loss is simply omitted.

8. Note how there is sudddenly no "context" for the landscape of version #1: an elite Bay-area audience that is told stories about those Pennsylvanian gun-toting zealots.

[cooolandrew]

9. Nah just another overblown hysteria. Nothing to see here.