Obama did NOT say that people are religious because

[ashling]

times are bad ! Some Penn. County chair was just on Hardball saying that Obama did not understand the people of his county because of what he said. This guy said that the people in his county are conservativ on religion and Second Ammendment issues and Democratic on Economic issue.

That is exactly what Obama understands. The point Obama made was that given the fact that Democrats and Republicans have failed them on economic issues, that the issues that they vote on are the conservative ones because Washington , including the Clinton admin, has promised them economic help and not delivered.

:puke: :grr:

[Jane Austin]

1. To make it worse, Tweety tweaks the words and then stuffs them back in

Obama's mouth - with a new meaning.

[tridim]

2. Clinton's surrogates are just as bad as she is

They should be ashamed, but I know they're not.

[Life Long Dem]

3. I don't watch cable news when it's all spin and no one to defend Obama.

And PA already gets what Obama said.

[smalll]

4. except Obama INCLUDED "ANTI-TRADE" in his litany of small-town faults.

Unfortunately for him, he was NOT making the wedge-issue point. He just wasn't talking about it at that point -- Republicans, elections and voting were not mentioned.

If he had said that the small-towners "cling" to just God, guns, racism and anti-immigrant sentiment, you might have a case. ALL of those are things around which Republicans build wedge-issue campaigns. Barack ALSO said that the small-towners cling to "anti-trade" sentiment as well. THE REPUBLICANS DON'T PUSH ANTI-TRADE! Obama and his campaign, in fact, seem to have tended to try to position themselves as slightly to the left of Hillary on that issue up until this point.

He wasn't talking about wedge-issues or voting patterns. He was talking about "those people" themselves and their culture. He roped up everything he finds in the small towns -- bad things (racism, xenophobia) -- good or neutral things (God, guns/hunting) -- and even a lefty thing ("anti-trade") -- and damned it. He was saying to the San Fransiscans that if those people out there had better jobs/more money, they'd be secular, non-gun-owning, racially-tolerant internationalists comfortable with globalism: in other words, they'd be latte liberals, just like the San Fransiscans.

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. A classic "here's what Obama really said" thread.

It reminds me of Dennis Hopper explaining Kurtz in Apocalypse Now