****Hillary On Southern Working Class Whites: "Screw 'Em."****

[malik flavors]

What Did Hillary Say?

Alan Wolfe, a professor of political science and director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College, is a contributing editor at The New Republic.


Both Chris Orr and Michael Crowley have brought up Ben Barber’s recollection of how angry Hillary had been at a 1995 Camp David retreat that was attended by a number of intellectuals. “Screw ‘em” was the term of art she directed--shall I say bitterly?--against white working-class Southerners. Harry Boyte, who was there, has also chimed in, pointing out, along with Barber, that Bill, by contrast, talked about the need to reach out to them.


"So, you've got two guys we've barely heard of remembering a verbatim quote from 13 years ago?... Sounds totally and completely reliable," responded Jay Carson from the Clinton campaign. Make that three. I was there. I hope people have heard of me. And Barber and Boyte have it right.

A lot of people compare Barack Obama to Bobby Kennedy. To me, he most resembles Bill Clinton, at least the Bill Clinton I knew then.

--Alan Wolfe

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/04/16/what-did-hillary-say.aspx

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/16/hillary-clinton-on-workin_n_97017.html

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/04/16/quot-screw-em-quot.aspx

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/archive/2008/04/16/hillary-quot-screw-em-quot.aspx

[MADem]

1. Gee, who was doing coke and smoking weed around that time?

This is relevant, how? When did PA move south of the Mason Dixon, too?

Please.

[malik flavors]

2. Haha, that's some fine spin you got there. Well, it was as good as you could do, I suppose.

[FrenchieCat]

3. When Ed Rendel, the Governor, brought up Alabama and

the fact that White voters in PA wouldn't vote for a Black man. Sounded like the South to me. What aBout to you? :shrug:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. Geraldine Ferraro.

:smoke:

[mckeown1128]

6. If you are implying Obama... you're an idiot...

he was a community organizer. "when did PA move south of Mason Dixon"... I thought the problems was that Obama was being elitist... I guess it is only elitist if one "denigrates" voters of an upcoming primary as opposed to those primaries that have already passed. :eyes:

[MADem]

12. Ah, community organizers don't have time to stop by the rectory and do a few lines, is that it?

Whatever...

And coke ain't cheap. It's an elite drug, for that elite Studio 54 crowd!

My point--drag up ancient shit, and don't be surprised if ancient shit comes back and bites you.

[cali]

18. this ancient shit is biting hillary right in the ass- because it's germane

she made it so when she went full tilt after Obama. His comment was awkwardly stated empathy for people getting screwed. Her's was that she hoped that working class southern whites got screwed. And ya know, I think hill was screwing around on bill with some gal in 1994.

[MADem]

22. Anyone can play the "ancient shit" game. That's my point. Be careful what you wish for.

That's a pretty low post of yours, you know. You've outdone yourself. Did you read that crap at Free Republic, or did Ann Coulter pass it along?

[Arrowhead2k1]

7. Please?

Why are you still clinging to Hillary? Bitter? :rofl:

[Hugabear]

8. VERY relevant, especially if you're going to keep calling Obama an "elitist"

If something that Hillary said back in the 90s, during her husband's administration, isn't relevant, then neither is anything else she did back then.

Can't have it both ways.

[MADem]

10. Well, only those elites could afford that pricy coke! Can't have it both ways, indeed...

:rofl:

[cali]

13. it's not a matter of relevance. it's whether or not it's damaging

dissing working class people in stark language isn't a winner- for any politician.

Oh, and no, sorry, BitterDem, Obama wasn't doing coke or weed in 1995. And if you start in with the "as far as I know" shit, I have a response all warmed up.

[MADem]

27. You know that for a fact, how? NT

[NJmaverick]

15. It gives an insight into Hillary's true feelings toward the White working class

What makes even more significant is it directly contradicts the claims she has been making this week.

[MADem]

16. No, it doesn't. It gives an insight into a specific subgroup that turned their back on her husband

to vote against their own economic interests. It says more about her loyalty to her husband than anything else.

[NJmaverick]

17. and this is different than the Reagan Democrats in PA how?

Same group, just a different region.

[MADem]

19. No, it isn't the same. Those working class southerners left the D's after LBJ signed the civil

rights movement. They were Republicans of the Strom Thurmond variety.

In PA, these are Catholic, conservative, Democrats. Murtha fans.

[NJmaverick]

20. Ahhhhh NO

This is from Huffington:

<<The statement -- which author Benjamin Barber witnessed and wrote about in his book, "The Truth of Power: Intellectual Affairs in the Clinton White House" -- was prompted by another speaker raising the difficulties of reaching "Reagan Democrats.">>

[MADem]

21. They were DINOS. They voted GOP across the ticket, unless some

odd Zell Miller type crossed their paths.

Party registration means shit. It's how they vote that matters.

[Danger Mouse]

26. not obama.

[Selatius]

4. If you want to win rural, blue-collar workers, two words: Economic Populism.

Talk about things they understand. They understand the factory down the road closing down. They understand their stagnating wages and the ever-increasing cost of living. They know they're being fucked by Wall Street, but nobody listens. What Democrats there are are too timid to openly talk about the class warfare in America that the rich are winning. They don't want to be called communists. Instead, too many Dems get themselves trapped into "identity politics" over things such as gay marriage, guns, prayer in schools, abortion, or any other social wedge issue.

Repubs love those wedge issues because they know it is a battlefield they can win on, but if you refuse to enter that arena and simply fight in your own arena of pushing economic issues and solutions to working class problems, you stand a better chance of winning.

[The Magistrate]

9. Well Said, Sir

"Class war is the only war."

[TahitiNut]

14. Are you saying ...

... they're not made happy, happy, happy by Hill*Mart greetings?? :rofl:

Low Wages!

Save money. Live bitter.

[anonymous171]

11. If anyone is an "elitist" it's Hillary.

Hasn't her contempt for the working class individual been well documented during her years as first lady?

[Writer]

23. I thought we were beyond these silly "distractions."

I thought that pulling old (very old) stories from the past only distracts us from the "real" issues facing America today.

Or was I mistaken?

[mrreowwr_kittty]

24. So you agree that Obama should not have to answer for people who did something back when he was 8.

That's good to know. :thumbsup:

[Writer]

28. Actually, yeah. I really do agree with that. n/t

[Danger Mouse]

25. you can't have it both ways.

which is it?