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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Monday, April 14, 2008

The "Bitter" Truth About Obama's "Bitter" Remarks

Barack Obama's spin machine was really buzzing on Sunday. I received twelve emails from advisers Matt Ehlrich and Sean Smith to tell me how much Pennsylvania sportsmen really hate Hillary Clinton. Oh yeah, twenty-one small town officials think she's horrible, too, and they've even sent a letter.

Exactly where that letter has been sent is unclear, but it sounds pretty damn official. When the President of the Pa. Forestry Association speaks, I listen.

Obama's campaign has gone into overdrive because of this.

"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. 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."

That's something Obama recently said. It's by no means the end of the world for him, although he's pretty much ruined any hope he had of pulling an upset in Pa. No presidential candidate should speak of religion as though it is some dark superstition. Nazareth is one of those religious small towns, and its residents will certainly resent being called xenophobic gun nuts.

"I said something that everybody knows is true. ... I didn't say it as well as I should have," is how Obama explains. Well, what the hell did he intend to say? How is this anything other than a slam against those with religious principles or who have more conservative views? It's difficult to avoid the conclusion that Barack looks down his nose at us.

Of course, many Pennsylvanians are upset. In towns both big and small, jobs have been exported to China at the rate of 15,640 per year. In addition, China has blocked all efforts to stop the genocide in Darfur - where over 400,000 people have been senselessly slaughtered - because it might interfere with oil production. China's 1951 invasion of Tibet resulted in the ethnic cleansing of over 1 million countrymen. It continues today, a Han "manifest destiny," in which both Tibetans and their cultural identity are slowly being erased. At home, Chinese routinely execute at least 1,000 people every year. Bullets in the back of the head do the trick, while transplant surgeons stand by to harvest still pulsating organs.

Very efficient.

So how does Barack feel about this brutal regime - one of the chief causes of the bitterness he notices here in Pennsylvania? In a written statement, he claims to be concerned about China's failure to respect human rights. But when actually speaking to voters in Chester County, the message is much different.

"It's very hard to tell your banker he is wrong," is what Obama says, according to The Morning Call's Scott Kraus. Not much hopeful in that statement, is there?

Neville Chamberlain would be proud.
Update: As William Kristol notes, there's little difference between Obama's condescending observation that we "cling" to religion and that of another thinker. "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of a soulless condition. It is the opium of the people.” That thinker was Karl Marx.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Obama all the way!

Anonymous said...

I don't care what he believes is a symptom of losing good paying jobs, but as long as he has a plan to rebuild them.

"Vote Obama For Your Momma!"

Anonymous said...

Obama is a prep school elitist who was very comfortable making those remarks about Pennsylvanians in Marin County CA. He simply fed red meat to the assembled as an excuse in advance of his expected loss in PA.

Occasionally in life we get a glimpse of the person behind the facade. We just got one of Obama.

Anonymous said...

What he said was true.. Those idiots in central Pa. vote on guns and abortion all the time. They are morons. They vote thoose issues ahead of their own economic survival. If you are that stupid and it only affects yourselfthat is one thing. However, when these hillbillies have kids they starve because of their parents pathetic beliefs..he was honest..So shoot him..

Anonymous said...

William Kristol. He's Mr. Objective.

bob said...

I really feel bad for anonymous, "What he said was true". Is this a typical democrat observation? If democrats have this belief that those who have differing points of view are "morons", I am glad I am a republican. Also, I would rather be friends with them rather then the "blind" who repeatedly vote demcrat in Philly and Pitsburgh. Sorry, guns and roses aren't all that bad.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Anon 3:49,

Actually, those idiots have a vote that means just as much as your vote. And if those morons, as you so charitably refer to them, are interested in their own economic survival, they should not vote for Obama. Obama, while branding small town voters, is very careful to do nothing that might arise the ire of the one country that has done more to damage us econom,ically than any other.

Bernie O'Hare said...

William Kristol. He's Mr. Objective.

I'm more interested in whether Kristol is accurate than in his objectivity. In this instance, he is deadly accurate.

Anonymous said...

Of course Bob is a Republican!! It is obvious. He can't help twist words to suit his point of view. I said that those who vote on guns and abortion before their family's economic health are morons. He said that I said that those who have different points of view are morons. Bob, give it up. Change your party before you have no idea what you are thinking or saying. You have become Rush!! God help you..We'll pray for you, and Bernie!!

Bernie O'Hare said...

Anon 4:37, 3:49,

I don't know how to break this to you, but you don't persuade small town America to vote for Obama by calling its residents "idiots" or "morons" or "hillbillies." Now, I have no degree in political science, but that just stikes me as a really lousy way to appeal to voters. Oh yeah, slamming Rs is another good way to enhance Barack's image.

I've noticed his supporters are an awful lot like those Ron Paul nuts who filled the internet with spam for at leadt six moneths.

Who knows, maybe Barack Obama actually is Ron Paul.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Anon 4:37 you wrote:
"What he said was true.. Those idiots in central Pa. vote on guns and abortion all the time. They are morons."

You did not write "those who vote on guns and abortion before their family's economic health are morons," as you later claimed. Nowhere in your original post did you distinguish between different types of central PA voters. What you wrote, the way you wrote it, seems to generalized them all as the stupid hillbillies.

I may not agree with Bob, but he didn't twist your words. You did.

Anonymous said...

DNC Chairman Howard Dean is one of those gun nuts. Just try getting elected in progressive Vermont on an anti-gun platform.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is one of those abortion nuts.

Painting with broad brush strokes makes the painters work look stupid.

Anonymous said...

Marx was right at least once, I see.

Anonymous said...

I think the key thing is that he was pitching this at a closed door fundraiser in CA to people who had money to give with the intent to fire-up people.

The question is would he have said this to small town PA and IN. I thin not. Intent or not, he should get the same scrutiny as the other candidates.

This is "Wright talk" not "Right Talk", IMO

Anonymous said...

next thing ya know will all be labeled hooftys.

Anonymous said...

Suppose he would have said "Economic conditions brought about by administrations going back as far as Reagan have caused discontent and perhaps even bitterness among those who have been impacted the most. These people take solice in their strong religous conviction, and desire for the preservation of their constitutional rights. Those beliefs were utiluzed against them by candidate after candidate as the economic conditions continue to decline..." The fact of the matter is what he said was true. How it was spun to "Obama says PA citizens are bitter" that is simply politics at it's worse. Too many people buy into spin. Whats really important in this election is every problem in this Country can by traced back to one cause, special interests. The current war is being fought because it is highly profitable for "certain entities". I have to pause on this one because the thought that we are making ourselves more secure by fanning the flames of anti American sentiment in a part of the world that has no American interests or valuse other than Oil. Which by the way, we depend on oil because it is highly profitable for "certain entities". Healtcare is out of control because it is highly profitable for "certain entities". Illegal immigrant workers and shipping jobs overseas is highly profitable for "certain entites". The only way to fix Washington, and move to changing America that really works for all Americans is to elect a candidate that is not owned by special interest. Right now there's only one.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Too many people buy into spin.

I agree and that's exactly what you are doing.

Anonymous said...

It's spin that the American policy and Americas woes are dominated by special interests? Its spin that Clinton and McCain have significant special interest contributors. Its spin that the Millions of Dollars that the Clintopns income have grown with since his presidency are not the pay back for his loyalty and buy in for hers... It's spin that Obama's campaign is made of individual donors and no special interests but has yet exceeded every other campaign in history. Or is it spin when truth about american sentiment is turned into a negative characterization. Or is it spin when you claim to be battle tested under fire.. (with your daughter and a little girl with you). Or is it spin when you have a mandate for healthcare, but no mandate for getting to those who still cant afford it. Or is it spin thay whe a candidate tells it like it is no matter how ugly the truth is the only comments are tisk tisk America is better than that. Hoping pride will get in the way of reality. Is it spin that every other candidate has to grasp at everything then can to take as hot at this except... what... heaven forbid... an issue. Plan for plan detail for detail Obama's website has put it out there from "day one". I think you are quite confused about who is being into spin...

Bernie O'Hare said...

Anon 12:41,

The truth is that Obama regularly relied on special interests (PACs and lobbyists) in his bid to be elected to the US Senate and to the Illinois legislature.

Just today, USAToday
reports that Obama's advertising is misleading. "It's accurate that Obama doesn't take money from oil companies; neither do his opponents, because corporate contributions are illegal. But Obama, like Clinton and John McCain, has accepted donations from oil and gas company employees — $222,309 in Obama's case from donors from Exxon, Shell, Chevron and others, according to campaign-finance data. Two oil company CEOs have pledged to raise at least $50,000 each as part of Obama's fundraising team."

Basically, the oil companies themselves are evil, but the employees who run them want to elect Obama.

Another flat out lie concerns lobbyists. "Barack Obama often boasts he is “the only candidate who isn’t taking a dime from Washington lobbyists,” yet his fundraising team includes 38 members of law firms that were paid $138 million last year to lobby the federal government, records show."

Keep on spinning, but it's not working here.

Anonymous said...

It appears obvious to me, by this blog and the comments, that most people spend way too much time behind a computer screen and not enough time in the real world. Get your butt off the computer chair, get in your gas guzzling elitist Lexus SUV, and go visit some of the small towns in Pennsylvania. You'll find that many people in this state are bitter and they “are” clinging to guns, religion and hatred for people not like them. My job requires me to travel and work in 26 PA counties from Lehigh to Potter. I get to meet and talk to a lot of frustrated people. Bitterness about losing jobs, gas prices, the Iraq war, taxes, etc., is rampant.
(Visit Hazleton if you don’t believe me).

Since the people can’t do much about those things they become frustrated. They show their frustration by hating anyone not like them, by thinking their god is the only god and that they have the right to kill squirrels with an assault rifle.

People are reading way too much into the Obama comments. They’re letting the media feed them truckloads of garbage and they believe it. Don’t listen to those over-paid nitwits. Go find the truth yourself. Think outside the modem.

By the way, I’m not a Democrat or Republican. I’m just a bitter, small town, Independent voter getting really frustrated with this “he said, she said” democratic campaign.

Bernie O'Hare said...

Anon 11:45,

I don't have to waste gas to look for this mythical small town. I happen to live in one of them. People here are religious and sure like to hunt, but they don't "cling" to religiuon or the NRA. Obama's remarks made him sound more like Karl Marx than a presidential contender, and he himself has finally admiteed he "mangled" his comments.

Bernard P. Fife said...

I also live in a small town (Macungie) and grew up in a small town (Hellertown) and I respectively disagree. The frustration caused by bitterness with the Bush administration is all over Main Street. Just visit your local barber shop on a busy day and listen.