Obama Insults the democrat Base

It was bound to happen sooner or later but this one is a whopper:

"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."

 

In case your eyes and ears have been closed for 30 years, THAT is the GOP base.

 

Democratic.

Because, yes, God forbid a candidate ever deviate from the "values" script we've been listening to since morning first dawned in America, ca. 1980.

That Sen. Obama is right in everything he said will now be the least of his problems for the next month.

 

"A gaffe is when a politiciian tells the truth." -- Michael Kinsley

 

No - the gaffe is when the politician apologizes for telling the truth.

 

A whopper?
The Republican candidate has been stumbling for a week and a half on the most important issues of the day, and this is a whopper?
And I think a guy who married into a trophy-wife fortune to launch his political career is ill-suited to calling anyone an "elitist."

 

This has little to do with McCain at this point. The lady who condemned it the strongest filed a tax return that showed she made 109 million dollars in the past 2 years - talk about elitist.

As said time and time again I would consider crossing over to vote for Obama but I don't like some of these warts that are popping up.

 

The truth is a wart? Hence, perhaps, the phrase, "warts and all."

 

Actually, McCain jumped in, too.
This is what happens when you tell the truth in a country that's given up on the best parts of itself.

 

Maybe we need to cross reference Mr. Obama's remarks with stories like this:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i3VBU1aYOc2zjh_q2M8uTybbNlRAD900PRH00

 

Is Craig Franklin running for President?

 

Obama's fantastic, and I'm an enthusiastic supporter, but I really do think he erred on this one. I DO think this comes across as an insult, even though I very much don't think he meant it that way.

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of 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.

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."

"These small towns" is bad. It implies that the "clingers" are everywhere, the majority. Its net is too wide. And "cling" perverts the statement's tone - instead of seeming to empathize with these economically troubled people who've been manipulated using hot-button wedge issues, it sounds like he's judging them. I think "clinging to religion," finally, is particularly bad - makes it sound like he's saying that all religious people in small Midwest town only go to church because they're so damn pissed off at the world.

What he meant to say, I think, was: "Many people in these small towns in the Midwest are angry at government. The jobs have been gone for 25 years, and nothing has 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 the Republicans have attempted to exploit that anger, and get these people to vote on religious issues like same-sex marriage, or on gun rights; they try to get them to dislike immigrants...and some of them, because of the Republican effort or simply as a way to explain their frustrations, develop anti-immigrant sentiment, or antipathy to people who aren't like them, or anti-trade sentiment, or they end up voting on perceived religious issues. They get distracted from their real interests."

The "some," the emphasis on cynical Republican manipulation, and the removal of "clinging to religion" changes it very much, I think.

Some of my smartest Obama-y friends think differently. But those are my thoughts.

Hope it doesn't trouble him too much.