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Obama Insults the democrat Base

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Boom_70, Apr 13, 2008.

  1. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    Oh, really? What issues were analyzed in Ohio/Texas?

    Reducing the deficit?

    Paying off the 10's of trillions of dollars owed?

    Definitive, substantive plans on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

    Stopping illegal immigration? Resolution on the tens of millions of undocumented workers living in this country?

    A national plan for the ending this country's energy dependence from countries who hate our guts?

    A real, viable alternative energy plan for the next 50 years?
     
  2. NAFTA - enjoyed in Texas, hated in Ohio.
     
  3. zeke12

    zeke12 Guest

    And, when confronted with your complete lack of coherence, you reach for more of same.

    The above says plenty about you, and nothing else about anything.
     
  4. three_bags_full

    three_bags_full Well-Known Member

    When are you guys going to realize that they're all fucking scumbags, and none of them are looking out for our interests?
     
  5. old_tony

    old_tony Well-Known Member

    Better yet, when are they going to realize it's not government's job to look out for our interests?
     
  6. Piotr Rasputin

    Piotr Rasputin New Member

    That's why it upsets people.

    No one wants to hear that their supposedly crappy lives have led them to "cling to" the things they believe in. No one wants to think that they're part of a group that only likes guns and religion because their communities are losing jobs.

    Obama is correct regarding the plight of the small towns, and how bitterness can lead people to, yes, "cling to" something. He could have phrased it better, sure. Because it does come off as him categorizing people in a certain way.

    He misspoke. It doesn't matter. Yet another minor annoyance that his opponents will bray about, but which won't stick to him. It will only take him off message for a brief time, which is all Hillary and McCain can hope for at this point.
     
  7. Bob Cook

    Bob Cook Active Member

    The last time someone spent a lot of time in Indiana studying the mores of the working class, they too were confounded by why they voted against their economic self-interest.

    Of course, I'm talking about the Lunds and their Middletown studies. And I believe they wrote much about how the working class clung to religion, though I don't recall whether they used that exact term.
     
  8. zeke12

    zeke12 Guest

    And I can understand that initial reaction, that almost-instinctive need to feel like you have more control both over your life and your rituals than you might.

    But I certainly can't believe anyone would get upset at a politician for pointing it out in 2008. It's not as though this is a new argument. It's historical, at this point.
     
  9. Bob Cook

    Bob Cook Active Member

    If there's a reason for people to be insulted that he pointed this out, it's because he's copped to how politicians push every religion and gun button they can to get the shitkickers to vote for them before they kick their shit away. I mean, geez, John Kerry in camoflauge?
     
  10. I was always an Evan Bayh fan. He's a bit in the Edwards mold, but not as flaky. He also appeals to both Dems and GOP.

    I know he was talked about as making a possible run for pres this time - he could be a vp candidate, but honestly he doesn't have the name recognition.
     
  11. Chi City 81

    Chi City 81 Guest

    Here's the quote I was looking for:

    "If [Republicans] could cut funding for Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the environment, middle-class Americans would see fewer benefits from their tax dollars, feel more resentful paying taxes, and become even more receptive to their appeals for tax cuts and their strategy of waging campaigns on divisive social and cultural issues like abortion, gay rights, and guns." -- Bill Clinton, in his 2004 memoirs, My Life, making the same argument as Sen. Barack Obama.
     
  12. WriteThinking

    WriteThinking Well-Known Member

    Exactly. What Zeke 12 and Piotr Rasputin said.

    I've spent much of today reading and listening to analysis of these words, and, at first, I thought maybe it was just me. I just didn't see what the big deal was with what was said, or how it was said.

    I even looked up the word bitter, in the dictionary, and in the thesaurus, just to see if I was missing something. And frankly, the bitter truth is that "bitter" very probably was the right and best word that could/should have been used in this context.

    Then I tried to come up with another word that I, perhaps, would have used instead, had I been trying to say, describe or explain the same things. And the only comparable, possible word that I came up with that I thought maybe could have conveyed the same thoughts in what might have been a more general and slightly less emotive way was "disillusioned."

    But as a newspaper person taught to strive for maximum simplicity, clarity and impact, I like "bitter" infinitely better.

    Hm, come to think of it, perhaps Obama did, in fact, mean just exactly what he said.

    And I still see nothing wrong with it.
     
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