Were Obama’s “Bitter” Comments a Belittling Blunder?
Some Penn. Voters Say Candidate’s “Bitter” Comments Turned Them to Clinton
By JAKE TAPPER
Apr. 14, 2008-
Located on the Susquehanna River between Lancaster and York, Columbia is the kind of small Pennsylvania town that factories left long ago, never to be replaced. It is perhaps the kind of “small town” Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama was talking about last week when he made the assessment of small town American voters as “bitter” and ignited 2008′s latest political wildfire.
“You got into 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,” Obama said in an address to fundraisers in San Francisco last week. “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.”
Columbia resident Mary Louise Murry describes her town as once “thriving” and says despite economic hard times she’s not bitter. Peggy Wolpart, another lifelong local, agrees. She says she’s still there despite the downturn because “we just love it. Neither, however, take Obama’s comments to heart. “He didn’t mean to sound bad about small towns,” Wolpart says. “He just meant that small towns needed some help.” Still, a sense of local pride is why Barry “Scoop” Ford, editor of the weekly Columbia Ledger, says many in the town resent Obama’s description.
“I think it sounded like he was up here and everybody else — the working class, the lower class people — were down here,” Ford says. Across the street from the newspaper’s offices at Hinckles Pharmacy and Restaurant, Ford’s sentiment resonated. “If faith is so important to him, why is it negative for small-town Americans or small-town Pennsylvanians to cling to their religion?” voter Ed Yates asked of Obama. Arlina Yates says she’s not sure “whether what he said in San Francisco is really what he feels or if its his explanation of what he said in San Francisco is really how he feels.”
Diner John Lewis Sr. was “thinking about” voting for Obama but says “now I’ll go with Hillary Clinton.”
Hinckles’ waitress Donna Berthizel, however, says she doesn’t buy it, that Obama’s words are being twisted by the Clinton campaign. “I think her campaign will take anything that he says out of context and put their own malicious spin on it,” Bernthizel says.
But with a week left in a fierce race to the Democratic nomination via the Pennsylvania primary, spin and spin control are the name of the game. Obama’s rivals pounced over the weekend: Republican rival John McCain’s camp charged the Illinois senator with “elitism” while Clinton called him a candidate who “looks down” on small-town voters.
In Indiana, former president Bill Clinton fought Monday to keep “bitter” alive, campaigning with the state’s former first lady citing small town voters he’s met since Obama made the remarks who insist they’re not bitter and who want “to turn the country around.”
Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=4652934&page=1
Here is a comment made on this article at the same website:
Bill Clinton Flashback: “All These Economically Insecure White People…Are Scared To Death” April 13, 2008 02:41
PMAs the rumination continues over Barack Obama’s comments about economically-depressed small town voters, statements made by Bill Clinton on the same topic — uttered while he was running for president in 1991 — have now surfaced.”The reason (George H. W. Bush’s tactic) works so well now is that you have all these economically insecure white people who are scared to death,” Clinton was quoted saying by the Los Angeles Times in September 1991.A couple months later, Joe Klein, writing for the Sunday Times, reported that Clinton made the following remarks:”You know, he [Bush] wants to divide us over race. I’m from the South. I understand this. This quota deal they’re gonna pull in the next election is the same old scam they’ve been pulling on us for decade after decade after decade. When their economic policies fail, when the country’s coming apart rather than coming together, what do they do? They find the most economically insecure white men and scare the living daylights out of them. They know if they can keep us looking at each other across a racial divide, if I can look at Bobby Rush and think, Bobby wants my job, my promotion, then neither of us can look at George Bush and say, ‘What happened to everybody’s job? What happened to everybody’s income? What … have … you … done … to … our … country?’”For comparison’s sake, here is Obama’s statement, reported by Mayhill Fowler for Huffington Post’s OffTheBus:Here’s how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long, and they feel so betrayed by government, and when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn’t buy it. And when it’s delivered by — it’s true that when it’s delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama (laugher), then that adds another layer of skepticism (laughter). [...]But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s not evidence of that in their daily lives. 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. So it’s not surprising then that 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.What do you think — are they similar? KRITIKALTHINKER Apr-14
People tend to hear what they want to hear. I for one am tired of all this information that is conveniently leaked to the press. The playing of the race card has been a very devious strategy that will backfire in the long run. We all would do well to keep our focus upon the issues and stay away from media manipulation. Jim
Obama’s Belittling Blunder or Observation of Fact?
Were Obama’s “Bitter” Comments a Belittling Blunder?
Some Penn. Voters Say Candidate’s “Bitter” Comments Turned Them to Clinton
By JAKE TAPPER
Apr. 14, 2008-
Located on the Susquehanna River between Lancaster and York, Columbia is the kind of small Pennsylvania town that factories left long ago, never to be replaced. It is perhaps the kind of “small town” Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama was talking about last week when he made the assessment of small town American voters as “bitter” and ignited 2008′s latest political wildfire.
“You got into 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,” Obama said in an address to fundraisers in San Francisco last week. “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.”
Columbia resident Mary Louise Murry describes her town as once “thriving” and says despite economic hard times she’s not bitter. Peggy Wolpart, another lifelong local, agrees. She says she’s still there despite the downturn because “we just love it. Neither, however, take Obama’s comments to heart. “He didn’t mean to sound bad about small towns,” Wolpart says. “He just meant that small towns needed some help.” Still, a sense of local pride is why Barry “Scoop” Ford, editor of the weekly Columbia Ledger, says many in the town resent Obama’s description.
“I think it sounded like he was up here and everybody else — the working class, the lower class people — were down here,” Ford says. Across the street from the newspaper’s offices at Hinckles Pharmacy and Restaurant, Ford’s sentiment resonated. “If faith is so important to him, why is it negative for small-town Americans or small-town Pennsylvanians to cling to their religion?” voter Ed Yates asked of Obama. Arlina Yates says she’s not sure “whether what he said in San Francisco is really what he feels or if its his explanation of what he said in San Francisco is really how he feels.”
Diner John Lewis Sr. was “thinking about” voting for Obama but says “now I’ll go with Hillary Clinton.”
Hinckles’ waitress Donna Berthizel, however, says she doesn’t buy it, that Obama’s words are being twisted by the Clinton campaign. “I think her campaign will take anything that he says out of context and put their own malicious spin on it,” Bernthizel says.
But with a week left in a fierce race to the Democratic nomination via the Pennsylvania primary, spin and spin control are the name of the game. Obama’s rivals pounced over the weekend: Republican rival John McCain’s camp charged the Illinois senator with “elitism” while Clinton called him a candidate who “looks down” on small-town voters.
In Indiana, former president Bill Clinton fought Monday to keep “bitter” alive, campaigning with the state’s former first lady citing small town voters he’s met since Obama made the remarks who insist they’re not bitter and who want “to turn the country around.”
Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=4652934&page=1
Here is a comment made on this article at the same website:
Bill Clinton Flashback: “All These Economically Insecure White People…Are Scared To Death” April 13, 2008 02:41
PMAs the rumination continues over Barack Obama’s comments about economically-depressed small town voters, statements made by Bill Clinton on the same topic — uttered while he was running for president in 1991 — have now surfaced.”The reason (George H. W. Bush’s tactic) works so well now is that you have all these economically insecure white people who are scared to death,” Clinton was quoted saying by the Los Angeles Times in September 1991.A couple months later, Joe Klein, writing for the Sunday Times, reported that Clinton made the following remarks:”You know, he [Bush] wants to divide us over race. I’m from the South. I understand this. This quota deal they’re gonna pull in the next election is the same old scam they’ve been pulling on us for decade after decade after decade. When their economic policies fail, when the country’s coming apart rather than coming together, what do they do? They find the most economically insecure white men and scare the living daylights out of them. They know if they can keep us looking at each other across a racial divide, if I can look at Bobby Rush and think, Bobby wants my job, my promotion, then neither of us can look at George Bush and say, ‘What happened to everybody’s job? What happened to everybody’s income? What … have … you … done … to … our … country?’”For comparison’s sake, here is Obama’s statement, reported by Mayhill Fowler for Huffington Post’s OffTheBus:Here’s how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long, and they feel so betrayed by government, and when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn’t buy it. And when it’s delivered by — it’s true that when it’s delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama (laugher), then that adds another layer of skepticism (laughter). [...]But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s not evidence of that in their daily lives. 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. So it’s not surprising then that 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.What do you think — are they similar? KRITIKALTHINKER Apr-14
People tend to hear what they want to hear. I for one am tired of all this information that is conveniently leaked to the press. The playing of the race card has been a very devious strategy that will backfire in the long run. We all would do well to keep our focus upon the issues and stay away from media manipulation. Jim