Just One Minute blog has some more pithy remarks on Obama's recent comments, and some good reader comments as well. Excerpts:
I Was Born In A Small Town
Jiminy, Obama unleashes his inner Michelle:
You go 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. 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 toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
They will make a lovely First Couple.
A BIT MORE THAN A SOUPCON: The eerily prescient Bill Kristol, last Monday:
And an experienced Democratic operative e-mailed: “Finally, I think [McCain’s] going to win. Obama isn’t growing in stature. Once I thought he could be Jimmy Carter, but now he reminds me more of Michael Dukakis with the flag lapel thing and defending Wright. Plus he doesn’t have a clue how to talk to the middle class. He’s in the Stevenson reform mold out of Illinois, with a dash of Harvard disease thrown in.”
In a close race, that “dash of Harvard disease” could be the difference.
Uhh, "dash" of Harvard disease? Obama just emptied the dump truck.
PILING ON:
HALP US BROK O'BOMBA-- WE R STUCK HEAR N ALTOONA.
And from the readers:
B_O's patronizing elitist attitude is not surprising. But how could he possibly be so tone deaf to how his statement will come across? I guess he checked one too many case cites while he was on the Harvard Law Review, and his judgment became addled.
Posted by: Thomas Collins | April 11, 2008 at 08:34 PM
Its like Wright only times 10. That what some pundit on CNN said a few moments ago. The Democrats were harsher than the Republican ( it was Ed Rollins of Perot and Huckabee fame ). But both Democrats said he stepped in it.
How many times can you act like a bull in the China shop, before they pull out the sign that says, You broke it you bought it?
But Pa goes north of 10+ for Hill now.
Pass the popcorn, this is going all the way to Denver. Tear gas mask anyone?
Posted by: GMax | April 11, 2008 at 08:35 PM
I just heard Karl Rove say that with these small town comments BHO just lost any chance he had of winning in PA. As one who grew up in small town PA, I think this will not sit well with those "typical small town folks". It comes off condescending and elitist. I wonder what he says privately.
Posted by: John Austin TX Personal trainers | April 11, 2008 at 10:13 PM
Here's the inarticulate, halting way Obama began his remarks in SF (re the transcript at HuffPo). It's obvious he knows there's concern about his inability to attract the white, working class vote.
"So, it depends on where you are, but I think it's fair to say that the places where we are going to have to do the most work are the places where people feel most cynical about government. The people are mis-appre..I think they're misunderstanding why the demographics in our,in this contest have broken out as they are. Because everybody just ascribes it to 'white working-class don't wanna work--don't wanna vote for the black guy. That's...there were intimations of that in an article in the Sunday New York Times today - kind of implies that it's sort of a race thing."
Here's the NYT article he refers to: "Change Makes a Call on Levittown" If Obama loses the nomination or later the election, white racism will be blamed. It must be that white America is unwilling to elect a black man, because the truth that Americans are turned off by this particular, radical, under-qualified black man in untenable.
Posted by: DebinNC | April 11, 2008 at 10:28 PM
Well Mickey Kaus is one Democrat who is never afraid to call a spade a spade, no wait let me use a different phrase, oh heck just read his wit and enjoy:
I used to think working class voters had conservative values because they were bitter about their economic circumstances--welfare and immigrants were "scapegoats," part of the false consciousness that would disappear when everyone was guaranteed a good job at good wages. Then I left college. ...
Posted by: GMax | April 11, 2008 at 11:14 PM
The thing is, I bet you anything Obama actually thought he was being charitable with these remarks. Look at his audience. He was saying "hey guys, these people aren't really that bad, it's just that the economy is getting them down and they don't know any better." He was only trying to help explain "their" behavior to the elites who look down on them.
Thomas Frank's study in condescension, What's The Matter With Kansas?, is built from the same bricks, and is written for the same audience.
Posted by: Porchlight | April 11, 2008 at 11:16 PM
Over on another site there is rampant speculation going on about Hill holding an even larger bombshell about to be released. I dont know that its true, but saw more than one report that says guys are ready to go on the record about a Jim McGreevey type incident involving His Hopiness.
Does that doom him or cement him in with the Democrats is what I am trying to figure out. I guess we will know soon enough.
Posted by: GMax | April 12, 2008 at 12:09 AM
I'd be tempted to agree that BO is toast except for one thing. Nobody in the popular media is going to ask him tough questions about his statements. By Sunday morning they(the media) will be off this story and finding bad things (true or not) to say about Hillary, or better, McCain. Just watch.
Posted by: Glenn | April 12, 2008 at 12:31 AM
Obama was explaining why middle class PA voters vote against their own economic interests to a group of Marin County voters voting against their own economic interests.
Posted by: MayBee | April 12, 2008 at 01:25 AM
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