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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (25492)	4/13/2008 10:31:23 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 224748

Americans can't see how Hussein Obama can overcome the following: rev wright rezko ayers his wife "bitter small town america clings to guns and religion" "typical white person" elitist radical liberal the whole michigan/florida punishment nightmare and what it means in a general election he may be a closet Muslim he has made this election about race with many of his comments ...Americans just can't see he would have anywhere near the votes he has now, had people known this stuff at the beginning of the primaries...people will remember in november ...Americans think there is great danger in him getting mcgovernized...he could lose states like PA, NY and MA (think leiberman/romney) an interesting quote from a blog: None of this matters. The Dems have two choices: 1. Nominate Obama and lose the 2008 presidential election. 2. Nominate Clinton, alienate the black vote and lose the 2008, 2012 and 2016 presidential elections.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (25492)	4/13/2008 10:49:59 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 224748

Obama Misstep Gives Rivals an Opening By AMY CHOZICK and NICK TIMIRAOS April 14, 2008 GRANTHAM, Pa. -- Sen. Barack Obama has found himself for the second time in a month defending his candidacy to white working-class voters, giving rivals an opening to attack the Illinois senator on an existing weakness. The storm caused by remarks Sen. Obama made about small-town Pennsylvanians at a private fund-raiser in San Francisco April 6 may not cost him the Democratic nomination. But it could undermine his chances in the general election. Both Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton and likely Republican nominee Sen. John McCain have pounced on the comments, drawing attention to the long-running problem Sen. Obama has generating support among whites in economically stressed communities. [Barack Obama waves to the crowd after speaking during a town hall meeting at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., Saturday.] Associated Press Barack Obama waves to the crowd after addressing a town hall meeting at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., on Saturday. On Sunday, the Obama campaign was in full defense mode as it sought to apologize for the comments, published on The Huffington Post Web site. After years of broken promises, Sen. Obama said of small-town Pennsylvania voters, "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 antitrade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." Sen. Obama recruited Sen. Bob Casey, known for his appeal among white working-class voters to apologize for the statements. "I think he understands why some people could be offended by those words," Sen. Casey, said on CNN. "He used a poor choice of words, he's taken responsibility for it and he said he deeply regretted the words that he chose." The controversy comes ahead of a Democratic debate in Philadelphia on Wednesday night and just a little more than a week before the Pennsylvania primary. That will be followed by contests in Indiana, West Virginia and other states with a large population of economically ailing white voters. Both Democratic candidates were planning to participate in a forum about faith held at Messiah College in Grantham on Sunday night. A Zogby poll released last week before the latest controversy showed Sen. Obama chipping away at Sen. Clinton's double-digit lead in Pennsylvania, with support from 43% of likely voters to 47% for Sen. Clinton. But among white voters in Pennsylvania, Sen. Clinton leads with 59%, compared with 34% for Sen. Obama, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released last week.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (25492)	4/13/2008 10:52:31 PM
From: PROLIFE	Respond to of 224748

CNN...O'bama....the hillary and bill.....truth or compassion..... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (25492)	4/13/2008 11:07:06 PM
From: Ann Corrigan	Respond to of 224748

Dems are most in need of that opportunity, Kenneth. Not even an hour will convince Americans that Democrats reallllly only care about their fellow citizens. Fact: They really only care about grabbing power. Repubs don't bother with the silly pretense that they're trolling for votes because they are so carrrring.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (25492)	4/14/2008 7:23:53 AM
From: Brumar89	Respond to of 224748

Well, CNN and most of the rest of big media are in the bag for Democrats. Jeez, last time I listened to CNN, their news broadcast sounded like a campaign commercial for Bama.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (25492)	4/14/2008 7:42:04 AM
From: tonto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224748

It was a way to fill time for a news station. They still got their comercials in...that is like saying it sure was nice of Hallmark Cards to start Secretary Day. I thought Hillary came across as much smarter and able to spin better than Obama. He really struggled a few times.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (25492)	4/14/2008 9:26:25 AM
From: PROLIFE	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224748

The Mask Slips By WILLIAM KRISTOL I haven’t read much Karl Marx since the early 1980s, when I taught political philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Still, it didn’t take me long this weekend to find my copy of “The Marx-Engels Reader,” edited by Robert C. Tucker — a book that was assigned in thousands of college courses in the 1970s and 80s, and that now must lie, unopened and un-remarked upon, on an awful lot of rec-room bookshelves. My occasion for spending a little time once again with the old Communist was Barack Obama’s now-famous comment at an April 6 San Francisco fund-raiser. Obama was explaining his trouble winning over small-town, working-class voters: “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.” This sent me to Marx’s famous statement about religion in the introduction to his “Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right”: “Religious suffering is at the same time an expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. 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.” Or, more succinctly, and in the original German in which Marx somehow always sounds better: “Die Religion ... ist das Opium des Volkes.” Now, this is a point of view with a long intellectual pedigree prior to Marx, and many vocal adherents continuing into the 21st century. I don’t believe the claim is true, but it’s certainly worth considering, in college classrooms and beyond. But it’s one thing for a German thinker to assert that “religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature.” It’s another thing for an American presidential candidate to claim that we “cling to ... religion” out of economic frustration. And it’s a particularly odd claim for Barack Obama to make. After all, in his speech at the 2004 Democratic convention, he emphasized with pride that blue-state Americans, too, “worship an awesome God.” What’s more, he’s written eloquently in his memoir, “Dreams From My Father,” of his own religious awakening upon hearing the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s “Audacity of Hope” sermon, and of the complexity of his religious commitment. You’d think he’d do other believers the courtesy of assuming they’ve also thought about their religious beliefs. But Obama in San Francisco does no courtesy to his fellow Americans. Look at the other claims he makes about those small-town voters. Obama ascribes their anti-trade sentiment to economic frustration — as if there are no respectable arguments against more free-trade agreements. This is particularly cynical, since he himself has been making those arguments, exploiting and fanning this sentiment that he decries. Aren’t we then entitled to assume Obama’s opposition to Nafta and the Colombian trade pact is merely cynical pandering to frustrated Americans? Then there’s what Obama calls “anti-immigrant sentiment.” Has Obama done anything to address it? It was John McCain, not Obama, who took political risks to try to resolve the issue of illegal immigration by putting his weight behind an attempt at immigration reform. Furthermore, some concerns about unchecked and unmonitored illegal immigration are surely legitimate. Obama voted in 2006 (to take just one example) for the Secure Fence Act, which was intended to control the Mexican border through various means, including hundreds of miles of border fence. Was Obama then just accommodating bigotry? As for small-town Americans’ alleged “antipathy to people who aren’t like them”: During what Obama considers the terrible Clinton-Bush years of economic frustration, by any measurement of public opinion polling or observed behavior, Americans have become far more tolerant and respectful of minorities who are not “like them.” Surely Obama knows this. Was he simply flattering his wealthy San Francisco donors by casting aspersions on the idiocy of small-town life? That leaves us with guns. Gun ownership has been around for an awfully long time. And people may have good reasons to, and in any case have a constitutional right to, own guns — as Obama himself has been acknowledging on the campaign trail, when he presents himself as more sympathetic to gun owners than a typical Democrat. What does this mean for Obama’s presidential prospects? He’s disdainful of small-town America — one might say, of bourgeois America. He’s usually good at disguising this. But in San Francisco the mask slipped. And it’s not so easy to get elected by a citizenry you patronize. And what are the grounds for his supercilious disdain? If he were a war hero, if he had a career of remarkable civic achievement or public service — then he could perhaps be excused an unattractive but in a sense understandable hauteur. But what has Barack Obama accomplished that entitles him to look down on his fellow Americans? nytimes.com.