Obama speaking at a fundraiser for wealthy donors in SF, CA, on Sunday

[Little Star]

Just to make it more insulting he was speaking to a bunch of FAT CAT'S at a fundraiser. What does he think, the little jobless people will join a religious compound or go postal with their guns or maybe they will just all become bigots? What an ass!!

Obama:
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 to people who are not like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.


Reported by Mayhill Fowler for Huffington Post, and found on Ben Smith’s blog article at Politico.com.

Smith’s interesting title: “Obama on small-town PA: Clinging religion, guns, xenophobia.”


Hillary's response:
“I saw in the media it’s being reported that my opponent said that the people of Pennsylvania who faced hard times are bitter. Well, that’s not my experience.

“As I travel around Pennsylvania, I meet people who are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive, who are rolling up their sleeves. They are working hard everyday for a better future, for themselves and their children.

“Pennsylvanians don’t need a president who looks down on them, they need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, your families.”

http://noquarterusa.net/blog/

[NJSecularist]

1. What a complete non-story taken out of context... n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Gotta love the link too!

LOL

[Hawkeye-X]

29. Go figure, the Clinton shill, Larry Johnson.

What a shocker. Couldn't even pay his bills until this morning (website went down due to nonpayment for a short time). Idiot.

Hawkeye-X

[Clintonista2]

12. Well.. its not really a non-story anymore

Its been picked up by the MSM, and apparently Obama is addressing it in a speech later.

[LisaM]

2. I know! He also mis-identified Pennsylvania as being in the Midwest.

I think that he really is out of touch with small-town America.

[stillcool]

22. Some people have to read things...

through a couple of times before they get the gist...

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. 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.

[JerseygirlCT]

27. There's a lot of mid-west in PA

The attitudes, the type of people - for good and for not so good - are often pretty comparable - especially outside the major cities.

[EFerrari]

34. No, he didn't. He COMPARED some small PA towns with

some towns in the Midwest while he was expressing concern for the people in those towns who have lost their jobs and who feel abandoned by their government.

[Adelante]

3. He spoke the truth

OBAMA: 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 are most cynical about government. The people are mis-appre...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 how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long. They feel so betrayed by government that 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, then that adds another layer of skepticism.

But -- so the questions you're most likely to get about me, 'Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What is the concrete thing?' What they wanna hear is -- so, we'll give you talking points about what we're proposing -- to close tax loopholes, you know, roll back the tax cuts for the top 1 percent. Obama's gonna give tax breaks to middle-class folks and we're gonna provide health care for every American.

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. 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.

Um, now these are in some communities, you know. I think what you'll find is, is that people of every background -- there are gonna be a mix of people, you can go in the toughest neighborhoods, you know working-class lunch-pail folks, you'll find Obama enthusiasts. And you can go into places where you think I'd be very strong and people will just be skeptical. The important thing is that you show up and you're doing what you're doing.

There is audio

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama-no-surprise-that-ha_b_96188.html

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. Ah, context

Makes a difference, doesn't it? :)

[JerseygirlCT]

30. Yes. Thank you. nt

[SoonerPride]

4. The truth is the people are bitter. "I feel your pain"

And they have Bill and W to thank for their economic malaise.

[BeatleBoot]

13. As a Democrat, I'd say they have

Bush to blame.

I guarantee you that the Pennsylvanians did alot better ubder Clinton then they did under Reagan, Bush, Bush (the retard).


But that's just me speaking as a Democrat.

[SoonerPride]

17. No doubt Repubs exacerbated the decline, but it still declined under Clinton too

Times as a whole were better under Cltinon, but the rust belt still withered.

[BeatleBoot]

18. Living in Detroit

I had my best years under Clinton.

Best ever.

And you have to admit Detroit is the Belt Buckle of the Rust Belt.

[cali]

6. what a steaming pile of shit

lies,and distortions. But what else could one expect from that sick freak, Larry Johnson, and his equally sick, racist pals?

[thevoiceofreason]

7. Here's the whole statement, sound-biter

This was just added to the Huffington Post article that started this mess:

OBAMA: 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 are most cynical about government. The people are mis-appre...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 how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long. They feel so betrayed by government that 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, then that adds another layer of skepticism.

But -- so the questions you're most likely to get about me, 'Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What is the concrete thing?' What they wanna hear is -- so, we'll give you talking points about what we're proposing -- to close tax loopholes, you know, roll back the tax cuts for the top 1 percent. Obama's gonna give tax breaks to middle-class folks and we're gonna provide health care for every American.

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. 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.

Um, now these are in some communities, you know. I think what you'll find is, is that people of every background -- there are gonna be a mix of people, you can go in the toughest neighborhoods, you know working-class lunch-pail folks, you'll find Obama enthusiasts. And you can go into places where you think I'd be very strong and people will just be skeptical. The important thing is that you show up and you're doing what you're doing.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama-no-s...

[rodeodance]

8. Thanks

[blogslut]

9. Hillary never does that

right?

Do you know who Haim Saban is?

[davidinalameda]

14. he created the Power Rangers!

and some other equally horrible kids shows

[blogslut]

19. Yes

And he's one of the wealthiest Democratic fundraisers in the nation. He holds those events at his private mansion all the time. And he's very thick with the Clintons.

[NewHampster]

10. I love the ABC take on this

Could this be the comment the Clinton campaign was hoping for from Obama in the final 10 day countdown to the Pennsylvania primary?

Let's skip ahead to the general election – this is the kind of line that the right Republican opponent could turn into gold. If Obama wins the nomination, will the McCain campaign channel Rumplestiltskin and make this a successful talking point through the fall?

Grover Norquist, the anti-tax activist who leads an influential weekly meeting of conservatives, went as far as to argue that Obama's line would cost Democrats the White House.

"That sentence will lose him the election," Norquist told ABC News. "He just announced to rural America: 'I don't like you.'"

"Now you can vote against that guy not because you don't like him," Norquist added. "You can vote against him because he doesn't like you."

emphasis mine

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/story?id=3105455&page=1

[stillcool]

23. Wow....are we supposed to listen to...

Grover Norquist now? :wtf: Where the fuck am I?

The Soul of the New Machine
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2004/01/12_402.html
News: As national ward boss for the right, Grover Norquist has gone a long way toward demolishing the old Democratic agenda. And he isn't done yet.

By Michael Scherer

January/February 2004 Issue

Few in American politics are as blunt about their plans. "If the American people really want to know what George W. Bush is up to, the best place to look is the candor of Grover Norquist," says Ralph G. Neas, president of People for the American Way. Norquist is not above equating tax collection with a street mugging, or suggesting that arguments for higher taxes on rich people echo the ones Nazis used to justify their targeting of Jews. "Bipartisanship is another name for date rape," he told a reporter in May, borrowing a phrase from former House Majority Leader Dick Armey. He likes to say he wants to shrink the size of government in half over the next 25 years "to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

These are not the musings of an ideological fringe. Norquist has already secured written promises never to raise taxes from a majority of federally elected Republicans: 217 House members, 42 senators, and the sitting president of the United States. In 36 state capitals across the country, he is organizing weekly meetings modeled on his Washington coalition, and more than 1,200 state legislators and 10 governors have taken his anti-tax pledge.

Norquist has also helped found a raft of Republican recruitment efforts in immigrant communities, attempting to attract Muslims, South Asians, and religious Jews to the GOP. Norquist's goal is nothing less than a well-oiled national, state, and local political machine that can roll over and crush the last few bastions of Democratic Party support. "We plan to pick up another five seats in the Senate and hold the House through redistricting through 2012," he says. "And rather than negotiate with the teachers' unions and the trial lawyers and the various leftist interest groups, we intend to break them."

[NewHampster]

24. Do you wear blinders and not care

what the scum wrong wing is planning? Do you really think they're all going to fold up shop and roll out the red carpet for your savior?

[stillcool]

31. How do you know my saviors?

I've had plenty in my life. But no...I really don't give a shit what scaredy things the big bad republicans are cooking up to do in the fall. You can keep your condescending attitude and Grover Norquist's along with it. Bye.

[bluestateguy]

15. Made sense to me

I don't think the small town vote was going his way anyway in this primary. Nor are a lot of those people registered Democrats anyway.

[Political Heretic]

16. Obama's mistake: being smart. All you have to do is have an IQ above 50 & READ the full context

It's not that hard.

[jackson_dem]

20. "I voted for it before I voted against it". Who read the full context?

Maybe 5% of the population at most. :(

[Little Star]

33. That was funny!

[Imagevision]

21. Quite obviously the blogger now has a face full of egg with Obama kicking Billary's asses...!

[AX10]

25. There is much anger and disappointment.

But the people are not ready to give up yet. They want answers, not rhetoric.

Perhaps Obama was trying to entice this crowd of rich donors into giving him more money?!?
Or he was simply playing to the audience and trying to manufacture a reason to justify why he will lose PA.

[JerseygirlCT]

26. Sorry, but I think he's likely right

For some unexplainable geologic reason, the bible belt runs through the center of PA.

[Sinistrous]

28. Oh goody! Another seagull post.

[Little Star]

32. kick