http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_steven_l_080413_hillary_clinton_thin.htm--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 13, 2008
By Steven Leser
Read between the lines of Hillary Clinton and her surrogates criticizing Barack Obama and his 'bitter' statement and that is one of the places her logic takes you. Hillary seems to be saying that Americans aren't bitter because they have no reason to be. Let's take a look at what Obama said that ignited this "controversy" (from the Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harold-pollack/whos-really-out-of-touch_b_96382.html ):
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 ... 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. ....
ou 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.
-------------------------------------------------
In pouncing on him, is Hillary saying that people aren't frustrated and bitter that their jobs have been shipped overseas? Is she saying that people aren't frustrated and bitter that they have lost their pensions? Is Hillary saying that people are thrilled to have lost their healthcare or to have been denied claims as so aptly illustrated in Michael Moore's Sicko?
I understand Senator McCain attacking Obama here. As the Republican candidate, he has to take the position that everything is going well in America and GOP/Bush policies have been great for the country so there is no reason for anyone to be bitter. He has to do that because he is proposing the same policies for running the country that Bush has used for the last eight years. It's a bad place for McCain to have to be but as a Democrat, I don't feel sorry for him.
I miss the time when you could count on all Democratic Presidential candidates concentrated on real issues and not their opponent's clergy person. I miss the time when Democratic Presidential candidates were smart enough not to walk into Republican talking points like talking about experience being the primary issue in this campaign when McCain is the one with the greatest experience, or attacking Obama here over his bitter statements when Democrats should all be making the argument about how bad this country has gotten and how upset all Americans are about that.
Her reaction to Obama's remarks is starting to make me wonder, is Hillary running for President, or is she trying to become John McCain's running mate? If a miracle happened and she turned around the race from the Democratic nomination, how would she beat McCain? What would be rationale she would use to say she is the better choice? She has now said that no one is unhappy under Bush and that experience which McCain has more of than she is the most important thing. I'm also wondering about the real possibility that the furor over these remarks, mostly created by Hillary's campaign, will backfire. A New York Times/CBS poll showed that "81% of Americans believe that the US is on the wrong track" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/us/04poll.html . Obama's remarks speak directly to those people. If Hillary Clinton or John McCain thinks those people are dispassionate about their opinion that the country is on the wrong track, they are the ones out of touch and elitist.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
