"...the more she 'takes apart' Obama's message, the more she does the GOP's work for free."

[Fridays Child]

Bitter and Angry in Rural Pennsylvania: Obama's Reality vs. Hillary's Fantasy

I live in western Pennsylvania, and I can tell you, people here are bitter and angry. Poverty is prevalent. People hunt squirrels and eat them, along with racoon stew. People also hunt deer here, not for sport, but so they can put meat in their freezer so they can feed their families. They cut wood in the forests and heat their homes with wood stoves because they can't afford to pay the gas bill. I know a guy who goes to old landfills to dig up old milk and beer bottles to sell on eBay. He uses the proceeds to buy clothes for his family at the Salvation Army (and to pay for his dial-up connection).

Racism and prejudice are ever-present here. A friend of mine is part-owner of bar in a small rural town south of where I live. I meet up with him there occasionally and watch as down-and-out people come in with their disability and welfare check money and drink it away. It's a pretty depressing place, but it does serve as the social center for a town that has seen its few industries shut down and the local people's jobs eliminated or shipped off elsewhere.

I hear the usual rants there, that it's all the fault of gays and minorities and immigrants (although those aren't the terms used, but rather the usual, virulent slurs). A black man walked in the last time I was there, and a guy near me at the bar muttered in a not-so-quiet way, "What's he think he's doing in here?" When I brought up the presidential race and Obama with another man at the bar, his response was, "there ain't no way America is ever going to vote for a black guy." Later on my bar-owner friend told me about his experience talking about Obama with another woman at the bar, and her angry response was that "it's because of half-breed n*****s like him that America is in such bad shape today."

more here

[MichiganVote]

1. Try Michigan. At least he comments on PA.

[Eurobabe]

2. Thanks for posting this, a great diary on Kos. K+R

[Fridays Child]

5. You're welcome. It was an eye-opener for me.

[tokenlib]

3. Small towns in Michigan--especially in the north are similar n/t

[Mags]

4. Have you ever been in politics before? That's what opponents

do, they are competing for the same position, they throw out each other's weaknesses, and faults. They aren't trying to sell their opponents , they are trying to beat them. Gosh.

[MichiganVote]

6. Powder Puff politics is soooo not going to be in style furing the GE

[AlinPA]

7. I have lived in W.PA all my life. This article is right on. No exaggerations in it.

[Fridays Child]

9. I hope "rust belt" voters speak up and let Hillary know that Obama tells the truth.

:thumbsup:

[jody]

8. BO's message, just chant "Hope, Change, Blame". Keep Changing your position, Hope no one calls you

for flip flopping, and Blame others for your own failures.

That may win the Dem nomination but IMO it won't work in the GE even with my Yellow Dog vote for whoever is the Dem candidate.

[NJmaverick]

10. She is a DINO who has a lust for power and doesn't care

how she gets what she wants.

[jody]

11. And BO doesn't have a "lust for power"? Your inference is extremely funny. n/t

[NJmaverick]

12. well hillary is either completely lacking in ethics or morals

or her LUST for power made her ignore her morals and ethics. Either way, Obama is NOTHING like this DINO who is working for the Repukes, instead of the American people (or the Democratic party).

[jody]

17. Only a person "completely lacking in ethics or morals" would attend a church for 20 years and listen

to hate filled sermons and then tell people "I heard nothing".

[NJmaverick]

18. bull shit! That's yet another repuke talking point

Wright is not the hate monger you so deceptively try to portray him as. No wonder you support hillary

[jody]

19. You either have not read Wright's statements or you are blind to the truth. Both lead to failure. nt

[NJmaverick]

20. I read and heard ALL his speeches and know of his great works

of charity. While all you know (or at least will repeat) is very select statements that are deliberately taken out of context.

[jody]

21. Are you saying Wright did not make statements that clearly show hatred for other ethnic groups? n/t

[NJmaverick]

24. I am saying you are not being accurate when you claim he was

a hate monger.

[jody]

25. I agree with you that he was not "a hate monger" iff he did not make hate-filled statements in his

sermons.

I guess we have exhausted this topic.

Have a peaceful evening. Goodbye :hi:

[NJmaverick]

29. Actions speak louder than words

That's why his body of good works is so impressive and he got a standing ovation at the Catholic Church he visited a couple of weeks ago.

[suston96]

13. No "takes apart" involved. Obama did it to himself. Live with it. nt

[Fridays Child]

14. Obama spoke the truth. Yes, I can live with that.

[suston96]

15. The truth? Of course he did. So there is nobody taking anything apart: they are his own words. nt

[Fridays Child]

16. Do you support denying the truth for the sake of winning votes?

Because that's what Hillary is hoping to do by saying that out-of-work rust belt voters aren't bitter about this economy. But it's already starting to backfire on her and, if she keeps it up, Obama will need only turn the brouhaha into another national address (the way he did with the Jeremiah Wright issue) and suck the air right out of this latest disingenuous, opportunistic tirade of hers.

[suston96]

27. He is supposed to be the prophet of hope and inspiration, and not of doom and gloom....

He knows he got way off message and he is being called out on it. Happens to all candidates now and then.

[Fridays Child]

31. He was giving an accurate reading of the situation to campaign volunteers...

...who need to know the conditions on the ground. How is confronting that reality and telling the truth about it inconsistent with his inspirational and hopeful vision of the future?

[mitchum]

22. Oh, she's not doing it for free

[Fridays Child]

23. What a dreadful thought.

And the idea that you could be correct is even worse. :(

[GoesTo11]

30. my thoughts exactly

After Super Tuesday, when she was desperate and saw it slipping away, why do you think Rush told his supporters to send her money and vote for her? Why did she start saying McCain was ready to be CIC but Obama wasn't? 30 pieces, man (apologies to Carville).

[zulchzulu]

26. That's the small town America I have seen all over the country

Sure, it's in the South. And the Midwest. Many parts of the East. Just miles from cities like San Francisco.

When you are in rural towns during election time, you can see how Main Street is no more. The Walmart just outside of town has sucked the family-run jobs dry. The industries that used to be there have left for China or Mexico.

You can seen the signs of people confused and BITTER about their existence. Yellow ribbon magnets, bleached by the sun, seem to hold together rusty mini-vans with American flag stickers and perhaps a Bush-Cheney 04 bumpersticker. You walk into what ever businesses are still around and hear Rush Limbaugh spewing his hate on some radio. Suspicious eyes look at you if they detect you are a city slicker, have long hair, wear sandals or other detectable signs that you just might be a "liberal".

The easiest conversation you can have with fellows at the local watering holes would either involve gay bashing, ignorant trash talk about liberals, broken family sob stories or racial prejudice with a wink and a nod. It's somebody else's fault for the town turned into rust.

[Cha]

28. This whole hilary operative secretly taping

an Obama fete in San Francisco is only exposing hilary, for the out of touch and in delusion, person she's made herself.