HRC should have DEFENDED Obama's remarks: Bobby Kennedy would have!

[Ken Burch]

HRC and all her supporters KNEW AND KNOW that Obama WASN'T attacking small town working-class white people, he was sympathizing with their pain and their alienation.

HRC and all her supporters KNEW AND KNOW that Obama was right in what he said. That the alienation caused by the corporate betrayal of working-class towns leads people, in those towns, to lash out in desperation at the wrong targets.

And HRC and all her supporters KNEW AND KNOW that, in order to really represent and win the votes of working-class voters, we have to stand up to corporate power and call the country to a higher and more humane set of values that respect the values and dignity of all people, so that no one is abandoned, no one is just declared a loser or economic "collateral damage". That's what "HOPE" means. It means equality, dignity, respect for all.

Everyone knew Barack Obama was reaching out to working-class voters, trying to bring them together with African-Americans, Latinos, the young, GLBT voters, and idealists of all ages in a positive fight for a better America. Obama was proving, in what he said, that he, and ONLY he, can truly claim to be fighting for Bobby's "Newer World". And HRC proved that she would rather be George Wallace, dividing us and building spite and hatred, deepening the wounds and pouring not only salt, but burning acid, deep inside them.

The supporters of HRC, including the millions of working-class women who thought that a former WalMart board member could actually be on their side, need to face the truth. They need to face the fact that they are good people, that they have dreams and hopes of a better world, that they are bitter, sad, yes, but still able to dream, and that the candidate they fought so hard for doesn't give a damn about them and is no longer worthy of the support of any woman, any worker, any Democrat, or any decent human being.

It's now clear. It's Obama and the future, or no hope at all.

Please Senator Clinton, don't hurt us anymore, don't betray and insult your supporters and Bobby Kennedy's children anymore, don't hurt the party any more. Get out. You've proved you're not on your side by attacking Obama for speaking compassionate truth.

It's the only thing you can do, Senator, to prove you still want this party to win. Do right by your insulted supporters, do right by Bobby's memory. Admit you don't deserve to be in the race and go quietly away. You proved by attacking Obama that you DO want McCain to win.

[scheming daemons]

1. As Lloyd Bentsen would say... "I knew Bobby Kennedy. Hillary... you're no Bobby Kennedy."

..

[Lucky 13]

3. DAMMIT!

You beat me to it!! Oh well... great minds...

[kwenu]

25. Aaah, yes. Perfect statement.

[Lucky 13]

2. I knew Bobby Kennedy. Hillary is no Bobby Kennedy.

She knows not the meaning of grace or sportsmanship. She does not understand the concept of loyalty or that this isn't about HER. It's about the people. And people are PISSED.

She is either going to step out of the way or get run over. Probably the latter.

[splat]

4. More fantasy flamebait. Obama is JFK! RFK! GOD!

DU used to be intelligent. Now it's the worst of the left defending their fantasy man. The GOP is looking smarter and saner all the time.

[Gore1FL]

6. Where did anyone equate obama to RFK in this thread?

Seems like the point was that Hillary was not RFK.

To assume the opposite is a logical fallacy.

[smiley_glad_hands]

7. Fine then, go join them.

If you do not understand or accept the premise that republicans have been using the politics of division and culture wars to divide the working class into voting against their own economic interests, then you are probably better suited as a mcsame supporter.

[Ken Burch]

9. Why do you hate the progressive candidate and love the losing conservative candidate?

HRC can't have earned $100 million in the last six years and be on your side.

And no, nobody is saying Obama is God. But you can't deny that HRC has proved herself unworthy by staying in when it has long been clear that she could never be nominated or elected.

And if you prefer the GOP, you're violating DU rules.

HRC isn't different than the GOP. This proves it. She isn't different than Wallace, either. If she was, she wouldn't be encouraging hatred of a black candidate who's campaign never did anything terrible to her.

[QC]

10. There is no longer a progressive candidate in this race. n/t

[jackson_dem]

44. If Obama wins he will make more than the Clintons have made when it is all said and done

He is off to a nice start. He is far richer than the Clintons were when they were 46.

[leftynyc]

51. The only progressive was Kucinich

If you think Sen Obama is any further to the left than Sen Clinton, you're delusional.

[EFerrari]

11. I think I'll have to try to break ignore just one more time. lol

[GoldieAZ49]

35. he is BHO, to bad it wasn't HBO he would have his own channel

Obama is no JFK, RFK or MLK, hell he isn't even good at being BHO with all of his 'boneheaded' remarks

[SoonerPride]

63. splat and plonk.

ignore

[EFerrari]

5. If she had done that, every time, she would be in the lead.

She would look generous, gracious and wise -- instead of grasping, mean and weak.

[PetraPooh]

8. Bingo! Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding!

[ClassWarrior]

16. Damn you're smart.

And to think I just thought you were charming. :rofl:

NGU.

[EFerrari]

22. Whaddya want, ClassWarrior?

lol

:hi:

[ClassWarrior]

29. What do I want?

That's a rather complex question... What do you want sf?

NGU.

[slinkerwink]

23. exactly!

[jobycom]

12. I knew a man who know Bobby Kennedy. He was from a small town

and was passionately religious and passionately loved guns. He was the greatest populist I ever met. In 92, when Clinton and Gore were doing their post-convention bus tour, this man was invited along, partly because of his status as a Democratic legend in Texas, and partly because he had known Gore's father rather well. While on the bus tour, this man talked Clinton and Gore into stopping at the small northeast Texas town he had grown up in, because even though he had lived in Austin for seven decades, except when he was in DC, he still loved he small town he was from.

I don't think he'd have liked Obama's comments much, and from what he told me of Bobby (and John) Kennedy, I don't believe for a moment they would have, either. They may have publicly defended Obama, maybe, but I believe it more likely they'd have asked him to apologize.

No, I can't prove it, any more than the OP can prove that RFK would have backed Obama. But I'm as sure of it as the OP is, nonetheless.

[EFerrari]

14. It's hard to believe either Kennedy would ask someone to apologize

for empathizing with the forgotten workers of small town America.

[jobycom]

15. True. They would ask someone to apologize for belittling those workers.

They were able to separate fact from rhetorical fantasy.

[EFerrari]

18. Which is more than any of you following the Clinton campaign

seem to be able to do.

The problem is, you can't really spin his words WHEN WE HAVE THE TRANSCRIPT.

You should be ashamed of yourselves. Finally someone is even interested enough to try to understand what is happening in those communities, and all you can do is follow the duck huntress into the blind.

[jobycom]

26. Who needs to spin them? Their arrogance is plain.

And I'm not sure who you mean by "yourselves," but the only people who should be ashamed are those defending Obama, and Obama himself for not simply apologizing and moving on.

[Ken Burch]

28. There was NO arrogance in Obama's remarks, and you know it.

Why is it arrogant to say that working-class people in small towns often have anger that's directed at the wrong people?

You KNOW that what Obama was saying is that this country has to do right by working people so that they can let go of that misdirected anger.

You KNOW he wasn't attacking workers.

And you KNOW that a candidate that tries to win votes by attacking what Obama said can't BE a Democrat. You know that if you win ugly, you have to govern as a right-wing failure. HRC will be the next George Wallace, or at best Ed Koch in a pantsuit. Neither can be worth having.

[EFerrari]

30. Please show me where there was any hint of arrogance.

Show me the words.

[jobycom]

52. There wasn't a hint, their entire essence was arrogance.

I've read and heard them as often as you have. Unlike you, I've read them objectively. They were arrogant, belittling, and insulting, in exactly the same way Geraldine Ferraro's comments were racist. Ferraro implied that African Americans were only voting for Obama because he was black--a clear, dehumanizing insult to black voters and their decision-making abilities. Obama implied that small town voters only voted on issues like religion and guns because they were bitter about economic policies in America--a clear denigration of the hopes and dreams of small town voters. Same cat, different stripes.

[Ken Burch]

19. Obama would've stopped at that town too.

And Obama has never been anti-religious, so there was no reason to even imply that.

You can love small towns without loving small town hate. That's what REAL Americans do.

[jobycom]

27. Didn't say he wouldn't, and didn't say he was anti-religious

But he clearly feels superior to those who vote for guns and religion in small towns.

[Ken Burch]

31. No he doesn't, and you know it.

Where is the feeling of superiority?

That's nothing but your projection.

And it's disgusting that you'd parrot Wallace/Nixon/Reagan talking points on DU.

What he feels is empathy.

HRC has raked in $100 million dollars in the last six years. And she grew up in the suburbs, never feeling a moment of suffering or discrimination at any point in her life. She can't feel anything in common with what those small-town working people feel.

By the way, I'm a worker, and I resent the hell out of the notion that workers and older women can't be represented by a candidate that speaks to dreams and hopes of a better world. To say that ALL workers care about is short-term bread and butter(which both candidates, and you know it, are equally committed to fighting for) is to say that workers don't have souls. It's something only an elitist pretending to be a populist(like Nixon and HRC)could say.

[jobycom]

50. Empathy? You've got to be kidding me!

Tell me you're kidding me. Empathy? Is that what's behind his "Annie Oakley" bullshit? Is that why he thinks that the most crucial issues for most voters are just stupid, nainve little expressions of bitterness over how much spending cash they have at that moment?

Don't lie to me about his empathy. I can see a sham when it's in front of me. And don't you dare compare me to Reagan. Your candidate is the one who praises Reagan. That would be the Reagan who kicked off his presidential campaing in Philadelphia, Mississippi, praising the murders of three civil rights activists and promising to keep the federal government off the backs of segregationists. That would be the Reagan who was the worst racist we've ever had as president, the Reagan who coined the phrase "welfare queens" to split white from black voters, so that labor wouldn't unite against him, the Reagan whose adviser Lee Atwater admitted that Reagan's southern strategy was a way to say "N*****, N*****, N*****" without actually saying the words. That's the Reagan that Obama has modeled his campaign over, the Reagan that Obama is modeling his speeches about hope over, the Reagan that Obama praised.

How's that for empathy, praising a man who wanted a significant portion of his voters in societal chains, or worse?

Don't lie to me about Obama's empathy.

Your last comment is sad. Obama is the one claiming that workers only care about short-term ecenomic gains--not really about religion, or any other issue they "cling" to. What's he think about my issues? What's he think about abortion? Is that just an issue he thinks I cling to because I'm bitter about how little money I have in my pocket? How abut gay rights, another issue he's been weak on. He blows with the wind, and makes speeches about hope but not about what he would actually do to make that hope a reality. And he mocks his opponents like a high school bully would, whether that opponent is Hillary Clinton or small town workers who see through his new clothes.

But he'll win, and he'll lead to four years of nothing, and another twelve years of Republicanism. And you can replay his speeches over and over to keep you warm when fuel prices get so high you can't run your heater any more. And I can feel all smug that at least I saw through him.

After America's sin in Iraq, maybe Obama is just the karma we have coming.

[bhikkhu]

13. K&R. It looks more and more like she really doesn't care any more...

Who she is, how she appears, what gutter she has to wade into...she lost the nom weeks ago really, and now she is just a big public farce dragging us all down.

[Romulox]

17. Would Bobby have insinuated that those who oppose unfettered globalization are racists?

I think not.

[Ken Burch]

21. What the hell are you talking about? Obama opposes unfettered globalization too.

He was never the "free trade" candidate.

HRC's husband was, and she backed him on NAFTA and never said a word against NAFTA until this year, when attacking it no longer counts or means a damn thing.

[Romulox]

32. "I believe in the Free Market. I believe in Capitalism. I believe in Free Trade."

Barack Obama, February 17, 2008

My guess is that Austan Goolsbee, his economic advisor and senior economist for the DLC wrote that part.

[jackson_dem]

46. He said the same thing in his book, which apparently Obamites didn't read

Either that or they just delete from memory anything in his book that gets in the way of viewing Obama as their super hero who will saver the day.

[jackson_dem]

45. He is the "free" trade candidate and he thinks people who want fair trade are bitter morons

It amazing how Obamites have just glossed over that part of his comment. He was dissing YOU too. He used the term "anti-trade"--that is Wall Street code for fair trade. Not surprising. He is affiliated with Bob Rubin's Hamilton Project.

[Ken Burch]

55. No. What he's talking about is people putting total opposition to gun control

And flag waving(I.E., love of war) and opposition to abortion and gays above their own economic interests.

It's about misdirection. Obama was saying reach out to those people and include them.

And no one married to the guy who brought in NAFTA has any right to brand the other candidate as "antiworker". That's always been a lie.

Most black people are working class, as HRC chooses to rhetorically forget, when she gives speeches in which she acts like only white people count as workers or when her supporters spread the lie that young activists don't fight for workers' rights(which ignores young idealists all other the country and the world who organized against globalization, few of whom could stomach backing HRC.)

Neither candidate is pro-worker enough, but an idealist is going to be more pro-worker than a bland centrist "pragmatist".

[McCamy Taylor]

20. The Kennedys stand up for a political opponent? They played hardball.

Anyone here who thinks that Bobby would have gone out of his way to help out Eugene McCarthy or Hubert Humphrey does not know what running for president is like. Hell, McGovern was Mr. Nice Guy but he didn't run around making excuses for his opponents. I think only Jesse Jackson did that, and he is a minister.

[Ken Burch]

24. Bobby would never back a candidate that encouraged people to hold onto small-town hate.

Which is what YOUR candidate does.

HRC doesn't care about workers, the poor, the dispossessed and she probably would've smiled and waved if she'd done a photo op in the Ambassador Hotel pantry.

You're not the pro-worker candidate if you ever served on the WalMart board.

[jackson_dem]

43. Please. RFK would never have endorsed Obama's bigotry

[SeaLyons]

59. ..

:thumbsup:

[GoldieAZ49]

33. Hillary's plan is to clean up after Bush, not Obama

Obama is a big boy, he needs to clean up after himself


Politics is the big league, not the special olympics

[Ken Burch]

36. A post that insults both a highly intelligent African American man and Special Olympians

Classy.

[GoldieAZ49]

49. You insult Obama by expecting his opponent to defend him

and obviously you know nothing about politics or the special olympics

for your edification:

in a political contest only one person wins

in special olympics every contestant wins

[Beacool]

34. Why should she have defended him?

I just came back from PA and his comments resonated throughout the area. People were coming into the campaign office commenting on it. When we went canvasing people mentioned it.

He said something to a group of rich fat cats in San Francisco and thought that it wouldn't get out, too bad for him that it became public knowledge.

He IS an elitist and arrogant to boot, nothing new there.

Those who support him may not want to see it, but out there in middle America, his words were taken as offensive and they are the new joke. People were saying it to each other: you're bitter & a bigot.

Oh, and by the way, it was the easiest weekend we had getting out the vote. People couldn't wait to tell us how angry they were about his remarks.

[Ken Burch]

37. Are all your politics motivated by right-wing rage?

And you know he didn't insult anybody. Stop lying.

And stop campaigning for working class votes the WRONG way. You can't win with those tactics and do anything progressive after you've won.

It's Republican to put working-class white against African Americans.

Unlike you, I don't want a Democratic administration where idealists, the young and people of color are out in the cold. And that's what a HRC presidency elected by attacking Obama on this has to be. Win ugly, govern ugly.

[Beacool]

47. What does his race have to do with his ill chosen words?

The guy strikes many as arrogant and it has absolutely nothing to do with his race. Besides, he's as white as he is black.

[goodgd_yall]

39. For the offended "middle America"---was it really his remarks

that offended them, or how they were interpreted for them by MSM and those who had the most to gain by distorting their meaning (his political opponenents)?

[Ken Burch]

57. Excellent question. The MSM interpreted them as the Nixon or Wallace campaigns would have.

n/t.

[SeaLyons]

62. Yeah!!!! That's great.....

You tell 'um, Beacool!!

Go Hillary!

[goodgd_yall]

38. Hillary supporter here

Yeah, she should have. What he said was true and this elitist bullshit is old Republican speak. Remember Spiro Agnew? He was all about talking about "elitists." As Obama said, "she knows better." Of course, it's politics---finding an opportunity and taking advantage of it. But this is one time I'm really disappointed in Hillary's response. She's kind of losing me now.

[Ken Burch]

53. Thank you. I respect HRC supporters who have decent values and open minds.

n/t.

[Raine]

40. TOTALLY on point

with this post. :thumbsup:

[jackson_dem]

42. Ironic considering who you have in your avatar and what he thought about small town folks...

[jackson_dem]

41. BS. RFK would never make such a statement

And it is a disgrace to use RFK to justify Obama's bigotry toward small town folks. RFK would never make such a statement. Besides, RFK knew how to play hardball with the best of them

[Beacool]

48. Oh, the hypocrisy..................

Imagine the outrage of these same posters if Hillary had been the one making those statements at a billionaire's fundraiser in Frisco?

Too funny that the arrogant candidate is the one who has the least to be arrogant about......

[jackson_dem]

68. Yup! Even worse, imagine if she made the same comment but about urban folks

Can you image the fake "outrage"?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

54. ROFLMAO

"People are selfish, but they can also be compassionate and generous, and they care about the country. But not when they feel threatened. That's why this is such a crucial time. We can go in either direction. But if we don't make a choice soon, it will be too late to turn things around. I think people are willing to make the right choice. But they need leadership. They're hungry for leadership."

-Bobby Kennedy

[Ken Burch]

56. That's what I'm saying. Obama could give a speech that said that, and HRC never will.

Those of you bashing the "small town" remarks would logically have to bash Bobby for THAT quote. It's exactly the same sentiment.

[Madam Mossfern]

58. Hillary is trying to start a war

between San Frncisco and Pennsylvania!
If I were a resident of SF, I'd be plenty PO'd at Hillary for her inference that I was an elite snob.

[Texas Hill Country]

60. HAHAHAHAA... this is hilarious.

[Armstead]

61. Please explain exactly what's so funny

[Hoof Hearted]

65. Your right, it's not funny, it's dumb.

[Unbowed]

64. Hillary Clinton is ready to dive on whatever Obama says.

She even stooped so low as to try and use pastor-gate to her advantage.

There is nothing too low for Hillary Clinton. God is she awful.

Obama could have used her Bosnia lies to score political points but he didn't. Instead he stuck to the topics of vital concern to the American people.

[jackson_dem]

69. Yeah, just like RFK

Since when is swiftboating the Clintons on race "sticking to the topics of vital concern"?

[moondust]

66. Damn right.

She could have done EVERYBODY including herself but mainly the eventual Dem candidate a favor by piling on against Republican free trade and other policies that have devastated rural America. Instead she chose to slither down the low road.

[Tribetime]

67. I say what scheming said 8hrs ago K&R

[baldguy]

70. There's so much Hillary SHOULD have done, COULD have done - but didn't.

Whether its because she's too ambitious, or just too tone deaf, or whatever the reason - very early on she decided that she didn't need the support of large portions of the Democratic base.