Obama calls small-town Americans "bitter"

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Newsday.com
Obama camp in damage-control mode after remarks

BY NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON and CRAIG GORDON

[email protected] | [email protected]

11:49 PM EDT, April 12, 2008

MUNCIE, Ind.

Hillary Rodham Clinton's flagging campaign has been given new life in Pennsylvania and beyond after Barack Obama was forced into a second day of damage control Saturday for calling small-town Americans "bitter."

Clearly sensing the opening, Clinton pounced on Obama's comments in some of the harshest language of the campaign Saturday, blasting her rival as "elitist" and "out of touch."

For his part, Obama opened the day by acknowledging only that he chose his words poorly. But by midday -- and his fourth attempt to clarify his statement -- the senator had moved closer to contrition, expressing "regret" for the words even as he stood by their substance.

"If I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that," Obama told the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal. "The underlying truth of what I said remains."

The remarks came at an April 6 fundraiser in San Francisco, when Obama said workers in Pennsylvania and elsewhere who have seen factories shut down "get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them."

They surfaced at a particularly bad time for Obama, as he battles Sen. Clinton for the same blue-collar, economically stressed voters he was talking about. They're a key voting bloc in Pennsylvania on April 22, but also in upcoming primaries in North Carolina, Indiana and West Virginia.

Clinton told an Indianapolis crowd she saw resiliency and optimism, rather than bitterness, and talked about her Scranton roots, launching the first volley in what might become a high-stakes game of working-class one-upsmanship between the two.

"The people of faith I know don't 'cling to' religion because they're bitter. People embrace faith not because they are materially poor, but because they are spiritually rich," she said.

For Obama, some political analysts say, the comments raise larger questions about whether a candidate who has made authenticity and frank talk a part of his campaign can stave off perceptions he is one person in front of regular folks, but has an elitist side.

Even with repeated attempts to clarify his remarks, it is likely to become a lingering issue. "The way he put that, it is so precise and I look at that and I'm saying, 'Gee, did he really say that?' This is serious ... potentially devastating," said Terry Madonna, an independent pollster in Pennsylvania.

Many Democrats have said Clinton's last hope was for some major event or verbal gaffe by Obama to derail his seemingly unstoppable march to the nomination. And Saturday, some were wondering if they had just seen it.

Said one Democratic strategist in Washington, "Mistakes like this make superdelegates nervous. ... You cannot be elected president of the United States if you think you're smarter than everyone. People pick up on that."

Obama and Clinton are locked in a fierce battle for so-called Reagan Democrats and have talked up fair trade, rallying union support and, to a varying degree, highlighting their working-class roots.

Key to Obama's everyman narrative is his work as a community organizer in a Chicago housing project in the mid-1980s. But Democratic media consultant Larry Ceisler said the remarks would hurt Obama in the general election if he gets that far.

"He may have blown his credibility because he is supposed to be building bridges, not just be another member of the elite," he said. But Ceisler recalled the "elitist" tag hung on the party's 2004 nominee and said of Obama, "He may as well have gone windsurfing with John Kerry.

NewsDay

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Of course they're bitter and voting for Obama.

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It seems like an empty statement, since I don't understand what they would be "bitter" about? Not having a crowded subway to ride? Not getting mugged in an urban inner-city? Not having a job like in the sit-com "30 Rock," with all its neurotic characters?

So, considering that Obama recently attempted to quiet the uproar about the remarks of his Reverend, is the inference that Obama's Black urban church experience closer to what religion is for?

For those that may think Obama can do no wrong, I'm of the opinion their "God has clay feet"!

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There's something to be bitter about. Heavy industry/manufacturing jobs are different - the big idea now is people shouldn't live for their jobs, but if a job is right on and it enables you... Anyone reading probably thinks I mean maybe philanthropic or involving a master's degree and/or puppies, but if you get in somewhere while you're on parole, relatively speaking the effect is the same.

And then to lose it - but Obama knows **** about that - he's just being condescending. Screw his Hawaiian ass - let him get on field at Lincoln Stadium and say that - he'd be lucky to get out.

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PA community worker: American Dream has 'forgotten' county
link

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hanno wrote:

There's something to be bitter about. Heavy industry/manufacturing jobs are different - the big idea now is people shouldn't live for their jobs, but if a job is right on and it enables you... Anyone reading probably thinks I mean maybe philanthropic or involving a master's degree and/or puppies, but if you get in somewhere while you're on parole, relatively speaking the effect is the same.

And then to lose it - but Obama knows **** about that - he's just being condescending. Screw his Hawaiian ass - let him get on field at Lincoln Stadium and say that - he'd be lucky to get out.

What kinda dumbass thing is that to say? So, what - you saying someone would beat him up? Or you saying they'd shoot him?

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Robert Creamer: It Takes Real Chutzpah for a Guy Who Owns Eight Houses (McCain) to Call Barack Obama an "Elitist"If you want to talk about patronizing, or "elitism", look no further than the way Bush and McCain attempt to use fear and division to divert the attention of the middle class from the economic policies that pick their pockets.
link

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It's hard to believe that Obama is the Senator from Illinois. Talking about bitter...does this man think that Union workers cheered when the Stock Yards left Chicago and moved to Nebraska?

How about the Union workers at the Mills when the Steel Mills closed? Did they cheer?

Obama needs to take a course in the History of Illinois pretty dam quit... Cool

There's alot to be bitter about for workers in Chicago and the rest of Illinois, that Obama has never attempted to rectify.

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snood wrote:

hanno wrote:
There's something to be bitter about. Heavy industry/manufacturing jobs are different - the big idea now is people shouldn't live for their jobs, but if a job is right on and it enables you... Anyone reading probably thinks I mean maybe philanthropic or involving a master's degree and/or puppies, but if you get in somewhere while you're on parole, relatively speaking the effect is the same.

And then to lose it - but Obama knows **** about that - he's just being condescending. Screw his Hawaiian ass - let him get on field at Lincoln Stadium and say that - he'd be lucky to get out.

What kinda dumbass thing is that to say? So, what - you saying someone would beat him up? Or you saying they'd shoot him?

Don't like it do you? The idea that non-liberals can be indignant or that the indignant can be non-liberal...

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hanno wrote:

snood wrote:
hanno wrote:
There's something to be bitter about. Heavy industry/manufacturing jobs are different - the big idea now is people shouldn't live for their jobs, but if a job is right on and it enables you... Anyone reading probably thinks I mean maybe philanthropic or involving a master's degree and/or puppies, but if you get in somewhere while you're on parole, relatively speaking the effect is the same.

And then to lose it - but Obama knows **** about that - he's just being condescending. Screw his Hawaiian ass - let him get on field at Lincoln Stadium and say that - he'd be lucky to get out.

What kinda dumbass thing is that to say? So, what - you saying someone would beat him up? Or you saying they'd shoot him?

Don't like it do you? The idea that non-liberals can be indignant or that the indignant can be non-liberal...

Whatever. It was a dumbass thing to say by anyone - suggesting a presidential candidate would be in physical danger among those of differing politics is just a rabble rousing idiot thing to say. And if you don't see that, I guess you're just a dumbass, rabble rousing idiot.

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Dumbass, rabble-rousing, and an idiot - how terrible. Who might be the rabble? Perhaps if I know I'll understand why rousing them is a bad idea.

Different politics? He talked **** about the disenfranchised to their faces, thought they'd eat it up. Oddly enough he's half right about PA being wound up, when I moved there from Illinois (Ha!) there was distrust and vindictiveness, but using that as an excuse to legislate against them and expect to hear 'thanks'? We've all got our cross to bear - what might his justification be to come down on how I live?

Even if he could de-'bitter' the rust-belt, which would be a neat trick since the kind of jobs they like, and still have to some extent are harder, but much more rewarding than the ones he's selling, he'd be doling out what they've been getting jerked around over for half a century. There's a sense of entitlement, as well there should be - it worked out for everybody, and everybody bought in for a while. He's making what they think is theirs (correct or not, they believe that claim) a bargaining chip and the root of a character flaw they've got that neatly ad-hominems away the validity of their feelings en-masse.

Being high-handed/condescending with people when they're on their heels doesn't leave them a whole lot of options - if he weren't out of touch (thanks Mr. McCain), on a power trip, and from a tropical island he'd have an intuitive grasp of that concept.

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I wonder how many people put this in context. Obama said this when asked by a campaign working going to PA what he should say. Obama's answer was that PA is a diverse state so there is no one way to campaign there. He also said that the people of PA have been hearing about how the government is going to make things better for 25 years and you shouldn't expect to waltz in there with a 10 step program and convince people that you can change things. They've heard it before. Finally he says that some people have become bitter and you have to respect that. Sounds like he has a lot of respect for the people of PA to me. Heaven forbid he tells his campaign workers to have respect for the people of PA and the hardships they've endured.

A lot of people say they want candidates for President that actually think about things instead of delivering spin and sound bites, but when one of them does something that actually requires some thought to understand, people freak out.

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hanno wrote:

Dumbass, rabble-rousing, and an idiot - how terrible. Who might be the rabble? Perhaps if I know I'll understand why rousing them is a bad idea.

Different politics? He talked **** about the disenfranchised to their faces, thought they'd eat it up. Oddly enough he's half right about PA being wound up, when I moved there from Illinois (Ha!) there was distrust and vindictiveness, but using that as an excuse to legislate against them and expect to hear 'thanks'? We've all got our cross to bear - what might his justification be to come down on how I live?

Even if he could de-'bitter' the rust-belt, which would be a neat trick since the kind of jobs they like, and still have to some extent are harder, but much more rewarding than the ones he's selling, he'd be doling out what they've been getting jerked around over for half a century. There's a sense of entitlement, as well there should be - it worked out for everybody, and everybody bought in for a while. He's making what they think is theirs (correct or not, they believe that claim) a bargaining chip and the root of a character flaw they've got that neatly ad-hominems away the validity of their feelings en-masse.

Being high-handed/condescending with people when they're on their heels doesn't leave them a whole lot of options - if he weren't out of touch (thanks Mr. McCain), on a power trip, and from a tropical island he'd have an intuitive grasp of that concept.

I have a hard time understanding what this has to do with what he said, at all. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it has nothing to do with it.

Cycloptichorn

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Obama's words really were condescending and indeed insulting to those whom he so blithely characterized as "bitter" as a result of their bad economic fortune, and therefore mindlessly clinging to guns and religion.

Just as bad, his artless characterization of the relative fondness of rural folks for guns, hunting and religion doesn't pass the historical smell test of veracity. These characteristics of rural Americans have long been true - in good economic times as well as bad for them.

The setting for the remarks was significant as well - a private fund-raiser in San Francisco. Certainly a comfortable venue for his offhand characterization of a large class of people, who couldn't have been more different from the audience he was addressing - and who weren't present to denounce this smarmy, elitist remark.

I believe this gaffe will be grist for the political mill for months to come, and that, in the long run, it will do Obama a lot of harm.

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Just curious, george, did you read the entire context of what he said, or just the half of a sentence that's going around?

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Why is it that liberals can grasp the intricacies and undertones of what Obama says yet completely fail to grasp what McCain says?

Let's examine the "100 years of war" comments. The context of what McCain said was pretty clear, yet so many liberals merely heard that McCain wanted to continue war in Iraq for 100 years. Yet now we have Obama calling Americans bitter but many liberals want to look at the context and undertone of what Obama "really said".

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McGentrix wrote:

Let's examine the "100 years of war" comments.

I think you already have a thread dedicated to this, no?

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McGentrix wrote:

Let's examine the "100 years of war" comments. The context of what McCain said was pretty clear, yet so many liberals merely heard that McCain wanted to continue war in Iraq for 100 years. Yet now we have Obama calling Americans bitter but many liberals want to look at the context and undertone of what Obama "really said".

Everyone knows that McCain said he's ok with a military presence in Iraq for 100 years, not 100 years of war. I for one understand that, I just don't want it. I would like to see our troops out of South Korea because they are a continous irritant to the region and don't foster our national security. I think a permanent presence in Iraq would do the same thing. Still, I understood what he said.

Still, saying that evil liberals are being dense, therefore I will be too seems like a weak argument.

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FreeDuck wrote:

Just curious, george, did you read the entire context of what he said, or just the half of a sentence that's going around?

I read the whole piece as originally reported on the Huffington blog. How about you?

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I read the transcript of the recording. I can see how the line that's been harped on could come across the wrong way, but I thought that the point he was trying to get across was anything but condescending. Just my opinion, of course. But I used to live in one of those towns in PA and I thought he characterized it accurately.

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Obama calls small-town Americans "bitter"

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