SnOb-ama on Small Town Voters: Bitter, Xenophobic, Religious, Anti-Immigration,
Posted on April 11, 2008
Update: Fair is fair…Gun Toting Liberal tells McCain to remove the “lettuce pickin” log from his own eye first.…plus “I Was Born In A Small Town” as performed by the Obamas.
Update: Obama tries to change the subject…McCain says no dice.
“Instead of apologizing to small town Americans for dismissing their values, Barack Obama arrogantly tried to spin his way out of his outrageous San Francisco remarks. Only an elitist who attributes religious faith and gun ownership to bitterness would think that tax cuts for the rich include families who make $75,000 per year. Only an elitist would say that people vote their values only out of frustration. Barack Obama thinks he knows your hopes and fears better than you do. You can’t be more out of touch than that.” –Tucker Bounds, Spokesman John McCain 2008
image thanks to Michelle Malkin.
Wow! I go out on one Friday night and the gaffe of the election season takes place! Here is the transcript via Huffington Post…they also have the audio in Obama’s own voice.
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 feel most cynical about government. The people are mis-appre…I think 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, 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 — so the questions you’re most likely to get about me, ‘Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What’s the concrete thing?’ What they wanna hear is — so, we’ll give you talking points about what we’re proposing — close tax loopholes, roll back, you know, 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. So we’ll go down a series of talking points.
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. 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.
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.
I can sum this up for everyone in very few words….elitist, condescending liberal snob! Michelle Malkin coins the moniker SnOb-ama! Wow, I’m so late on this news the best I can offer is to round up other reactions. I’ll start by stealing from Hot Air.
Asked to respond, McCain adviser Steve Schmidt called it a “remarkable statement and extremely revealing.”
“It shows an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking,” Schmidt said. “It is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans.”
….and Hillary joins the pile-on fun!
“It’s being reported that my opponent said that the people of Pennsylvania who face hard times are bitter,” Clinton said during a campaign event in Philadelphia. “Well that’s not my experience. As I travel around Pennsylvania. I meet people who are resilient, optimist positive who are rolling up their sleeves.”
“Pennsylvanians don’t need a president who looks down on them,” she said. “They need a president who stands up for them, who fights hard for your future, your jobs, your families.”
…and finally a very weak response from Obama himself:
“Senator Obama has said many times in this campaign that Americans are understandably upset with their leaders in Washington for saying anything to win elections while failing to stand up to the special interests and fight for an economic agenda that will bring jobs and opportunity back to struggling communities. And if John McCain wants a debate about who’s out of touch with the American people, we can start by talking about the tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans that he once said offended his conscience but now wants to make permanent,”
Gateway Pundit has audio of Obama’s response.
Roundup of reactions:
it isn’t a gaffe, just a revealing slip of the tongue. Orthodox, secular liberals like Obama tend to explain religious fervor as a symptom of fear and bitterness. Likewise the irrational racism, xenophobia, and attachment to firearms of the “typical white person.”
This is pure leftist cant — it’s all “false consciousness” stuff, all what our Corporate Masters want us to think, playing us all against each other as they line their pockets with our sweat and tears.
Guns, border security, even religion itself aren’t really legitimate points of interest. Instead they’re all part of the “culture of fear” indoctrinated into us by the corporate emperors really running this country.
Perhaps when Obama returns to Pennsylvania to ask for votes, he will charm the locals with tales of the aging Bay Area hippies who just do not understand how US trade policy is destroying the our manufacturing base and the lives of upstanding Americans in the heartland who bowl better than he does.
Uhh, “dash” of Harvard disease? Obama just emptied the dump truck.
The BO campaign is fighting back, but rest assured this soundbite is going to be used against Barack Obama from now until the PA primary on April 22nd - and beyond. Talking about people being discouraged and “bitter” about their economic situation is one thing, but asserting that the frustration “causes” them to “turn to guns and religion” is insulting, and also makes it sound like being a gun enthusiast and/or being a believer in God is a bad thing. And to say it in front of a crowd full of the elitist of the elite - well, that just raises the Ickometer even higher.
Rob at Say Anything:
Personally, I don’t know what’s worse. That Barack Obama said these arrogant things about people like me, or that he thought he could say them to a bunch of rich liberals in California without it getting back to us backwoods, out-of-the-mainstream rubes.
The Other McCain has a great roundup.
Susan at Wake Up America:
It isn’t going to help. You don’t belittle people by saying they are hanging on to their guns and religion because they are frustrated.
You also do not tell people that their frustrations are the reason they are against illegal immigration.
News for the Candy Man, we cling to religion - more specifically to God - not out of anger but out of faith, a faith you evidently know nothing about. Indeed Obama’s “faith” so far has evidenced itself as hate and racism, much like the one who baptized him. More and more do we see that Obama got a lot more from Wright than just “infuenced”, it appears he was tutored and mentored to the point where there is really no difference between the views of one or the other.
Put his statements together, the “Typical White Person” thread of statements over the last few months and a picture of a an angry black man emerges. Someone whose excuses are lamer than the offense. Someone who is hiding who he really is but is nonetheless to a point where every once in a while it slips out.
AMEN BROTHER MAC!
Wow, is he feeling the strain or is he really that tone-deaf to how incredibly arrogant this sounds to average Americans?
Ouch! This one is gonna leave a permanent scar!
Don Surber calls it the story of the week!
Powerline wonders if his campaign is over:
Barack Obama’s arrogance has been evident for some time, and it’s no shock, perhaps, to learn that that he shares this bigoted opinion, common among urban liberals, of people who live in “small towns.” But to actually express it, in public, at a campaign event, is stunningly stupid. Nevertheless, Obama did it:
It’s likely the end of any hope for the candidate of Hope and Change in a general election that depends on heartland voters. This clip will get played over and over again, in blogs, television show, and radio broadcasts not just until November but for years and years. It may not end Obama’s presidential hopes just for this year, but ever.
Could it be, possibly, that perhaps we cling to those things because we had them all our lives, and our parents had them, and we’re stubbornly cling to them because people like “creamy Californians” (a frankly somewhat creepy description) superciliously and paternalistically, and patronizingly pat us on the head and tell us we’re stupid and bigoted, and should just do what we’re told - when… as in the litany of governmental failure laid out by the Senator… government is as often the problem as it is the solution? That they’ve worked better for us than government has… And that rich people, who will be comfortable pretty much regardless of what happens, rarely suffering the consequences of their policy failures, just have a credibility problem with the people who *will* suffer?
Cool! Knee Deep gives SnOb-ama the Jackass of the Day Award!
Posthuous Luger says farewell to Obama.
Also see:
Blue Star Chronicles
Flopping Aces
MVRWC
Jack Lewis
Jules Crittenden
Don Surber
» Filed Under 1st Amendment, Elections, Humor, News, Politics As Usual, Stupidity, Uncategorized
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16 Responses to “SnOb-ama on Small Town Voters: Bitter, Xenophobic, Religious, Anti-Immigration,”
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The Giants
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Hopefully Obama could shed some light on the following conversation that was started by the article ‘The Audacity of Hate” on thetrumpet.com
If slavery has been with the world since the beginning of time, did the ancestors of the Africans that were brought to this country and other countries have slavery among themselves, neighboring tribes or neighboring countries/continents when they were in Africa many many centuries ago Maybe Africans are free from the sin of slavery. . However, if their was slavery, what did it look like and which Africans were the perpetrators and which ones were the victims? Do Africans today or even African / Americans have reparations to pay to others as John Conyers suggest White / America do for past sins. Do other countries other than America owe reparations to some living in their country for the sin of slavery? How does apartheid play into this ? After reading the article “Audacity of Hate” at thetrumpet.com i am wondering if everyone in the world is responsible for some form of slavery that needs to be rectified through reparations
What explains Jeremiah’s Wright brand of hate-filled RELIGION? I guess it’s that fancy house in the high end neighborhood he’s living in. Must be very frustrating for him.
Obama is smelling worse by the day. He and his ethno-centric buddies…what a bunch of racist hypocrites!
Out and out class warfare, “delivered by a 46 year old black-man”? Come on Obama just call the racists!
Obama knows he has been busted. He immediately released the townhall meeting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc9PepjyDow
It isn’t going to help.
Kinda proud of my post –
A Farewell to the Candidacy of Barack Obama
http://posthumousluger.com/?p=73
Obama comments about PA is an outrage and racists towards whites. And I am sick of this race game with him and his free pass to what ever he wants to say without Accountability.
Why has Obama still not showing his respect to the 9/11 victims and America? He still does not wear his American Flag pin on his lapel as all senators do to show there support for are great country. Instead he is friends with Terrorists and Anti-America and racists? By all this we need to wonder who Barrack Obama really is? Seems that the more we look into obama the more we find disturbing people he is “Friends “ with. This is a great concern and now needs some real answers to who the man in the mirror is. 20 years with a pastor who preaches hate and racist comments about whites. Now friends with a Terrorists who bombed government places and said on a video he wished he could have done more. His wife’s comments about America? Being friends with Farakon a well known racist and anti-America and a supporter of the karan. Obama is turning out to be like the few terrorists who have made it into the CIA and the FBI. Remember what they said that it will be very soon when we will run this country. Makes you think about Obama and his friends. I think we need to dig deep into who Obama is to find out just who the man in the mirror is because the job he is Apply for is one that will impact us all if we failed to find out the truth about who he is and what is real plans are. Also never once heard him say we need to bring Bin Ladin to justice. Never once heard him saying anything negative about terrorists and what they have done around the world. As the National Anthem was being played he disrespected are country by not facing the flag and putting his hand over his heart to show respect to are country and are troops. And obama keeps saying Al Qaeda was never in Iraq before the war but documents from sadam Hussan says Al Qaeda was working with sadam on planning of targets in the U.S.A. So what’s the deal here? Everyone wants to wait for a country to attack us first before we strike back and that’s not how it works. If we have good Intel that says we are targets from a terrorist country we better act fast or we will have another 9/11 or even something worse. Obama and Hilary and the Democratic Party are no way commander in chiefs. If you had a murder that lived across the street from you would you invite him to dinner to just talk things out to make sure you are not on his list and believe him if he says no? Hell no. So why would we want to sit down and talk to people who want to kill Americans and all costs? You see what happens when we do that like Bill Clinton did with North Kara? He helped them by supply them with Nuk reactors and now they are trying to build a bomb because he was stupid enough to trust a terrorist. Is this what we want? Hell no. Wake the hell up people and look at the facts. This is not a game. Its are lives, are children’s lives we are playing with by even thinking of trusting terrorists. This is why when ever a democrat is in office something always happens and the Republicans have to come in and clean up there mess. They say that it was wrong to remove sadam husan even as he was killing millions of incest people in his own country. That there shows the democrats do not have a heart or care about anyone but them selves. The democrat’s support the terrorists more then are own military who fights everyday around the world for are safety and security and freedom. They are quick to protect the rights of terrorists but the hell with are children who are attacked by predators that the Liberal democrats let out of jail only for the predator to destroy another Childs life. Think about it and face the facts they are all there. The Liberal Democrats are trying to destroy this country and they will if we the people don’t stop it and start speaking up. You have the power. The power of your voice and the power of your vote. 3am the phone rings, another liberal democrat judge has just freed another child predator for raping a 3 year old and now he has done it again.
I know there are spelling errors in this i did not check it.
Support the Troops, Protect are children, Vote Republican.
See also http://jacklewis.net/weblog/archives/2008/04/obama_smalltown.php
As a former Pennsylvanian I lost my job, filed bankruptcy, was foreclosed on, and had to appeal for my unemployment to finally get it 4 months after I initially filed.
To say I was bitter is an understatement to the magnitude of “When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans it sure was wet outside!” I’m just glad there’s a presidential candidate who is not afraid to tell it straight. To have someone like Clinton or McCain blowing smoke up my butt and tell me it’s a cloud with a silver lining just stokes fuel to my fire.
People cling to their guns partly in anger because of facts like the 2nd amendment is repeatedly threatened by people like them, cling to their religion and go to their churches to pray partly in anger because the cries to their government have repeatedly fallen of deaf ears. These are facts that grownups tell to other grown ups. I used my gun to put meat on the table while there was no income coming in, and prayed for work when I didn’t think there was any coming. I was angry about jobs going overseas, and illegal immigrants taking jobs from starving Americans. McCain and Clinton just don’t get it, and now she is so desperate to win, she sets this thing up with the blogger and tape recorder. Then McCain jumps right on the Clinton Sunshine bandwagon. It sickens me to see for opposing parties how much alike they can be!
People are pissed off, and there’s plenty of blame to go around. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard “The snipers shouldn’t have missed in Bosnia!” or “Can’t Cheney take Bush on a hunting trip sometime?!” or “The Zuni rocket hit the wrong plane on the Forrestal!” or “An American hating Black man won’t last a day in the White House!” There’s a lot of anger in America today, and job losses, record oil prices, record gas prices, a recession, and a stock market being supported by the US Government’s main bank is doing nothing but throwing gas on the fire.
On the positive side, I’ve heard more people say that at least there is one candidate who is willing to inspire while being realistic without flip-flopping. That man is Senator Obama. He has sparked hope, and hit the issues head on. That is what grown up Americans are looking for, a refreshing change from a realist not an elitist. So he had to explain it to “Latte sipping elitists” in a manner that they can fathom. Does that make him less of a candidate or more??? I say more!
I appreciate him keeping it real, and I hope he doesn’t cave in and apologize for anything he said. As one of the small town Americans that fit into his description, I say “Tell it like it is!”
OBAMA ‘08
When I posted about this yesterday, I had found the part ..
.. as just breathe taking in regard to the fact that just the day before Nancy Pelosi had taken the Columbian Free Trade agreement out of contention for an up or down vote.
But why would Nancy Pelosi be bitter ?
But alas, here was the leading contender for the Democratic nomination for POTUS basically saying that this was a cynical act, probably a cynical political act which was not in the interest of the nation, but nonetheless standard Democratic fare of the day.
I’ve noticed today, that many progressive sites seem to leave off the “anti-trade sentiment” portion of the quote, including Reuters.
Are all Democratic candidates so cynical of the voters that they fell free to distort their own positions publicly while secretly knowing that they would not support it themselves ?
I will watch and wait for an answer.
It it just me or does Glenn from Delta, PA sound an aweful lot like an Obama campaign staffer?
Danny- Yea you got that right and notice how he says he was a resident of PA. He so full of BS!
Like Obama don’t care about PA! I live here i should know.
OBAMA president for IRAN 2008.
You only wish I were a staffer of any campaign. As of right now, I’m a temp worker in a nuclear plant here in Pottstown, PA. (Limerick Nuclear Plant) I moved to NC after I lost my job and had to move in with my in-laws. You can look at my bankruptcy case in the US District Court middle district of PA under case # BK-07-03555 as a matter of public record. I’m a registered independent voter in Mitchell County, NC. My unemployment was filed through both the states of NC and PA, over a period of 4 months while I went through the appeal process of 2 states. The only work I could get was as a temporary worker out of NC, and now I’m separated from my wife to boot. Fact check all of this, and I’ll be looking for your apologies Danny and Mike. Not everyone can look at the world through your rose colored glasses. Some of us are having to live with some pretty damn harsh realities. ith all of that said, I still wouldn’t wish what I’ve been through on anyone even you two.
Rose color glass. Dude you think you got it all bad. Give me a damn break. I got hurt in 2003 and now am disabled because of a failed back operation that screwed me for the rest of my life. So don’t hand me so BS. Obama is nothing but a Liberal Democrat looking out for his self as as all Liberal Democrats do. And to think of even putting a person in the white house who is friends with racists, and terrorists is not going to happen. He is a double talker. So there are no roses in my yard. Maybe in your silver spoon yard. My life right now is like many Americans who bust there ass’s and when they get hurt or something happens that ends can’t met we are thrown to the curb. But if we was an Illegal immigrants or whatever the government would happy help them back on there feet with are tax money. Liberals block laws that help keep are kids safe. You have no idea what i have been through and compared to yours you could not handle it as Bankruptcy was your first line of defense for losing your job. We all lost jobs you get another one that’s how it goes. Mine is to keep going and support my family the best i can like a man should! And filing for unemployment from two states sounds like your using the system. Apology you’re out of your mind. You lost your job look for another one. I lost my life and that i can never get back because of an injury that millions go through all the time wear the laws screw the workers and protect the employers. I los my house my vehicle because of the games the insurance companies play. But i never gave in. We make it as a hole and stick together and work together. If more families would do that this country would not be so screwed up. If the Liberal Democrats stop playing games with peoples lives and start doing the jobs they was voted in office to do instead of filling there pockets with are tax money that they think that its a help your self deal. Stop the ACLU is here to stop these liberals from the damaged they do. The ACLU protects the Terrorists but don’t do a damn thing for the troops. There are bad seeds in both parties but the liberals are trying to destroy this country and Obama he is the number 1 liberal of them all. And this was about politics and Obama not you. You turned this into all about you just like liberals do. It’s not all about you its all about us all. We all go through ups and downs and we deal with it. And why try to put someone in Office that will look out for us all.
Mike,
Were all having hard times, that’s evident by your response. We all are dealing with them in different ways, that’s evident by both of our responses. My only point is that this Danny Carlton made an untrue and unfounded accusation based on what I wrote and you jumped right onboard with one of your own. You were both wrong about me and I’ll bet neither of you will admit that. Everything else is rhetoric about our differences in opinion about the candidates. You have your opinion, which I’ll respect as an American veteran who beleives in free speech, and I have mine which you may disagree with but warrants the same mutual respect. My whole point to responding to you and Danny is this: I am NOT an Obama campaign member or staffer as you guys think, but I do support him and beleive he’s a better choice than both McBush or Billery. That’s all.
And now we come to find out that Wright & Obama Helped Organize the Millions man March With Louis Farrakhan. How nice of him.