Politwix

Barack Obama was at one of three $2300 ticket fundraiser’s held on April 6th. This one was located on “Billionaire Row” in Pacific Heights, a very wealthy suburb of San Francisco. During the night, Obama made what I’m sure he thought was a thoughtful observation about the working class folks of Pennsylvania:

“Our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s not evidence of that in their daily lives,” he said. “You go into 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 going to regenerate and they have not.”

“And it’s not surprising then 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.”

This statement is offensive on many levels. First, the purpose appears to be an effort to tarnish the record of the previous Clinton administration and diminish the accomplishments of that time. During Bill Clinton’s administration Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate shrunk from 7.3% to 4.1 (which is considered nearly full employment). 486,300 new jobs were created in Pennsylvania from 1993 to 2000. 81,758 children received healthcare that didn’t have it before during this period, so Obama’s statement that “they fell through the Clinton administration” is disingenuous.

Let’s examine his next statement:

“And it’s not surprising then 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.”

Here Obama inexplicably ties Middle America’s beliefs about their second amendment rights, and their desire to exercise their freedom of religion under the Bill of Rights to bitterness over their woeful economic status brought on by government shortcomings over the last 25 years. He does this in such a way you would think he was describing someone turning to drugs or alchohol to escape their miserable lives.

Hillary Clinton immediately addressed this statement with one of her own:

“Pennsylvania doesn’t need a president who looks down on them,” she said told a rally. “They need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, your families.”

A spokesman for John McCain called Obama’s comments “remarkable and extremely revealing.”

“It shows an elitism and condescension toward hard-working Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking,” said Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to the Arizona senator. “It is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans.”

Obama, in an obvious attempt to blunt criticism of the remarks went on the offensive. At an event in Indiana, he tried to turn the tables.

“When I go around and I talk to people, there is frustration, and there is anger, and there is bitterness,” Obama began. “I want to make a point here. I was in San Francisco talking at a fundraiser, and somebody asked me “well, how are you going to get votes in Pennsylvania? I heard that it’s hard for some working class people to get behind your campaign. Why is that?” I said, well look, they’re frustrated and for good reason, because for the last 25 years they’ve seen jobs shipped overseas, they’ve seen their economies collapse. They have lost their jobs, they’ve lost their pensions. They’ve lost their health care.”

Notice that Obama here does not really answer the question about why working class Pennsylvanians find it hard to get behind his campaign.

Obama stated that politicians from both sides of the aisle have promised answers but that “nothing ever happens” as if that is why they are not interested in voting for him specifically. This is a very clever way to skirt a question he does not want to give an accurate answer for.

“So…they don’t vote on economic because they don’t expect anybody’s going to help them,” Obama said, adding that instead they end up voting on issues that include “gun rights”, “gay marriage”, and “faith”.

However, this is quite a departure from his original statement that people “get bitter” and that 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.”

Notice too, that Obama has now introduced an “anti-gay” element into this conversation, making us wonder if he really believes middle-America is nothing but typical gun-toting, immigrant hating, bible-thumping, gay-bashing, NAFTA cursing white people that have been let down by our government.

He then lashes out at Clinton and McCain.

“Here’s what’s rich,” Obama said. “Sen. Clinton says, ‘Well I don’t think people are bitter in Pennsylvania. I think Barack’s being condescending.’ John McCain says, ‘Oh, how could he say that? How could he say people are bitter? He’s obviously out of touch with people. ”

Hillary Clinton did not say that she thought Barack Obama was being condescending (although she surely thought it). She said that it wasn’t her experience that the people of Pennsylvania were bitter. For someone that is supposed to be the harbinger of hope, Obama sure is a downer.

Obama railed next against the McCain camp.

“Out of touch?” Obama said. “I mean, John McCain, it took him three tries to finally figure out that the home foreclosure crisis was a problem and to come up with a plan for it, and he’s saying I’m out of touch?”

“Sen. Clinton voted for a credit card sponsored bankruptcy bill that made it harder for people to get out of debt after taking money from the financial services companies, and she says I’m out of touch?”

Ok, now I have to stop here and to correct the record. The reason that Clinton voted for this bill is that it actually capped the interest that credit card companies could charge to 30%. Granted, this is still too high, but a no vote (as Obama cast) just allowed these financial institutions to charge whatever exhorbitant interest rates they wanted with no limits. Obama was not willing to stick his neck out on this bill because it was not “perfect”. Sometimes change needs to be made incrementally when big business is involved…sad but true. Obama seems to have an “all or nothing” approach that will not net him the bi-partisan support he campaigns on.

Obama ’s speech was true to one of the basic principals of his Saul Alinsky-based training in community organization, the principal of agitation. According to Alinsky, the agitator’s job is to make people realize that they are miserable, and that their misery is rooted in failures of unresponsive governments or greedy corporations.

This method is used to great effect by Obama’s pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Obama concludes his speech with this:

“No. I’m in touch. I know exactly what’s going on. I know what’s going on in Pennsylvania, I know what’s going on in Indiana, [and] I know what’s going on in Illinois. People are fed up.”

It is becoming apparent that Obama and Pastor Wright may be more similar than they are different.   

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