Noteworthy Political Scientist Says Clinton Was For Characterization Of Working-Class Voters Before She Was Against It

Oh, noes! Would it crush anyone's beautiful velveteen pony to learn that Hillary Clinton hasn't always been a duck-hunting, beer-drankin', Senator-Saint who walked among the commoners and lived as they do? It's true, it's true, and apparently, there are witnesses!

Harvard University political scientist Theda Skocpol - also an elite, I guess! - provided Talking Points Memo with a following statement, which, in part, reads:

I have been in meetings with the Clintons and their advisors where very clinical things were said in a very-detached tone about unwillingness of working class voters to trust government -- and Bill Clinton -- and about their unfortunate (from a Clinton perspective) proclivity to vote on life-style rather than economic issues. To see Hillary going absolutely over the top to smash Obama for making clearly more humanly sympathetic observations in this vein, is just amazing. Even more so to see her pretending to be a gun-toting non-elite. Give us a break!...

This has to be one of the few times in U.S. political history when a multi-millionaire has accused a much less wealthy fellow public servant, a person of the same party and views who made much less lucrative career choices, of "elitism"! (I won't say the only time, because U.S. political history is full of absurdities of this sort.) In a way, it is funny -- and it may not be long before the jokes start.

Perhaps, however, it can be said that Pennsylvanians are not "bitter," at least, relative to their candidates.

[hat tip: to Isabel]

Comments

[abellofgrace]

People cling to things regardless of any situation. But when they have been disappointed so long about other things that make a difference in their lives, they cling even more to, let's say...hunting and their religion. When bills pile up and jobs are few and you feel no one cares, what do you do? You cling to your faith and try to relax. So you might go hunting or you might go to church and you try like hell not to become bitter. Traditional things or just that traditional and constant. So naturally you cling even more to them.
I think it is amazing how much insight Senator Obama have. Imo he hit it right on the nail. To say that he is out of touch because of his statement is beyond me. Good grief. The truth always makes us free. Lies keep us blinded.

[northcan]

Clinton works the media like she works the other opponant, the old favorite of her's game...."Rules for Radicals". Looking for a way to break his knee's, she's manage to "target", "freeze, "personalize" and "polarize.­...Clinton knows this game, better than her husband. I seen it in action for twenty years with them and much research.
I wish the media would leave it alone, the voter's and blogger's are shifting from Clinton to Obama (which is great), but they are soooooo angry with her and this fuels her. she is evil, this Country is in trouble with that couple back in white house. Another 9/11.....would be sure.

[VcKrc]

I love the way Hillary emphasizes "closed-door". Please, nothing is closed door in this election! She is so transparent.

[Chuckbutcher]

For pete's sake, if you want to know how concerned the Clintons ever were with the working class look at the income gains during Bill's tenure, lagging one year and measure the 5 quintiles and the top 1% and top .1% . The numbers are easily available, it must be admitted that a few more crumbs fell off the table under Bill than at some other times in the last 40yrs. The IRS has the quintiles and WaPo and some other sources the top ones.

[redstateleroy]

Obama said that people go to church or own guns because they're bitter. That's a huge mistake because it fits into the narrative that the republicans will use to position and frame Obama.

[juancp82]

I have given up all hope of beating the corrupt, idea-bankrupt Republicans.

Our choices are between a devious, power-hungry, harridan vs. an elitist, wishy-washy smooth-talker.

We Democrats are as doomed as doomed can be in November.

[dutchess2]

No - that's not what he said.

People who want to criticize owe all of us at least to get the quote correct..

He was responding to the question why blue collar workers were not voting for Barack Obama..

He said they had been beated down with politicians promising and never delivering, and were even more skeptical of a 46 year old black man with a strange name..

But he pointed out what Reagan and Clinton have pointed out.....when people dont feel they have
any hope of expecting Washington to help, the vote their social interests, rather than their economic interests...such as the right to bear arms, anti-immigration, and invest their time and energy in
their churches and their families.

All true...been true since the Rust Belt opened up 30 and more years ago.

But Hillary Clinton seized on them in desperation... she will do anything to win.

But she won't win.... 90% of blacks and the several million new democrat registratants supporting Obama will not support her winning with lies and the politics of personal destruction. She cannot win if they vote for Ron Paul...the only other candidate that wants this disasterous war ended yesterday.


vote for someone who

[MaryanneAZ]

The most important fact is that HRC was desperately seeking any distraction she could muster up to deflect attention from Bill's lies about Hillary's lies about Bosnia that had just come out and were being stirred up again in the media. This is not about what Obama said, but it is about what Bill said and what the HRC campaign desperately needed to cover up. Obama, and Bill, both made the same voter statements in interviews on The Charlie Rose Show (available on YouTube, of course). People do vote values issues over their own economic best interests, and typically they are Republicans and small-town conservatives. A cursory look at the last election map of PA shows that Democrats win PA in the urban areas for the most part. Obama '08 Yes, We Can!!!

[lumina]

The comment is for the most part true. The biggest error may have been that he was addressing an affluent West Coast crowd when he spoke it. In other words, he was talking 'about' them (the working class) to the owning class. That was not cool. It was indeed a put down.
George Will's recent column surfaces what this misstep on Obama's part means, and yes, it will be used. See "Candidate on a High Horse" at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/14/AR2008041402450.html
Clinton is far more seasoned in what the electorate is about, when you get out of the liberal bubble. We've been there before and look what happened: George McGovern but we got Nixon instead.

[mntnguy]

really do your homework before you post! They were not the owning class! as you so condescendingly put it! He was not complaining about them he was asking them for some of there hard earned money to help all people in small towns across America. It is not about what you say when the camera is watching but when it is off! and this speaks highly of his attitude and being. He was right in what he said and truthful and well connected with the people of those small towns just like the small states he visited when Hillary said "they don't matter"

[PioneerKing]

Didn't Hillary say last week that, "when she was a 14 year old girl she remembers the day she heard of, when MLK was killed," that she "...was in boarding school and ran back to her dorm room and threw her book bag down on her bed and cried." Sounds pretty elite.

[rpmcestmoi]

What a hidewous piece of business this is.
Obama spoke the truth in San Francisco (you know SS, they said, gay and out there and on the fringe of everything) just as his foreign policy lady spoke the truth in Europe (Hillary as Monster, one of the nicer sobriquets you might use) and what did it do but get them in trouble.

Truthtelling is out, as Hillary, the one who landed under sniper fire and met this lady who couldn't get medical care and ...all a lie...), knows too well.

This incredibly rich, spoiled, lying, entitled person goes after a kid who was on food stamps! Keeerist, as we used to say in Southie.

[omaro]

No, Hillary was 20 in 1968, and was a student at Wellesley. She didn't go to boarding school, although Wellesley is elite too. I'm just interested in keeping us all in touch with the facts. What interested me when she told about throwing her bookbag, was how she got teary and choked up as she remembered the King assassination. This happened a long time ago. Most of us have gotten over long-in-the-past griefs enough to discuss them without this affect 40 years later--including the King family themselves. I don't trust a thing Hillary says when she's campaigning, every word and action is contrived. Go Obama!

[MartyGee]

I support Obama. Her reaction might be contrived. But none of us know that. You should realize she knew MLK's widow and children. She also knew the wives and children and siblings of JFK & RFK who were also assasinated. That could make a tremendous difference.

[netgecko99]

Particularly when Hillary sort of glosses over the part where she was a self-titled Goldwater Girl, campaigning hard in favor of the bigot who voted AGAINST the Civil Rights Act that King had fought so hard for.

[L1standing]

There once was a senator named Hill
Who drank with guys from the mill
With a shot full of Jack
Tossed a cold one right back
And nary a drop did she spill

No Elitist Here! Nothing to See Here! Just Move Along! There’s a Good Lad!

[CTotti]

Queen Hillary clung to her dream of a tie
A bitter, pompous royal who just wouldn't say bye.
It was obvious to folk,
That whenever she spoke,
Every word that came out was a lie

[redstateleroy]

I'm a Clinton supporter who wondered why so many (28%?) of my cohort indicated they wouldn't support Obama in the general election. Obama is so clearly superior to McCain to me, I just couldn't understand their dissonance.

But now, after reading so much really hateful, vindictive Clinton hating on this and other liberal blogsites. I'm not sure myself. It's not the candidate that off puts me. It's his sycophantic, hero worshipping, anybody that challenges him is the antichrist supporters that scare me. You collectively are doing more to ensure he'll lose in the general election than you'll ever realize.

And it'll be a damn shame if McCain beats him.

[CTotti]

If 28% wouldn't support him, that means 72% will support him.

Seems a pretty good endorsement for Obama.

Ignore the meaningless rants about all the candidates, they are usually GOP trolls anyway. Though reading your 'name' makes me wonder.......

[cdub1991]

This the second time I've posted this line today on this site, so I'm sorry if I'm repeating myself. Don't confuse the messengers with the message. There are some overly aggressive posters here, but that tends to happen when people are speaking anonymously. Most people are attracted to Obama because of the man's rationalism and temperament. The fact that some of the posters don't share those qualities should not be held against him. None of the jerks posting here are going to be part of his administration!

[dutchess2]

One cannot help asking, looking at the pictures...how many 'takes' it took....

She looks absolutely pie eyed

[SpaceCadet]

A couple days ago I wrote (sarcastically) that Obama's ordering orange juice at some restaurant campaign stop showed he was elitist because a true-blue red-blooded Reagan Democrat would have ordered a shot and a beer. Hillary's spies must have been monitoring the message boards and they stole my idea! I think I'm gonna find a crooked lawyer and sue!

[MikeMidCity]

You know nice ladies don't go drinking in bars with strange men without their husbands in tow.

[MarkieBee001]

someone else here had the line of the day: "A Wellsley girl downing shots and not a napkin with a phone number on it in sight."

[Astroboy]

After having read many of the comments on this thread today, and other threads in the recent past, it has grown glaringly obvious that the Clinton campaign is completely destroying the Clinton Legacy.

So much old dirt on the Clinton's is coming to the forefront, used as counter-weight in the present, but doing irrepairable damage in the long term historical future.

Most Democrats admired and respected the Clintons and believed Bill Clinton was an exceptionally good president. But now, very many of us no longer hold that view. And that view will stay with us long after this campaign is over, regardless of who wins the nomination.

The Clinton's have really only have two choices:
1) Get out of the race and salvage what they have left of their reputations or
2) Fight like hell and pray with quixotic hopes that they ("they" is intentional) can rewrite their histories by not just winning the nomination but the White House.

Number 1 is the smarter choice, because number 2 is not going to happen - simply because their hubristic desparation grows more repulsive by the day.

[RIBassist]

You're talking about me, Astroboy. When Bill came to RI to campaign for Sheldon Whitehouse the night before the 2006 midterm elections, I left work early so I could get a spot in front. I stood in that gym for hours just so I could hear him speak and maybe shake his hand at the end. I did get to shake his hand, and it was for me agreat moment.

Bill talked about big ideas that night, much as Obama does now. But this campaign has become the Incredible Shrinking Machine of the Clinton legacy. It makes me sad, and, well... bitter, really. I feel like two of my heroes have been taken away from me. But the irony is, they're inflicting all of this damage themselves, by spiralling ever deeper into triviality. It's depressing.

[Witkacy]

The problem with their bailing to save their reputations is that the Clinton Library donors list is almost certain to give them some trouble in the future. Especially once Bush is gone - the cozy personal and business relationships of people like the Bushes and the Clintons with the Mid East's oil elite will perhaps expand into a scandal...

[mpflinn]

Hilary's freudian revenge maybe?

[Teritt]

True leaders don't go around making mountains out of molehills - and that's all this 'bitter' debate is about. That isn't the type of leader I want to be President. I will vote for Hillary if she snags the nomination, but I might need a shot & a beer afterwards. She reminds me more and more of Bush everyday. I don't understand how she doesn't choke whenever she calls Obama elite. There have to be some Clinton supporters that agree with me.

[Neocon187]

In the end, the "bitter" controversy and anything else she can latch on to won't be enough to catch up to Obama on April 22nd.

[greenburrito]

they should just change the name of this site to The Obamington Post and be done with it.

Weirdo fanatics

yes you can have elitist views and not be overly wealthy.

Keep spinnin

[Neocon187]

Your name is consistent with what a burrito produces...

"The reason (George H. W. Bush's tactic) works so well now is that you have all these economically insecure white people who are scared to death.."
BILL CLINTON, 1991

-Any comments?

[Dalpine]

To have a yearly take home pay of $12,0000,000.00(not including offshore accounts) and be the Washington establishment matron with her assumed entitlement rights on the continuation of the Bush/Clinton regime, Hillary has nerve accusing Anyone of being "elitist. It's beyond nerve and borders on psychotic.

[BenjaminFrench]

Hillary Clinton has disqualified herself to be the Democratic Presidential candidate by using right-wing-like tactics that are out of bound within the Democratic Party. She is trying to twist and twist and distord Obama's words in order to make those words insult Pennsylvania angry workers and hunters. Those tactics are out of bounds and, I hope, that Pennsylvanians people are not going to be fooled!

[CTmom13]

MSNBC just reported that when Sen Hillary Liar Clinton (R-NY) brought up the Eltitst with the AP, the audience started GROANING, as to say, NOT THIS AGAIN

Is it backfiring?????

Obama 08

[savertime]

I'm surprised MSNBC reported on this; thought the Clintons own MSNBC now.

[cathye]

Naw, ever since KO turned on her last month, MSNBC as a whole has been pretty critical.

[treadway123]

oH BE CAREFUL THEIR MRS. CLINTON! THE SCIENTIST SAYS DRINKING CAUSE'S BREAST CANCER AND YOU KNOW HOW YOU LIKE TO DONATE TO THOSE CANCER SOCIETY CHARITY THINGS! TOSSING BACK THOSE WHISKY SHOTS, AND BEER CHASERS ARE GOING TO GIVE YOU CANCER, GIRL! yOU GO GIRL! YOUR SUCH A GOOD EXAMPLE FOR OUR KIDS! ESPECIALLY ALL THEM YOUNG ONES GOING ON SPRING BREAK! WE'LL HILLARY CLINTONS DOES IT, WHY CAN'T I!

[b2008]

Hillary Clinton is not only OUT OF TOUCH, she is more so than not OUT OF HER FRIGGIN' MIND! How in the world can she say one thing at one time and another at another time and never think the two things will ever BUMP HEADS somewhere along the line?

Does she really think Americans are imbeciles and ignorant cave dwellers? This is the 21st century where everything you SAY or DO has the possibility of coming back at you. That's the problem with LIARS. They tell so many, they can't remember them to keep them straight. A LIE will return to you like a boomerrang and smack you right dab in the kisser, especially if you're a politician which allows any and everybody to investigate your past.

She's got many more chickens out there that's coming home to roost so she should shut her mouth while she's still got a small breathing space somewhere in the truth department.

[Witkacy]

Sen. Clinton and her husband are old and out-of-date enough *not* to understand the research and news-reporting potential of the internet...These people are part of the same greedy, self-interested and clueless gerontocracy that McCain represents on the GOP side...Same crap, different "sides of the aisle"