Who's Really Out of Touch Here?

John McCain and Hillary Clinton are stunned and flabbergasted that Barack Obama would imply that Pennsylvanians are bitter over, say, thirty years of economic decline in their local communities. McCain and Clinton are deeply baffled and hurt by the following words Senator Obama spoke at a recent fundraiser:

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.... 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 the truth is ... 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.

....[Y]ou 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.

According to the Senator's critics, these statements are a sign that he is "elitist" and "out of touch." Senator Obama notes that he might have said things better. Maybe so. I leave it to others to determine the political consequences of this current dispute. However unpalatable some may find the Senator's comments, I do know one thing: What he said has considerable validity. My only quibble with his original remarks was that he made them in California. These should be presented straight-up to engage and challenge Pennsylvania voters.

I would love to see Obama get up and challenge people, to say:

Yes, many of you are getting screwed by economic changes over the past generation. We all know that. Many of you are bitter, and have good reason to be. Many of you have understandably lost faith in Washington.

I can't promise that I can reverse everything about the economy that has hammered this region. It goes a lot deeper than the fine print in some trade deal or who said what to some lobbyist--though these things do matter and I'll change some of that if I am elected President. We all know that, too. I have some ideas I believe will help you: to reduce your taxes, to prevent mortgage foreclosures, to make sure that you have the health care you need, to help your kid pay for college.

I promise to campaign hard across this state, to bowl badly, hunt with lower casualties than Dick Chaney, mispronounce the name of every Polish sausage. I owe you that sweat investment, to show that I will work for your vote and learn about your problems. But you have a choice to make. You can support a realistic progressive Democratic platform, or you can listen to a bunch of people who want you to write me off as an elitist based on a bunch of BS cultural issues that don't have much to do with what I will do as President, and which won't improve your lives or your families' lives.

Robert Kennedy said rather similar things four decades ago when he challenged many rural Indiana voters. As I recall, RFK did pretty well when the votes were counted.

The faux outrage expressed by Senators McCain and Clinton calls to mind the emotional torment suffered 16 years ago by then-Senator, now McCain backer, Al D'Amato. Ordinarily known for his salty demeaner, D'Amato pretended to cry when his hapless opponent Robert Abrams made a clumsy remark that could be construed as anti-Italian.

Here is what Barack Obama's actually said in response to recent criticisms. :

I was in San Francisco talking to a group at a fundraiser and somebody asked how're you going to get votes in Pennsylvania? What's going on there? We hear that's its hard for some working class people to get behind you're campaign. 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 have lost their pensions. They have lost their healthcare.

And for 25, 30 years Democrats and Republicans have come before them and said we're going to make your community better. We're going to make it right and nothing ever happens. And of course they're bitter. Of course they're frustrated. You would be too. In fact many of you are. Because the same thing has happened here in Indiana. The same thing happened across the border in Decatur. The same thing has happened all across the country. Nobody is looking out for you. Nobody is thinking about you. And so people end up- they don't vote on economic issues because they don't expect anybody's going to help them. So people end up, you know, voting on issues like guns, and are they going to have the right to bear arms. They vote on issues like gay marriage. And they take refuge in their faith and their community and their families and things they can count on. But they don't believe they can count on Washington. So I made this statement-- so, here's what rich. Senator Clinton says 'No, I don't think that people are bitter in Pennsylvania. You know, I think Barack's being condescending.' John McCain says, 'Oh, how could he say that? How could he say people are bitter? You know, he's obviously out of touch with people.'

Out of touch? Out of touch? 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? Senator 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? 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. I know what's going on in Illinois. People are fed-up. They're angry and they're frustrated and they're bitter. And they want to see a change in Washington and that's why I'm running for President of the United States of America.

Unlike (Hillary) Clinton and John McCain, Barack Obama is a man who came out of nowhere, from very modest means, to challenge for our nation's highest office. He is not a centimillionaire like his two principal opponents. He's experienced many of the problems rural Pennsylvanians are up against. Hard-pressed voters may not agree with everything Obama says. I think many will respect the long road he has taken and his candor in addressing a few elephants in the room operating in the current primary.

Readers can decide who the real "out of touch" politicians are here.

Comments

[MPeter]

Thanks Harry. Right now Obama is locked in mortal combat to give us our future and the America we want or if he is beaten by the old crooks, surrender to the same old corrupt Washington politics owned by Lobbyists. That is what Hillary and MCcain represent and are fighting to preserve, helped on by Bill Clinton and the old, corrupt hung-ons from his administration. They will lie, distort, smear and race-bait to get away with it...

[ddlrid]

YES! Clinton/McCain is out of touch...and neither one of them has any idea nor any idea that we see it. Thank you for a brilliant post.

[Arleen1]

Thank you Harold, for keeping a level head. I felt my head bursting with anger to what Fowler wrote. Words are a powerful thing. What Obama said was twisted by Fowler to become something sinister and vile. I benefit from reading the Kipling poem" If "again.

[HAP]

Thanks....

[elusiveyo]

wake up know it all, Mr Obama lives in a multimillion dollar home, and has no money problems, to imply that Hillary has been rich her entire life is a sad and tired trick Obama and his disciples have been trying to apply to all facts in this campaign, Mr obama certainly knows how to cherry pick

[HAP]

See my response to the above similar (but more civil) post.

[Binx101]

Bravo - Great Post.!! Indeed, Obama's words require conversion through the McCain / Hillary algorithm in order to translate the way they spin them. He went straight at the problem - cause and effect. The only thing elitist about that is he probably expected reasoned discourse instead of Hillary and McCain doing rock-paper-scissors over who can hammer reason into submission faster.

The reason - McCain is the Republican stooge - no one else could see the benefit of losing to a Dem, and of all the weak roster - he stands the only chance of getting elected if the Democrats do what we have become famous for doing - snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Hillary, she is the Democratic Power Broker's choice - she knows the rules of the trough. Republican-lite as it were. The old Moynihan, Cuomo (no offense Mario, but you know) and NY power machine like Mark Green (Air America ) Geraldine Ferraro. These are meaningful Democrats that are equally part of the problem. Politics as usual.

Obama represents to the old school Dems, almost a 3rd Party candidate, powered by youth. Well they need to seize the power and control because the other Democrats are also responsible for having gotten us here and the youngest of Democrats are going to be severely savaged economically because of the Old School corruption. Actually taking issues in head-on manner and looking for bright competent team players.

Binx101
The Almost Daily Binx
www.binx101.wordpress.com

[HAP]

Thanks

[artsandminds]

right on

[grendl]

It's really a testament to Barack's campaign when the only ammunition they have against him is that he tells the truth.

Wow, stop the presses. America is ANGRY???

The middle class has been gutted, our jobs have been shipped overseas, while our sons and daughters have been shipped in the other direction to fight an illegitimate unwinnable war, and oil companies are drinking all our milkshakes dry. What are we supposed to feel again, Hillary?

Optimistic. Oh, yeah. No, we need hope, we need a light at the end of this tunnel in which we've been stuck these last eight years. We don't need you to tell us it hasn't been dark, or those who have put us there should simply be forgiven their crimes against this nation, and the Constitution.

What temerity you would try to deny us our anger. Maybe the people in your world walk around optimistic, the rich usually do. As for the rest of us, we don't plan on eating cake anymore come November.

[noneIn2008]

"came out of nowhere?"
They have been grooming him for 15 years. Look at the Blaglovich/Axelrod gang and their handlers.
Obama's grooming has been carefully scripted. Look at Patrick Deval if you want to see the script template, even down to the words - yes we can.

[HAP]

Fifteen years? If that dire charge is true, Axelrod is even smarter than I thought! Good news for the Fall campaign.

[Lazarex]

I recently watched his response on youtube:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Sc9PepjyDow&feature=user

I have always been struck by how Obama seems to never fear sharing hard truths to the American people. People decry this as something that it is not. It is an understanding of the challenges that every American faces because of a broken political system controlled by the rich and powerful. McCain and Hillary are a part of this history of Washington policies that simply ignore problems while money flows from the middle class to companies that care only about profits. When he says that we must tackle poverty, corruption, greed, racial tension. This to me is courage, A courage I don't see in anyone else. I have been deeply disappointed by McCain especially in this regard because he has flip floped all of his previous positions in order to appease the Republican party. The people have no say anymore in his or Hillary's politics, The people are simply a means to the same old and tired ends.

[HAP]

Thanks much--and for the Youtube clip.

[NorVaGal]

Harold: Thank you for this excellent post. The faux outrage is sickening-- especially coming from two "centimillionaires", as you pointed out. Each day I am more bitter and depressed with the way many Americans fall for the old game of divide and conquer, focus on the trivial in order to take the spotlight away from the serious issues confronting our country, and, fall for the pandering of politicians who have no agenda except maintaining the status quo. After all of these years, how can so many remain so gullible????

I am proud that Sen. Obama is not backing away from the premise of this statements. He has acknowledged that perhaps he could have chosen more tactful words. But I don't agree. He spoke to Americans as adults. Lies have run rampant. Many citizens ARE ANGRY AND BITTER. He spoke the truth. Now, the question is, are WE mature enough to face it?

[HAP]

Amen.

[kettletop]

spot on.