Got Bitter?

Well what a firestorm we've got going on right now. Holy Guacamole.

Just so you have them in front of you, here are the comments that Barack Obama made at that fundraiser in San Francisco a week ago, Sunday:

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.

Now, I realise that that may have taken you a while to read... it doesn't quite fit in to the soundbite machine that so informs John Q Public, but, assuming you managed to get through it, actually read it, can you tell me if I am living in a weird delusional disconnected world because I think that Barack Obama is right on the money? Does what he says here sound demeaning, elitist and disconnected to you? I have been listening to the furor grow over the weekend, the tempo rise and rise and the Clintons get more and more bellicose, I've listened to Obama respond (I think brilliantly) both on Friday and again on Sunday but I've also seen the way this bitter thing is playing in the press. The boys and girls on Meet the Press think this will hurt him in Pennsylvania and beyond. On CNN's post "Compassion Forum" analysis, John King, reporter, host and apparently objective, states that Barack Obama "should have known better," Campbell Brown avows that this is not going away, and they all agree that these comments will be misconstrued by Blue Collar voters in Pennsylvania, Indiana and beyond.

The only reason why these comments can be misconstrued by Blue Collar voters in Pennsylvania, Indiana and beyond is because the media chooses to misconstrue them, and the media allows Hillary and Bill to misconstrue them. If you can suffer through the (poor quality) audio of Obama's comments made at the fundraising event in San Francisco, he doesn't sound like he's disrespecting anyone, nor disparaging anybody, he is merely describing a portion of the population that is wooed and wed every single election cycle only to be divorced almost as soon as the voting booths have closed.

It's politics I know but it's a type of politics I can't stomach. It's "parsing words" politics, it's clinging to words like "cling" politics, it's "taking words out of context" politics, and every single time, it's "pundits getting off" politics. If I can stomach the sight of watching Pat Buchanan work himself in to a frenzy tonight over this one, I'll try ... or listen to Anderson Cooper tease "bitter" like a dirty word, I'll try to do that too, but I will be hoping for some reasonable, responsible, intelligent commentary, someone who is actually brave enough to say, "hey, ladies, gentlemen of the democratic party, you are parsing your candidate's words here, you are not looking at the context, you are ignoring what he actually said." If I'm really lucky some pundit might continue with something along the lines of, "what Hillary Clinton is doing right now, reminiscing about her time shooting guns when she was nine but not thinking it's necessary to divulge when the last time was that she actually shot a gun (not relevant to this conversation apparently), is actually far more disrespectful to the intelligence of the voters in small town America."

I don't know that I'll hear that tonight on the TV Machine. Maybe if I don't, I should pour myself a shot of whiskey and knock it back. A bitter dose of the American Politics of old. Hard to swallow.

Comments

[repent1]

You know what kills me here is that everyone assumes comments are about White People. I live in indiana and take it there are other people of color there to. So why is it played up as if comments made are about White People. Help Me I don't Understand.

[OtayPanky]

Lucy Carrigan: ...can you tell me if I am living in a weird delusional disconnected world because I think that Barack Obama is right on the money? Does what he says here sound demeaning, elitist and disconnected to you?

===

In a word...YES.

I'm an Obama supporter, and I'm here to tell you he made a real bad mistake here.

Imagine if some white pol had said economically disenfranchised blacks cling to their cultural touchstones (like their religion) because they're bitter.

Rural white Americans hunt (and fish) because they like to. They're not doing it because they're "clinging" to their guns and rods as some sort of security blanket or consolation prize for disenfranchisement. And they go to church for the same reason urban blacks do - because it nourishes their souls.

The comment was idiotic...and it sure did make him vulnerable to the charge of elitism...whether he deserves that label or not. And obviously, with his personal background and his longstanding commitment to community activism, he doesn't.

The best thing to do here would be for Barack to confront it head on, just like he did with Rev Wright's idiotic comments. He should simply admit that it was dumb as shit to conflate LEGITIMATE bitterness over economic disenfranchisement - whether urban or rural - with the touchstones of someone's culture.

[PhDiva]

Actually, I originally thought Obama made a huge mistake, too. But I'm Black, and now that I think of it, Black people would not have been offended by people saying black people cling to our faith in hard times. I'm actually rethinking this.

[OtayPanky]

People of faith ALL cling to their faith in hard times - and that would include the Obama family, and the Clinton family, and the McCain family too. No problem with that at all.

But to say that some segment of the population embraces their faith because they're bitter is both wrong - and politically dumb. That's what has given Hillary her ammo, here.

[joanndarc]

Almost all on TV sounds as if the majority of people in PA and the other states are pretty much short attention span idiots. Hope 2008 elections are going to prove me wrong. Let's see..

[cla62]

I think it's funny that people aren't left to just hear what was said and interpret it for themselves. Whenever any candidate says something stupid, they immediately have to have their staff try to make up some statement as to why the candidate actually meant something other than what was said. I think the American public is smart enough to hear these things and actually figure out that these candidates actually mean some of these stupid things. As in Obamas latest statement.

[maudg]

I will make this short and sweet...I had all the intentions of voting for Obama, but there have been so many things recently..minister, wife's statements and his own slips , that I feel he is not the man he had appeared to be. I will not vote for him now and, as I think Hillary is one of the most dishonest politicians around, I will vote for McCain..He is solid and - he is not for war, for god's sake, he hates it, he lived it. Obama has to be the most disappointing revelation to me..

[Desiderata]

I've parsed your word, maudg, and come to a conclusion that you never had an intention to vote for a Democrat at anytime. You are obviously not bitter enough.

[PhDiva]

You were always going to vote for McCain. If you think it's okay for us to stay in a war just because he hates it, and that it's okay for anyone to pack the courts with anti-choice fanatics, then you're a republican. I think you're lying. You were never going to vote for a democrat.

[wingman1]

Right on the button Lucy. And McCain is doing it too, constantly tarring Obama with the weasel phrases "put og touch" and "elitist". Opportunistic politics at it worst.

[YellerDawg]

"Just words? Don't tell me that words don't matter."

[Rule Of Law]

Yours don't.

[Konnie]

just once I would love for either candidate to throw the msm under the bus for a change.
just once i would love to hear the words: "move on, nothing to see here," from one of the
candidates instead of re-iterating and explaining what they meant to some stumble-F%^&
msn gotcha guy.

Wouldn't it be interesting, if Obama said : who cares, This is issue X that I want you to know
about" and take up the interviewers time talking issues.

Same with Hillary, every time someone asks about X, say nope i want to talk about Y.

'who is in charge? why does the MSM get away with this crap?
i'm just sayin'

[jmpurser]

Having spent a couple of days arguing about what Obama said I've come to the conclusion that for the 10% who've actually read what he said and gotten offended it comes down to having no idea what either "bitter" or "cling" mean. But 90% of it is just parroting the reich wing spin machine or camp "Hillery or death".

[nananance]

As a resident of Pennsylvania, I AM bitter about Obama's comment and not because the media has told me I should be, I have read what he said in its entirety.
If that's how he feels, say it in Pennsylvania to the people you are talking about, not to a closed group in San Francisco. Whether you believe it or not, people here largely feel he was being condescending toward a group of voters because they are not buying his message so he had to analyze it away.

How can you excuse his saying that people here turn to God because we're bitter? Can we all agree that members of Rev. Wright's church turn to his brand of religion because they are bitter?

For whatever reason, a large part of the liberal media has cut Obama slack on every issue in this primary campaign and when he gets to the general election, the Democrats will likely lose the presidency in a year when we should have had a sure win

[ceu]

He was saying it in response to a person who was volunteering for the campaign and getting ready to go to PA, so naturally he was going to use PA in his answer. She wanted to know talking points - he said basically that it was more important to understand how people feel about the government, that many are bitter about the failure of politicians to keep promises, of jobs going overseas, etc., and that many cling to religion or guns or immigration issues rather than voting in their own best interests. How many people still believe that he is Muslim and is, therefore, a threat to their own religious beliefs? How many people think that because he's for gun control he'll somehow take away their hunting rifles? How many politicians are using immigration, and the idea that illegal aliens are taking jobs away from "regular Americans" as an issue? (Remember when gay marriage was the biggest threat to our civilization? Well, this year it's Mexicans!)
So the volunteers can go into small towns, spout talking points and make promises that the people who've seen all the promises broken already, or they try to understand the frustrations of those people and reassure them on the "fear" issues.
You choose to be insulted by what Obama said. I happen to agree with him. I am angry. I am bitter! I'm pissed off at a government that has screwed us over and I'm glad that there's one candidate that understands that!

[SCharb]

The problem is that Mayhill Fowler practices the horrible Hearst brand of Yellow Journalism, by mixing fact with opinion. She recorded this sound clip, yes, and she posted the transcript. That would have been fine alone. But then she added her opinion, that as a self-described "very rich southern belle," she thought that the remarks sounded elitist. BOOM! Fact is opinion, opinion is fact.

If the fact and opinion had been kept separate, then there would have been no controversy.

[radiclib]

.
.
Scarborough is a blockhead who ALWAYS cuts people off, especially women.
He's half-bright, and dangerously so.

The template is set for the anti-Obama propaganda machine.
They can't drop direct ``N'' bombs on him, so the tactic is to trim little sound bites and smear him as a ``Marxist'' or a ``racist'' or ``not experienced enough'' or whatever they can find that day.

They will try to put him on the defensive, make him afraid to speak, make him self-censor himself. Who knows, it might work. We could end up with four years of John McCain. God help us.
.
.
.

[ceu]

I listened to the furor somewhat over the weekend (and I agreed with what Obama said) I didn't know until I read David Coleman's piece that what Obama said was in response to a volunteer's, soon to be in PA, question! Put into context, it makes sense that he talked about the attitudes of people in small-town PA! Not once did I hear it mentioned by MSM. There's all this outrage & yet it seems that the pundits are just too damn lazy, or stupid, to read up about what was said; it's easier to react to what they THINK was said and pass along the misconception & omissions to the viewers. There's no argument if they have all the facts.

[MichaelDeane]

Nicely done. The "gotcha" brand of politics is sickening, even more so when the words are deliberately twisted or parsed to maximize the damage.

Like the :30 Rev. Wright sound bites on Fox or reference to his grandmother in that seminal speech on race in Philadelphia, it is quite clear to me that America is not ready for a thoughtful discourse on any political subject. The media outlets won't give the time and the journalists are frankly in over their head, I too was watching CNN and was dumbfounded by virtually everyone. The ex-Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson made as much if not more sense than the so-called journalists did and we know he has an agenda, The CNN folks are simply in over their heads--complete and utter lightweights.

The media have an interest in keeping this story going. So they are somewhat alligned with Hillary's interests right now. But at some point they WILL bite the hand that is constantly feeding them.

Finally, I'm constantly amazed by the Clintonistas here who are intent on recycling Rev. Wright, Tony Rezko or any so-called scandal while ignoring their own her foibles. Or then again, they could be closeted Republicana looking to foment trouble.

[RobinVZB]

Obama took a $600,000 from the crooked Tony Rezko. At the best, it shows Obama has poor judgment; at the worst it shows Obama is a crook. In any case, I think it is a legitimate issue. We should expect better ethics from our elected leaders. Money and favors corupt the system.

Further, I think the Rev. Wright issue is a legitimate topic of inquiry, too. If I walked into a church and the preacher was making racist or anti-American or anti-Semtic statements, I would walk out immediately. I certainly would not let my kids listen to that kind of hate-filled speech. Why doesn't Obama explain why he didn't go to a different church? Why doesn't he explain why he takes his daughters into that environment?

I do not understand why Obama supporters do not want him to be scrutinized. If he didn't want his life to be closely looked at, he shouldn't have ran for President. Surely as an Obama supporter, you believe your candidate can stand up to close scrutiny. If he can't, then he will never be able to survive a general election. He should look at this scrutiny as a chance to explain his views--a chance to interact with the American people

[BitJam]

~~~~~~~~~~­~~~~~~~~~~
I do not understand why Obama supporters do not want him to be scrutinized.
~~~~~~~~~~­~~~~~~~~~~

Having your words taken out of context and endlessly repeated is not the same thing as being scrutinized.

[RobinVZB]

I would like to add to my previous comment that I do not believe that this prolonged primary is hurting the Dems in the general election. Better to find out Senator Obama and Senator Clinton's weaknesses now and deal with them than to have surprises in the general election. Obama has been in the public eye for far less time than Clinton; therefore, it is going to take more work to get to know him.

After all, can't we agree that the important thing here is that we keep McCain from appointing conservatives to the supreme court, that we keep McCain from deregulating businesses so that greed can run over the rest of us, that we keep McCain from prolonging the war until everyone of us posting on this website are dead and in our graves, that we we prevent McCain from trying to privatize Social Security, and too many other things to list here.

Let the Clinton and Obama stand up to the test of fire. It will make them stronger.

[Rule Of Law]

The truth is frightening to power. The corporate media will not allow most americans to see or hear it. Another reason that Obama is correct in his assessment; With the media controlled by the same Republican Corporations that run the country, how can the average American vote for real issues, when he's being fed the "American Idol" pop version of the truth? We may be gullible and sometimes a little slow on the uptake, but after 7 years, we know when we're being screwed, and when Obama hit that nerve notice how the GOP and the DNC/Hillary camp closed ranks! They will do whatever it takes to protect their positions of privilege and power--make no mistake!

[blaqntelligence]

Those few words answered a question I've been asking myself (I love this blog site). I know Hillary Klingon will do anything to win this election, but I've always felt it went beyond that.
Your posting give me another, incredibly enlightening, perspective. Thank you.

[ruffmama]

OMG! You are so correct on this. I am getting so furious watching the regular chew and spew cable shows tonight because they are again (just like with the Rev Wright comments) only picking out a catchy sound bite or two and running with it. It is so insulting to the American people that the media would so blatantly misrepresent what he was saying and distort the truth. I guess we shouldn't be surprised at this point.

One bright spot was Rachel Maddow on David Gregory's show tonight. She was spot on. Unfortunately she was up against Joe Scarborough who cut her off and spoke over her as usual. They really need to give Rachel her own show! She and Olbermann and the best on cable news right now.

[ceu]

She was good - and Scarborough was...as he usually is...too lazy to listen or to find out what actually happened. Someone needs to smack him!

[fairwitness]

Rachel is the best, most respecful, intelligent and articulate commentator on the tube. And Scarborough so resents being outclassed by a woman, I guess, that he is downright rude and condescending (as if he was in a position to be so) every time they are on together. He is used to that infobabe on his show saying inane and irrelevent things that he doesn't get it when intellegence shows up.

Rachel should get her own network. She represents the honor and smarts we all aspire to--it's incredible she puts up with the dopes she is played against.

[grendl]

What isn't being addressed is the media's role in all of this.

They're trying to flex their muscle once again, and show how they not only report the news but create it as well, and they get very very very very angry when the American public doesn't respond.

Because that's why we tune in to CNN. The media has become as arrogant as the Clinton campaign, seeking to somehow prolong this race by evening the playing field once again.

He spoke the truth, and it should've been touted as such. Period.