Norma Rae Clinton: Hillary's Middle Class Hypocrisy

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Posted April 14, 2008 | 03:28 PM (EST)



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And so her suicide campaign continues.

Last Sunday, Barack Obama was speaking at a fundraiser when he said that some small town voters "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."

Hillary pounced on the remarks, calling them "elitist" and "out of touch." Now, we'll get to those remarks in a second. But first we need to address the epic hypocrisy of Hillary Rodham Clinton calling another human being "out of touch" with middle class Americans. I'd like to start by sharing an observation and a quote with you:

Observation: Hillary Clinton is a fantastically wealthy, union-busting, condescending corporate board member with a privileged background who's trying to convince you that she's more "in touch" than a guy whose relatives live in huts.

Second, a quote:

"You know, I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was fulfill my profession."

That was Hillary during her husband's 1992 campaign.

Here's what we can infer from those comments: 1) Hillary thinks homemaking is beneath her. 2) Hillary thinks that a woman who doesn't pursue a profession is wasting her life. 3) Hillary hates working class families. OK, maybe "hate" is too strong -- but she's certainly shown a willingness to work against them.

Take for instance her days as a union-busting board member for Wal-Mart, or her partnership in the notoriously anti-union Rose Law Firm. What can we infer from those associations? That Hillary Clinton hates union workers, naturally. Again, maybe "hate" isn't the right word. But she's certainly shown a willingness to suppress and litigate against them.

And now the pant-suited wonder is tossing back shots with the working folks of Indiana, making believe she's a gun-toting huntress -- as if we'd forget that she's been one of the most staunchly anti-gun politicians in Washington since the 1990s. Isn't it adorable? She's pretending to be one of the little people! The same little people she's belittled and screwed over in the past -- whether it was through NAFTA, Wal-Mart, or her own elitist, out-of-touch comments.

She's trying to paint Obama as aloof. Meanwhile she's swilling Pabst and bragging about all the bucks she's bagged in carefully-staged photo ops. Could there be anything more condescending? Does she really think we're stupid enough to believe that her fingernails have ever known the scourge of dirt? What's next, a quail hunt with John Kerry? The truth is, the closest Hillary Clinton's ever come to a dead buck is one of Huma Abedin's deerskin handbags.

Now, onto Obama's remarks. Were they stupid? Absolutely. He screwed up. He sounded less like the kid who was raised by his grandparents, and more like the editor of The Harvard Law Review. But do those stupid remarks reflect his values and history? I don't believe so. As a matter of fact, unlike Hillary, Obama actually has experience living as a working class American. Unlike Hillary (who grew up safely ensconced in Chicago's upscale Park Ridge), Obama got his fingernails dirty trying to better the lives of the working poor in inner-city Chicago.

And by the way, very few people are talking about the most important part of this story: that Obama was right (even though he made his point arrogantly). The people of Pennsylvania -- just like those of Ohio, and Michigan, and Indiana, and the rest of the United States -- are angry about seeing their jobs go overseas, their wages stagnate, and their retirement funds dwindle. Many of them turn to their faith to get through hard times, and rightly so. The question is, who's the best person to address their needs -- the guy who grew up middle class, or the woman whose efforts to appear middle class begin and end in a bar?

In the past week, we've seen Bill Clinton brazenly lie to cover up Hillary's brazen lies. We've seen her pander to the working class by painting herself as a "praise God, pass the ammunition" alcoholic. We've seen that there isn't a staged event she considers too insulting to our intelligence, or a story she wouldn't needlessly embellish to win our votes. She's become so mind-numbingly phony -- so completely transparent, that anyone -- even a stupid little housewife (her assessment, not mine) can see it plain as a duck in a rifle scope.

Don't be fooled, working people of Pennsylvania, Indiana, West Virginia and North Carolina. Don't be duped into eating out of Hillary's $109M hands the way the media is bound to do all week. Don't forget that while Obama may suck at bowling, at least he's no suck up. And above all, don't forget what Hillary Rodham Clinton really is:

A blueblood in blue-collared clothing.

 
 

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The public is not responding to Obama's comments because they are true, lol. The whole point of the second amendment was that when Government gets out of control, as we are seeing, that the states keep a well armed militia to protect its citizens. Pennsylvanian's know the signs of fascism. We know what it means when Blackwater employees are treated better than our voluntary servicemen. That means you're undermining the military. We know what happens when you weaken the Constitution and civil liberities. That means you plan on violating ithem. We know what it means when the Fed floods the economy with fiat money. That means the dollars value will fall. We know what it means when gas, grain, and other essentials prices go up. That means we have to live poorer. Why do you think Ron Paul is doing so well in PA? Oh, maybe you don't know because it doesnt get reported. Anyway, the people Obama was speaking of are the people who feel they've seen the signs for years. These are the people who know that when gas hits $10 a gallon, we have no infrastructure, Blackwater starts detaining natural born Americans, and our families feel hunger pangs, you better have God, a gun, or both, because shit is about to get ugly.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:31 AM on 04/15/2008

Keith Olbermann replayed some of Hillary's comments last night, her outrage over Obama's remarks......SHE WAS READING THEM FROM A SCRIPT. She was so outraged, she had to read them from a script. She kept looking down at her notes to find the next outrage and deliver it with her concerned tone, she's so concerned she has to read her own outrage. Why doesn't someone else point this out. It is so blatently fake.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:30 AM on 04/15/2008

Someone needs to address the larger issue: is it really necessary that presidential candidates present themselves to the working class as "one of us"? and, if so, why? Has anyone taken a poll, specifically asking Americans if they consider this kind of role playing essential in a president? All but a couple presidents - at most - have come from at least somewhat privileged backgrounds. Yet every candidate seems to feel this pressing need to possess "the common touch." But you know what? No matter how privileged your background, there's one absolutely foolproof way to show the people you're one of them: by genuinely caring what happens to them. Granted, it's probably as difficult as the biblical camel's passage through the eye of a needle for a child of privilege to care about others in anything but the most superficial way - but it is possible. And if they do care about ordinary citizens, then they don't have to go hunting, or bowling, or drinking - or any other mindless activity - just to prove they've got "the common touch."

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:45 AM on 04/15/2008

Very well said. To be yourself, to be honest, to be authentic, to be respectful is the best way to honor other people. If you respect yourself and really respect others, you have no need to fake, or flip-flop, to pander, or to lie. To blatently try to deceive is the most condescending thing a politician does. It assumes stupidity and gullibility on the part of the electorate in direct contradiction of the underlying values of the founding fathers (some of them anyway). On these criteria, I decided to vote for Obama rather than Billary. Obviously, Karl Rove and his ilk are on to something, or we would not have had 8 years of W. Surely almost everyone can see where that has gotten us. If only we could turn back the clock and better support the elitist Al Gore.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:26 AM on 04/15/2008

People will hear what they wish to. Either you like Obama, if something bothers you, one normally
does a little research. Those who find fault with what he said never liked what he had to say
anyway. They go for the honey dripping Hillary, who says exactly the opposite of what she voted on,
I guess they don't mind that she voted TWICE for the Patriot Act, condoned torture by voting for the
Military Commission Act, on the board of directors who were against unions at WalMart, for NAFTA
yet lies about it. A surely curious bunch of people who will get what they deserve again.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:34 AM on 04/15/2008

If you want to see video of her "cookies comment" I've posted it here:

http://www.jedreport.com/2008/04/hypocrite-hil-1.html

It's pretty breathtaking -- she's become the very right wing that she was once supposedly a victim of.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:50 AM on 04/15/2008

In Pennsylvania, Hillary Clinton has been portrayed to the blue-collar workers as Rosie The Riveter.
Outside of the campaign, I wonder when is the last time multi-millionaires and Hollywood groupies, Hillary and Bill invited a blue-collar worker to their home for dinner???

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:41 AM on 04/15/2008

Before entering the Clinton's house "Blue-Collar Workers" are asked to take off their shoes not to bring 'dirty' in. May I now ask the Clintons to wipe their feet on a mat before leaving home when entering the Blue-Collared-Worker's world! We don't want them to dirty up the land under our feet! We should check the copyright date of Hillary's manual she's using thinking she's so called 'common man' in 2008.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:44 AM on 04/15/2008

Over the last couple of weeks I've made comments to the effect that voters just want to be on the winning side. They don't care if their candidates lie and they even expect it, because they know the lying will fool enough people to enable their side to win. It just now occurred to me that I should be using this argument to convince independents and HRC supporters that now is the time to see the light and start supporting Obama. Not because he lies, but to be on the winning team. There will be some initial grief at having "lost", but this will be replaced rather quickly by the realization that you are on the winning team. And the bonus is, that you can get back your sense of national pride and start to feel as if there is some hope that you can visit a foreign country without being hated by everyone who sees that you are an American. Join the winning team! It feels good!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:41 AM on 04/15/2008
Moderator's Pick

HuffPost's Pick

This election isnt about teams, give me a break it is about saving this Nation, it is about giving some kind of chance at a future for my children and grandchildren. I am not a republican or a democrat but I am a proud American and that is the only team I want to be on.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 06:09 AM on 04/15/2008

I'll start by saying that Hillary's spin on, a snippet of, Obama's comments provide the most glaring example of her pathological willingness to distort the wordspositions of her opponents. My revulsion at her tactics is only exceeded by my exponential revulsion of the media perpetuating the distortion.

Most of the shows I watched opened by spending several minutes repeating HRC's comments and analyzing them before playing what Obama actually said. Worse yet, Joe Scarborough and others chose to paraphrase Obama's remarks in the most inflammatory way. For example, how does Obama's mentioning that sometimes people develop antipathy towards those unlike themselves morph into Obama calling folks bigots?

Furthermore, was he not dead on in pointing out that the Republican M.O. for the past 40 years has been to nurture such antipathy, if not flat out racism?

Yes, HRC has sullied the discourse but the media has made it impossible to have an intelligent discussion about issues that matter because of their they believe doing so would lower their ratings. Perhaps we need to bring back the fairness doctrine.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:21 AM on 04/15/2008

Finally someone quotes the "Tammy Wynette" interview!! If you ever needed proof that the MSM gives Clinton a free-ride, you need only look to the fact that no outlet has pulled this interview out. This was big news at the time.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:11 AM on 04/15/2008

Yeah, Hillary's had nothing but a free ride her whole time in Washingto............!!!! Snark, sorry. just shot a bunch of coffee out my nose.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:25 AM on 04/15/2008

Hillary is only worth $109,000,000. She is just like you and I.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:47 AM on 04/15/2008

Yes, and Abraham Lincoln Obama purchased a mansion with the help of his slumlord buddy just like you and I have both done. Isn't that the kind of fresh new politician we need in Washington?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:28 AM on 04/15/2008

mcnairbo,

You don't know what your talking about. The gentlemen who sold Obama that property is not a slumlord as Hillary falsely stated on one of the previous debates. You are just repeated her proven lies.

Obama did nothing wrong in the real estate transaction, and it's not his fault that that man is now having problems with the law, which has nothing to do with Obama. As you are aware, if Obama could be dragged into it, the Clintons would have made sure of it by now, but because Obama is not involved in anyway, their peddling the slumlord lie.

If you really want to slam Obama, at least try to come up with something original and true, if you can find it.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:30 AM on 04/15/2008

Seth....they would love to hear from you at the_________(fill in with most any
supermarket check out rag).

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:21 PM on 04/14/2008

We're bitter about the price of gas out here in the Midwest too. Although I presume that's shared throughout the US.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:53 PM on 04/14/2008

I, for one, applaud Senator Clinton's strong stand against elitism. Now to prove that she's just not exploiting the non-elites of this nation for her personal political advantage, she must immediately reject the support all her super-delegates. After all, what is more elitist than a "super" delegate?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:21 PM on 04/14/2008

Im for one, applaud you RRonin as Hillary's dictionary of 'elite' m mrans something entirely different tyhan Websters. Thank you for that silver bullet!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:49 AM on 04/15/2008

Great observation!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:42 PM on 04/14/2008

Great post, but I suggest an alternative title: Tonya Harding Clinton.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:18 PM on 04/14/2008

Her face in the chug-a-lug photos of the other day was the dead spitting image of Tenniell's depiction of Alice in Wonderland's Queens of Hearts: http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/csl2993l.jpg

I'm sure she'd be excellent at yelling "Off with their Heads!"

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:00 PM on 04/15/2008

Great article. Just wondering, was that last line a pun? blue collar = blue collar worker, but also her blue-collared pantsuits...hehe

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:15 PM on 04/14/2008

Every column you write has me waiting for the next one! Each column is better than the last. I don't get Hillary Clinton and I was another person who supported her, before getting to see the real Hillary. Why didn't I see what she was, sooner?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:49 PM on 04/14/2008

When I read this column, I thought, "Damn, here's someone who dislikes Hillary even more than I do!" But everything Grahame-Smith says is true. Hillary Clinton is a grasping, amoral hypocrite. Working class heroes don't grow up in tony suburbs, go to Wellesley, and work for union-busting law firms. Hillary is the "elitiist", not Obama.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:36 PM on 04/14/2008

A-frickin'-men to this.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:52 PM on 04/14/2008

but I guess they come from elitist families related to Dick Cheney, are able to move to Hawaii, when their anthropologist mother decides to get away and end up in Harvard.

Classic working class hero.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:18 PM on 04/14/2008

It is so sad to see someone with an IQ smaller than their shoe size try to act smart. Now be good and go drink some more of that Kool Aid.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 02:16 AM on 04/15/2008

It's too bad there is no requirement that you show some basic knowledge of the subject before you post on it. It was Obama's grandfather who moved the family to Hawaii hoping for a better job on the island. Please read the Time magazine article about Obama's mother for the story.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1729524,00.html?cnn=yes

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:05 PM on 04/14/2008

Obama's grandparents moved to Hawaii when his grandfather's job - furniture salesman - opened up a store there. His mother was 17 years old so I don't think she "decided to get away." You obviously have NO IDEA.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:52 PM on 04/14/2008

Seth Grahame-Smith?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:33 PM on 04/14/2008

Disparate people do and say disparate things. In one week her worst fear will be realized, Obama will be our Nominee.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:37 PM on 04/14/2008

Not so quick. We all know what can happen in this country of ours. Gore won too but it was
changed to Bush. Hillary must know something we don't know yet. I bet she will end up the
nominee. The powers to be won't give up their easy ride - mark my word.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:26 AM on 04/15/2008

I'm from a small town in Middle America. Before moving to California, I was a small-town voter, and I can state here point of fact: When we lose jobs, when gas prices skyrocket, and when we watch people who already are incredibly wealthy earn even more money, we DO feel bitter. And anyone who feels the need to chastise Sen. Obama for telling the truth needs to stop suckling at the MSM teat. NAFTA, the Bush tax cuts, and the wars in the Middle East have contributed to the 9% unemployment rate in Pennsylvania. I can't believe that a slow news day has obfuscated just how accurate his statement was -- and is. And, frankly, as a "small-town" constituent, I don't in the least feel offended by his remark, nor do I find it elitist. If anything, it perhaps contains a bit more honesty than most of us are used to.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:17 PM on 04/14/2008

It's fun to watch Obama supporters try to outbitter each other. Aren't you guys glad he stepped down from Nirvana to tell you who you are, how you should think and that he is the only one who canhelp you do that. Bow down early and ofter, suckers.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:16 AM on 04/15/2008

At Obama's next appearance in PA, he should point this out to his audience: "Some people" raked in 109 million over the last 7 years; that's about 15-1/2 mil per year. Did any of you do that well? Or look at it this way: Say you work from age 20 till 65-- to sock away a total of 15.5 mil. in your working lifetime you'd have to earn around 345,000 per year. Not bad, hey? "

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:38 AM on 04/15/2008

That'r right, compare Hillary's current status, not with Obama's current status, nor even with the status of Obama's parent's when he was growing up. No, that would be too -- what's the word -- relevant. No, let's compare her current status with that of Obama's poor distant relatives. Shit, Hillary can't have any poor distant relatives can she?

Forget about hypocrisy. How's about we start with some basic reasoning skills?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:11 PM on 04/14/2008

OK, current status. The Clintons own several houses, including the "cottage" at the lake in PA. Damn nice houses too in New York, and DC. Obama owns one house, pretty nice, but not palatial. He rents an apartment in DC. The Clintons made $109M in the last 7 years, Obama quite a lot less. He used the proceeds from his book to buy the house in Chicago, lives on their salaries. Basic reasoning skills tell me Hilary's current status is multi millionaire, Obama, not multi millionaire. Is that reasoning basic enough for you?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:06 AM on 04/15/2008

Obama's relatives living in a village IS Obama's current status. It's the status of his _immediate_ family - that's where his grandma lives and a number of his aunts and uncles live. BTW, note too that they prefer the simple life and