itsmeeeeeee

make sure you go to the link and read the comments on this article! doesn't seem like too many people in PA are falling for clinton's outrage! and i don't know how long the media can keep pushing this story when so many people are backlashing against it.


John Baer: Decades of working-class neglect - now that's insulting

John Baer: Decades of working-class neglect - now that's insulting | Philadelphia Daily News | 04/14/2008

By John Baer
Philadelphia Daily News

Daily News Political Columnist
SOME THOUGHTS on the latest diversion of Campaign '08, a campaign apparently hell-bent on keeping the nation mired in its own stupidity.

As a native-born, small-town Pennsylvanian, a son of native-born, small-town Pennsylvania parents - one from the coal region, one from Lancaster County - let me assure you that the so-called offensive, condescending things Barack Obama said about the people I come from are basically right on target.

"Bitter" perhaps best describes my late mother, an angry Irish Catholic who absolutely clung to her religion.

Dad, also a journalist, wasn't really bitter as far as I know, but he sure liked to hunt.

So, despite carping from Hillary Clinton and annoying yapping from her surrogates (really, it's like turning on the lights at night in a puppy farm), I take no offense.

What's offensive to me is suggesting that small-town, working-class, gun-toting and/or religious Pennsylvanians are somehow injured by a politician's words.

Are you kidding me?

They're injured all right, but the injury is long-term and from lots more than "just words."

They've been injured from decades of neglect by political cultures in Washington and Harrisburg driven by special interests.

They're injured by a system of isolated, insulated political leadership that protects itself and the status quo above all else.

They've been harmed by a lack of political guts to fix a health-care system that works against the poor and forces middle-class families to pay more for less, while at the same time giving politicians the best coverage taxpayer money can buy.

They've been taken for granted by political parties and candidates who stay in power by - and this was the apparent gist of Obama's remarks - forcing attention and debate on issues tied to guns, religion and race (precisely because such issues resonate) rather than real problems such as health care and the economy.

They've been consistently made fools of by their own elected representatives who, year after year, pull fat salaries ($169,000 for every member of Congress; $150,000 in salary, perks and benefits for every state lawmaker) with automatic raises no matter how little gets done.

A new Associated Press poll shows Congress' approval rating at 23 percent. And don't even get me started on the Pennsylvania Legislature.

Insulting?

What's insulting are the sizes of salaries and perks of politicians in a state where the median household income is $43,714.

What's insulting is the ongoing failure of elected "leaders" to deal with long-term, working-class worries while insuring their own futures with hefty, over-rich pensions.

And, look, what Obama said, given a charged atmosphere close to a critical primary, was ill-advised - not because he's wrong, but because it changes the discussion.

The 24-hour broadcast-news cycle will jabber on this for days - the irony being that Obama's "words," which had positioned him so well, now threaten to trip him up.

Another irony is that the candidate running to effect change where change is needed, and to offer hope to those without it, is suddenly tagged as somehow diminishing those he seeks to serve.

So the question is whether Obama effectively defuses this, as he did the controversy surrounding his former minister. And that remains to be seen.

Just don't tell me that he insulted a state or, given his background, that he's an out-of-touch elitist.

And I especially don't want to hear such arguments from a candidate who spent decades in the bubble of a governor's mansion, the White House and the U.S. Senate, and under the blanket of $109 million income during the last eight years.

Pennsylvanians might cling to religion and guns. I hope they don't cling to stupidity.

Send e-mail to baerj@phillynews.com

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Veronica

It is false outrage. People are pissed and bitter. The times are changing, people aren't falling for the MSM's contrived outraged. Hillary is paddling up shit creek. She overplayed her hand on something so dumb, and instead people of Pa. are thinking about her lie after lie, and chief strategist, Mark Penn, in Columbia doing Hillary's bidding, or Bill's 800k in payment from Columbia.

People are not dumb.

RK77

They have a video of his interview on the front page

Obama: I misspoke but I didn't lie

The_Heretic

Have to wonder what many media outlets got in exchange for harping on a whole lotta nothin'.

__________________
"Enough!!" -so rang Barack Obama's voice off the walls of Mile High Stadium

HarperLee

I am so close to buying a gun at a pawn shop and shooting my television set. I have not felt sane all day until awhile ago when TDS aired a loop of every cable and network anchor asking, "Is Obama elitist?"

This country deserves Hillary Clinton. In her new hillbilly persona, she is doing her own hair and makeup and is looking like Baby Jane on a good hair day. I want people who support her to have to look at her and listen to her for the next eight years. I really do.

(Stephen Colbert suggested that she perhaps should have belched when she made her Ma Clinton speech about how Obama is elitist.)

EvilMonkey

I wouldn't put a lot of stock into this, let them run with it for a couple of days. This is really hurting Hillary more than it is Obama, she just can't contain herself which is why she's getting boo'd and ignored.

The debate will take center stage on Wed and that will turn things around. Besides that, the public really isn't all that interested. Obama will lose a few points but in the end will prevail. This is no where near the caliber of Wright and he came out stronger than ever.

Keep the faith people, Obama will rise above this and be that much stronger for it.

The_Heretic

Even if this country deserved to be punished with a Hillary president they still won't. McCain would win in a landslide. That's right. My two year old prediction if it came down to Hillary and McCain.

However, what will most likely happen is Hillary will try to kneecap Obama [even after it's officially official and she drops out] in order to get McCain in for four to eight years and then try to run again. This despite the fact that voters would never forgive her and she'd lose again in future election.

__________________
"Enough!!" -so rang Barack Obama's voice off the walls of Mile High Stadium

HarperLee

I was really losing it there. I completely forgot for just a moment
that she is unelectable. 48% negatives.

Never mind.

The_Heretic

But that's not to say she won't keep trying. If people thought they got sick of Darth Nader wait until Hillary becomes a quadranial turd that won't flush.

__________________
"Enough!!" -so rang Barack Obama's voice off the walls of Mile High Stadium