The Dead Guy

So once again, lifelong politicians have taken words out of context and wielded them as weapons back at the person who spoke those words.

Senator Obama was 100% correct when he said after all the promises we have been given about improving the economic conditions, not just in Pennsylvania - but across America, and yet nothing has truly changed, that we are bitter and many of us blame that which we are told to blame: immigrants, people wanting to restrict the 2nd Amendment, the government supposedly trampling our religious rights, and so forth.

That’s what Obama was saying. And if you hear the whole conversation in context - you know that is what he said. The American people have been given scape - goats to blame by the people that are really to blame - the politicians that won’t do a damn thing to bring about the change needed to restore jobs and better conditions for our country.

But let me tell you something - I’m not bitter - I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!

I could go on, but these folks have said it much better than I. The first one, Robert Creamer, is the person who trained me in grassroots organizing back in 1998 while I was working on a campaign in Washington State. The others I don’t personally know - but they sum up the sentiment pretty well.

When it comes time to vote in your upcoming primary and the general election in November - don’t vote because you have to - vote because you want to … because you want to change the status quo … because you want things to get better … vote who you believe truly shares the real American values and who will best represent us to change the system back for the people, instead of turning its back on the people.

Vote because you are mad as hell, and you’re not going to take it anymore!

Robert Creamer - It Takes Real Chutzpah for a Guy Who Owns Eight Houses (McCain) to Call Barack Obama an “Elitist” (HuffPo)

McCain doesn’t lack “chutzpah.” Yesterday his campaign actually accused Barack Obama of being an “elitist” for saying that it’s not surprising that people in small Midwestern towns are bitter after seeing their standard of living systematically destroyed over the last three decades.

Damn right they’re bitter; they have good reasons to be. And most of those reasons are the economic and trade policies that have - and continue to be - championed by George Bush and John McCain.

David Sirota - McCain Said It, Before He Attacked It (HuffPo)

John McCain’s campaign is attacking Barack Obama for Obama’s rather indisputable comments about the rise of anti-immigrant fervor in small town America. Obama said that the rise of such fervor has a lot to do with bitterness.

But wait - didn’t John McCain say something similar in December to The New Yorker?

David Brody - Obama’s “Bitter” Comment (CBN)

Look, could Obama have said the whole thing better? Sure. The “cling” word as it relates to religion makes it seem that these people are needy in some way. “Cling” is not the best word to use.

The word “bitter” wasn’t the best choice in the context he used it in but he was trying to make a broader point. I guess those are the pitfalls of being really smart.

But to say that these comments are “elitist” or are “demeaning” seems to be a big time stretch. It’s hard to paint Obama as an “elitist” while at the same time he’s described as hip, cool and relates to the younger generation. That makes no sense.

Harold Pollack - Who’s Really Out of Touch Here? (HuffPo)

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.

Jane Smiley: Here We Go Again (HuffPo)

So now, Barack Obama tells the truth about conditions as we know them–that the countryside and the small towns are dying in many places in our country, and that the corporatocracy doesn’t care enough to do a thing about it. He points out that immigrant-baiting, gay-baiting, gun-baiting, and religious pandering have helped to destroy those towns and that countryside, that those being destroyed have been cynically enlisted by their very own destroyers to provide the votes that help accomplish the destruction. And this is what Senator Hillary Clinton says about it: “Senator Obama’s remarks were elitist and out of touch. They are not reflective of the values and beliefs of Americans.”

Erin Kotecki Vest - Elitist My Ass (HuffPo)

Senator Clinton, let me be as clear as I possibly can here:

Barack Obama is giving voice to millions of us by speaking the TRUTH. He’s simply vocalizing exactly what I hear from my Uncle, from my High School friend, from my former teacher, from my now re-located parents. He is speaking about what he’s heard, what he’s been told, what he has seen.

Senator Obama’s remarks reminds me yet again that he is one of us. He GETS IT. He knows that I LEFT Detroit. I AM BITTER. I AM PISSED OFF. THERE ARE NO JOBS IN MY HOMETOWN. I couldn’t move my family back there if I WANTED TO.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 12th, 2008 at 17:55 and is filed under 2008 Cycle, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.