Is Obama an elitist?
I take a weekend away from the computer and the news to find that Obama's comments at a fundraiser have blown up all over the media giving Clinton and McCain and opening to try and paint Obama as an elitist. Below is the quote from Obama that Clinton and McCain are jumping on:
"You go into 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. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Now, when I read this, my political strategist bone cringed due to his choice of words but on the other hand, I understand and believe that the sentiment he's talking about to be true. That's the problem with politics; it's not always that what you're saying is wrong rather HOW you're saying it is wrong. If Obama said "angry" instead of "bitter" that would have helped but his real problem came when he said the word "cling" in relation to guns/religion/antipathy toward people who aren't like themselves. If, instead, he said, "they TURN TO guns or religion or people like themselves...", this might not have blown up into the big deal it has become. But on the other hand, what he's saying is true... we, as a society over the last 30 years have transitioned from a manufacturing economy to a service based economy and the men and woman who worked on the manufacturing lines have been told by both Democratic and Republican politicians that they are going to get their jobs back and they haven't. Instead of making $23 per hour on a car assembly line, they are making $7.10 with no health insurance or pension as a cashier at a check out line... so yeah, those people, I'm sure, are bitter and angry and turn to the things that sustain them; Family, Faith and personal freedoms.
And the problem isn't, as some pundits have suggested, that these people have lost their jobs, that's only the first step, the real problem is that these people have been promised new jobs by politicians in Washington for years and nothing has come of it.
Below Obama confronts this issue head on after Clinton and McCain attack:
"You go into 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. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Now, when I read this, my political strategist bone cringed due to his choice of words but on the other hand, I understand and believe that the sentiment he's talking about to be true. That's the problem with politics; it's not always that what you're saying is wrong rather HOW you're saying it is wrong. If Obama said "angry" instead of "bitter" that would have helped but his real problem came when he said the word "cling" in relation to guns/religion/antipathy toward people who aren't like themselves. If, instead, he said, "they TURN TO guns or religion or people like themselves...", this might not have blown up into the big deal it has become. But on the other hand, what he's saying is true... we, as a society over the last 30 years have transitioned from a manufacturing economy to a service based economy and the men and woman who worked on the manufacturing lines have been told by both Democratic and Republican politicians that they are going to get their jobs back and they haven't. Instead of making $23 per hour on a car assembly line, they are making $7.10 with no health insurance or pension as a cashier at a check out line... so yeah, those people, I'm sure, are bitter and angry and turn to the things that sustain them; Family, Faith and personal freedoms.
And the problem isn't, as some pundits have suggested, that these people have lost their jobs, that's only the first step, the real problem is that these people have been promised new jobs by politicians in Washington for years and nothing has come of it.
Below Obama confronts this issue head on after Clinton and McCain attack:
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