Friday, April 11

Today I am in Chicago and will start off this post by saying that I lied. I lied when I said that my last anti-Clinton post would be my last because I am so outraged that I can't not say something.

As was widely reported in today's Huffington Post, Barack Obama was recently asked why his candidacy hasn't connected with middle class Pennsylvanians. Here is his response:

"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."

In response to this, Hillary Clinton and John McCain have both branded Obama as an elitist who is out of touch with middle class voters. To this, Obama had the following brilliant response:

"Here's what's rich. Sen. Clinton says, I don't think people are bitter in Pennsylvania. I think Barack's being condescending. John McCain says, he's obviously out of touch with people. Out of touch? John McCain, it took him three tries to figure out the home foreclosure crisis was a problem and to come up with a plan for it, and he's saying I'm out of touch? Sen. Clinton voted for a credit card sponsored bankruptcy bill that made it harder for people to get out of debt, after taking money from the financial services companies, and she says I'm out of touch?"

"No, I'm in touch. I know exactly what's going on. I know what's going on in Pennsylvania, I know what's going in Indiana, I know what's going in Illinois. People are fed up. They're angry and they're frustrated and they're bitter, and they want to see a change in Washington, and that's why I'm running for president of the United States of America."

Okay, so does Hillary Clinton just take this as her cue to shut up? Of course not, and today her campaign issued the following statement:

"Instead of apologizing for offending small town America, Senator Obama chose to repeat and embrace the comments he made earlier this week. It's unfortunate that Senator Obama didn't say he was sorry for what he said. Americans are tired of a President who looks down on them -- they want a President who will stand up for them for a change. The Americans who live in small towns are optimistic, hardworking and resilient. They deserve a president who will respect them."

Are you fucking kidding me? You mean apologize, like what you should have done, Hillary, for "misspeaking" about Bosnia and then continuing to "misspeak" even after your account had been refuted? You mean respect, like what you didn't do when you insulted the intelligence of voters everywhere by saying the Bosnia "slip" was a result of too little sleep? Perhaps your campaign should focus less on hit job e-mails and more on practicing what you preach.