Friday, April 11, 2008

Barack Obama Accused of Being Elitist

Lord, and people wonder why folks call CNN, The Clinton News Network. You'd think that they'd found that second family in Idaho, the way Lou Dobbs' show was going off with this quote they found by Obama at a fundraiser.

All I can say is, thank goodness for Roland Martin, cause he at least tried not to burn Obama at the stake. Errol from the Daily News needed Roland for fortification...

Just so, you're not left with the Lou Dobbs Distortion......

FULL Transcript of Obama’s Remarks at San Francisco Fundraiser Sunday

OBAMA: So, it depends on where you are, but I think it’s fair to say that the places where we are going to have to do the most work are the places where people are most cynical about government. The people are mis-appre…they’re misunderstanding why the demographics in our, in this contest have broken out as they are. Because everybody just ascribes it to ‘white working-class don’t wanna work — don’t wanna vote for the black guy.’ That’s…there were intimations of that in an article in the Sunday New York Times today - kind of implies that it’s sort of a race thing.

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. They feel so betrayed by government that 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, then that adds another layer of skepticism.

But — so the questions you’re most likely to get about me, ‘Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What is the concrete thing?’ What they wanna hear is so we’ll give you talking points about what we’re proposing — to close tax loopholes, uh you know uh roll back the tax cuts for the top 1%, Obama’s gonna give tax breaks to uh middle-class folks and we’re gonna provide healthcare for every American.

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. And it’s not surprising then 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.


Just trying to put the remarks IN CONTEXT.

Of course trying to point out that Obama is the poorest of the candidates. The one who, a few short years ago, paid more for student loans than his mortgage, but HE's the elitist?

Whatever.

UPDATE:

Well, it seems that there are a few CNN Contributors that agree with me on this issue: Borger, Toobin and Cafferty. From the Situation Room this afteroon-

TOOBIN: I just think it's remarkable that Barack Obama, this guy who grew up in a single-family household with no money, who lived in Indonesia, who came from very modest upbringings, somehow he's the elitist? That's really a pretty extraordinary sort of contortion of his background. I mean.

BORGER: It's that Harvard, Yale thing.

CAFFERTY: He did not make $109 million in the last eight years did he?

BORGER: Right.

3 comments:

Brian said...

I heard the entire comment in context yesterday.... and I am amazed at how the media has been able to turn this into a controversy....when there shouldn't be one. Obama told the truth.

In fact, he didn't go far enough.

What he probably wanted to say (but had to stop short of saying) was that people are voting along racial lines according to what's safe and familiar to them.
Encouraging this atmosphere and playing on these fears has been the goal of the Clinton's.... this is the basis for their fearmongering race strategy. It is no coincidence that they have been working so hard over the last few months to highlight Obama's race. And Americans.... being the weak minded voters that they are.... went for it hook, line, and sinker. This is why I say.... America is too sick to turn the page, especially when that new page has a President with brown skin.... that may be too much of a challenge to the instinct to playing it safe and going with the familiar (the white rich well connected Washington insider who looks like most white American voters). This is in part what Obama was trying to highlight.

I am so tired of this election season and the whole American political system in general.
I hate both the Republican and Democratic Parties with a passion...although I tend to suppress it a little more and show a little more patience with the Democrats.

It would be great if both major Parties could be eliminated and we could start over from scratch....creating a real multi-Party Democracy. Only then will I get excited and hopeful about American politics.

Anonymous said...

I never liked Hillary much, but after hearing her parrot back the political claptrap that McCain had used, I learned a new depth of disgust and repulsion.

I've never heard such claptrap..."Elitist"...??

...how bad have things gotten when just being intelligent is considered "Elitist"??

This is the type of thing you'd expect from a Cheney/Bush administration. - once again as usual pandering to mass stupidity.

NOT from a fellow democrat who just can't get it through her spoiled rich head that she's not electable.

What a miserable bitch. No wonder Bill went elsewhere for his needs.

Kathryn said...

I could hardly believe what my ears heard. Senator Obama and elitist?! This was the height of stupidity. It appears most "citizens" would rather listen to well crafted sound-bits,as opposed to do a bit or research on their own. Plus, the speech Senator Obama gave a couple weeks ago...was, indeed, reminiscent of the goals and ideals of both Pres. Kennedy and Dr. King, Jr...and to admit to less, allows one to see the supreme disconnect the American people have with the FACTS.

One of my deepest regrets is the time, money and effort I spent in helping the Bush regime gain power.

We are a four generation military family, and ONE TIME family of Republicans...well...NO MORE! If people cannot see that Senator Obama is head and shoulders above the other two candidates...then we, as US citizens, really are in trouble. People need to wake up!