There has been yet another Friday afternoon dustup in this political campaign. Barack Obama was speaking in San Francisco last week (yes last week, it took this long for somebody to find the video). He was answering a question about why some Pennsylvania voters are finding it hard to get behind his campaign. As usual, Barack Obama gave a very thoughtful answer. "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."
Hillary Clinton, because her campaign is desperate, and John McCain, because he's a Republican, have both jumped on this statement. Accusations of a Barack Obama being an elitist (McCain may be the richest man in the Senate and Hillary Clinton who made over $109 million in the last 7 years are calling Obama elitist - that's rich...pun intended) and not respecting gunowners or religious God-fearing people have been recklessly thrown out. (more...)
Video here
Friday, April 11, 2008
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1 comment:
Well he is surly not that far off the mark and though I don't appreciate the pigeonholing of people you do see more xenophobia in small towns.
My personal experience with this phenomenon is when I, who believed I was an American, married into a family descended from the group that came over on the Mayflower. My family had been in this country for several generations and because of the nation’s aversion to Italians (they are all in the Mafia, you know) assimilated quickly. I knew little of Italy, though I spoke the language having studied it in college. I never felt so Italian as when I visited my wife’s family. When asked if I could pick someone up at the airport early in the morning, I replied ‘Of course, I can’ to be answered ‘Corsican, I thought you were Eyetalian.’ Yes, I am Eyetalian because my family came from Eyetaly, but could also be Corsican as the Island did at one time belong to Eyetaly.’ Oh, and the height of a compliment is ‘gee, you don’t look Eyetalian’
I have had a good time making fun of the family but if I were the sensitive type things could have worked out differently.
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