Political Punch

Coming from that neck of the Pennsylavania woods of Southwestern PA which literally was named Penn's Woods after William Penn....relatives and others used to have an ongoing joke with a plaque at the Local Yocal Bar that said "WHERE THE ELITE MEET". For God's sakes even the local yocals know who they are and make fun of their ownselves. What's the problem?

Kill Me, you are correct...issues are very important when determining for whom to vote. But so are character and judgement. Will you vote for someone, who by his own words, dismisses your core-to-the-bone beliefs as just something you cling onto because you are bitter? Will you vote for someone who professes to be the only person qualified to unite the country, whose mentor for 20 years has preached segregationism? Maybe you dismiss these questions as "stupid crap," but for many of us these are important questions.

Has anyone noticed that elections in this country are a joke? Does anyone stop and think about how ridiculous this is? Why, when the press ignores the ISSUES that affect you (healthcare, education, the economy, obviously the war) and pay attention to nonsense like this that you fall for it each and every time? Ask yourself about what stupid PR crap, drawn up by elites who think lowly of regular people across the board, you are basing your vote on. Are you going to think about this and every other inside the beltway created narrative or are you going to use for FREAKING BRAIN and think about the issues that are going to really touch you? Please people, think about where this nonsense has gotten us as a country. We're stuck in an immoral, murderous and costly war, have a crumbling economic system, an overpriced and underperforming healthcare system, an out of control military budget and for profit war industry, a horrific educational system amongst other things. Could it be this way because every election cycle instead of educating yourself and getting active, voting for the candidate that had plans in your best interest you voted based on corporate press driven nonsense? WAKE UP! The press in this country thinks the public is stupid, it isn't. Don't prove them right by falling for this $hit...again.

Michael Davidson, you wrote: "I'm still waiting for someone to explain to what Obama said that was "impolitic," elitist, condescending or wrong."

I will rephrase what I wrote earlier. Had Sen. Obama just said that some people were bitter and frustrated with the federal government for failing to follow through on promises, that would have been fine. That IS a factual statement. BUT instead, Sen. Obama LINKED that bitterness as to WHY people support issues like: The 2nd Amendment; prayer in school; keeping the national motto, "In God We Trust," on our money; keeping "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance; defining marriage as being between a man and a woman; and the enforcement of our immigration laws. And in doing so, Sen. Obama gives the impression that these issues would not be important (or would no longer be issues) if the federal government had just followed through on its promises. THAT is where Sen. Obama fails to understand these people. Any bitterness that individuals may or may not have with the federal government has NOTHING to do with them supporting these issues. These issues are "life and death" issues to these people.

michael davidson writes that the people objecting to obama's mocking of regular people are either clinton apologists or republicans. he then says that either way, "they're irrelevant."

someone might want to explain to the obamaites that they need votes from clinton apologists and republicans if they think they can win a general election. obama's getting about half the vote in the democratic primary race - that's about a quarter of the votes once republicans are included. actually, it's a lot less, since primary votes are much less than general election votes. so obama needs to pick up some votes somewhere. insulting people isn't the way to do it.

btw, no way he can do it.

So for the past 25 years rural people have been what, standing by the nearest highway holding onto their guns and only leaving their posts to go to church? They are so disillusioned and bitter that they have chosen to stand in the same spot waiting for their jobs to return? I don't get it. Most of us are a little anxious after 8 years of Bush (and who wouldn't be) but we have managed to get on with our lives. Color me stupid but you cannot lump everybody into the same category.

I'm still waiting for someone to explain to what Obama said that was "impolitic," elitist, condescending or wrong.

Every single word was truer and more compassionate than anything Mrs. Bill Clinton has ever said, not to mention any Republican.

Everything in human history has been done by people who were bitter, angry and frustrated. Happy, complacent people have never done a thing.

The people who are objecting are either Cinton apologists at any cost, or Republicans. Either way, they're irrelevant.

For being such a gifted Orator, how do people keep misconstruing his remarks?

You don't get it do you! It's not the bitter about losing jobs, yada, yada. They always leave out the most offensive remarks. Then ones where he said bitter people cling to guns, religion, AND ANTIPATHY for people not like them. This here ladies and gentlemen is calling them bigots. You don't like people who aren't like you. This is the offensive statement that is totally glossed over by his campaign and the media. I resent and am highly offended by those remarks. If you're not, then continue to let him demean and insult you.

What is there to interpret? He said what he said. Obama himself gave a speech on words..He said what he meant and he can not take it back by saying
"I regret but...
If you hear his speeches you will read inbetween the lines, his litany of complaints agains America! He has insulted us. He did not tell us, he told the elite of San Francisco, did he think he was going to get away with it?
No Obama, the press is tiered of giving you the free pass, and if Obama is the nominee ( Which I pray to GOD) yes I have faith in god that Obama is not the one..No!!!! please not an Anti-American Supporter who is a hypocrite talking about the working Americans to the Elite of San Francisco......I think Obama is a condecending Pompus A--!!
He has diverted the real issue of Hatred Twoards America to racism! and the fools have falen for his empty words.Words, Words, Words he said..meaning that words are very important!!! Yes they are!!!! and it dosen't mean only the words that he want to mean something!

If Obama told the truth then why has he used the following tactics...claiming he said something else...explaining part of it....attacking McCain for pointing it out...repeadedly attacking Hillary.

Gee I think he said what he meant...that there are a bunch of people that he wants to vote for him that are bitter bible-thumping gun-toting racists...now lets see if they believe what he said or the spin.

I'm really tired of the liberals/progressives/democrats framing gun ownership as a desire of hunters. It is done to avoid the reason many, maybe most Americans have guns. To kill other people in self defense. I own and carry guns. I've never used a gun to hunt. I used a bow when I did hunt. I own and carry guns to protect myself from other human beings. I've never seen the fun of deer hunting with a rifle (not that it is wrong.)

I want my guns to defend myself since all the police can do is clean up the mess after, not protect me during or before a dangerous situation.

The left doesn't want to acknowledge the relevance or validity of this argument so they always frame it as "hunting."

I am from a small bitter little bigoted fundie town in S. Oregon… though I wish Obama hadn’t said it, I had to agree that he hit a nerve and described where I grew up perfectly… bitter hell… I thought he was being kind… lets see back home, everyone supports Bush, the war, hates gays, Californians, minorities, and immigrants… this hasn’t changed in years… in fact since the lumber mills closed, they hate environmentalists and spotted owls as well. They are totally dependant on tourism, but hate the Californians who spend money there… another Bush or Clinton or clone of them, no way… give Obama a break and lets move on and focus on the issues that the republicans don’t want us to: there’s a war on that is going to bankrupt us, high gas prices, healthcare problems, inflation, global warming, schools that need help… this is nothing than a media led sidetrack, next!

Let's face it! Obama told the truth! How refreshing! Now, Jake Tapper, how about you telling the truth that you are shilling for Hillary Clinton and will take any opportunity to write articles critical of Obama? That would be refreshing, too!

I don't see what people are trying to steer away from. You bet everyday people are bitter, and they are clinging to the things that they can still get a grip on, which means the time-honored staples of American life: guns, religion, and dislike of the groups they feel are eating away at whatever foothold they have in a world in which they matter. Why do people try to deny that this is how regular Americans feel? They are ignored by those who claim to represent them; they are shoved aside by those who claim to have their financial interests at heart; their properties are seized for yet another big money building project; their grocery budgets rise while their paychecks shrink or vanish as thousands are "laid off" (the lie being that the work will return). Obama simply spoke the truth. Why can't the politicos and the media face up to it for once instead of nit-picking it to death? Get out of your limos, peel out of your designer suits, and try living like the rest of us do, paying for your own gas at the pump and your own meals instead of dining out on the voters', the lobbyists', the medias'm or the candidates' dime. Maybe then you'll start looking closer at your church, your constitution, and an American face from earlier times for consolation. Maybe you'll start holding close values that are shaky now, but remind you of a time when you didn't feel as if you were nothing and the earth wasn't being eaten out from under your feet.

Obama gets it. Why don't you?

Tamora Pierce
writer

Rick Pickett, you wrote: "Bush ignored on repeated occasions direct intelligence reports and information regarding an impending attack."

President Bush and his advisors did not ignore repeated intelligence reports and information regarding an impending attack. Even the individuals who are claiming such, admit that the intelligence did not include any specifics (i.e., when, where, how). The MoveOn.org talking points frequently bring up the presidential daily briefing entitled, "Bin Laden determined to attack inside the U.S.," as proof that Bush ignored the intelligence. This particular briefing was actually requested by President Bush as he sought information about the possibility of an attack here in the United States by al Qaeda. The briefing was completed just one month before the attacks of 9/11. The Bush Administration had nearly completed a plan when the attacks were carried out.

It is true that there were several "dots" that had they been connected, might have provided enough information to prevent the attacks. But you have to remember, it was the Clinton Administration that built the wall between the FBI and the CIA, which legally prohibited each from sharing intelligence. There is no guarantee that without the wall the "dots" would have been connected since the FBI and the CIA have always had a rivalry that stood in the way of a free flow of intelligence between them. But if they had been legally allowed to, there certainly would have been a chance that individuals within the two organizations might have communicated with each other and made the connection.

What is harmful to Obama is that his statement exposes him as being anti-gun despite his protestations. Further, it calls into question the authenticity of his anti-trade rhetoric. And finally, it really brings into relief the Black Liberation Church he attended for 20 years by calling into question the authenticity of their religious commitment - this from the guy who is so Christian he doesn't even notice all the crazy at his church.

We lose our jobs, we lose our homes, we lose our sons in the war without end, and now many of us are losing our tempers! Some are old enough to remember the miseries of the Great Depression and we feel another one coming on as history is repeating itself. It seems that Herbert Hoover was also unconcerned about the plight of the ordinary American and intent on following his own Pied Piper. When the world-wide drought and food shortage hit, the United States was virtually destroyed. Now we are reading about food riots and shortages in other nations and the scientists are warning that another drought is in the making. I don't know about Pennsylvania, Senator Obama, but I know about America and we are not only bitter. We are also sick and tired of elected officials who are lying to us as they betray our trust and their oaths of office

We're mad as hell and we're not gonna take it any more!

What is so offensive about what he said? The man is speaking the truth as far as I can tell. I used to live in one of those Midwestern, former industrial giant towns and the desire to cling to religion and guns is paramount! One should never have to apologize for telling the truth!

"You go into some of these large cities like in Chicago, and like a lot of large urban areas in the Northeast, the traditional ethical values have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the values taught by civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, and despite special programs such affirmative action enforced by the Cinton and Bush administrations, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate their moral compass. So it's not surprising then that people abandoned by their fathers when they were young get bitter, they cling to guns or a liberation theology religion that teaches hatred of the other and scapegoats government, or antipathy to people who aren't like them, or anti-smitism disguised sometimes as anti-Zionism, or anti-immigrant sentiment, or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Any Obama supporter have a problem with the re-worked quote. If you do, and you had no problem with the original quote, if you want to see racism, look no further than your mirrer.