Rural Dem Strategist: Clinton 'Bosnia' Gaffe Might Be Worse Than Obama 'Small Town' Gaffe

As a rural American of professional background, living just across the state line from NW Pa., I think most of us "get" Obama's insight into rural American. He is trying to elevate our politics to a level of honesty, truth, and sincerity and thoughtful discussion......to move us beyond the place of polarization in which we have been stuck for far too long, wasting our energy and rhetoric on everything but the important issues needed to move America toward solutions. The problem with Hillary is that she contributes to this polarization by making issues out of nothing in an effort to distract us from what is important... in an effort to manipulate voters..appealing to what is worst about us not what is best..which is itself, an elitist attitude that assumes we are stupid. Well, we aren't that stupid and we are tired of the condescension she represents. This lastest attack on Obama's sincere insight (which most informed people understand is correct) is but one more example of her unethical and immoral tactics to win by any means necessary, even at the expense of truth. For Clinton, the ends justifies the means....and, as I recall this approach is basic to communist philosophy......for Obama the means determines the ends. Those of us who want new outcomes and progress toward the solutions to our countries many challenges....we cannot afford a president for whom winning trumps truth.

People are bitter all over, not just in the small towns. Why is it assumed that the working class live in small town PA? The working class folks of America are living in big cities and small towns, spinning their wheels while they prop up America's rich. No matter what comments come out of the mouth of either candidate, I can't understand why nobody in America is upset they can lose their home if they get a serious illness and insurance won't pay. Issues like these should be questioned, yet all that comes out in the media is a he said-she said argument over stupid stuff.

Obviously, Mrs. Clinton is not smart in criticizing Mr. Obama. With her criticism, this issue will become once again a non-issue for him.
It seems that the press and people like to pound on her more. I wonder what will happen if she is not campaigning anymore. This is when, we may be exposed to Mr.Obama's weakness and inconsistencies in detail.
Here is a man replete with inconsistencies - one has to read his books and campaign speeches on Rev. Wright, trade, religion, Muslims etc.. It is clear with his different postures for different folks that he has an (unsaid) agenda for America.

Only God can bless and protect this country from
people running for the Oval Office who are committed to other nations and continents!

Patty at Home

And Obama doesn't lie?

Here's just one of many:
__________________________________

The lie: Barack Obama Claims He’s Not “Pro-Abortion,” Abortion Not a “Good Thing”

The Truth: Barack Obama has voted against every limit on abortion as a member of the U.S. Senate — including repeated votes against making sure taxpayers aren’t forced to pay for abortions here or overseas. But Obama told the media on Friday that no one, including him, is pro-abortion.

Hillary learnt a terrible lesson from the Bill days when america stood behind Bill, in spite of his lies in having sex with an intern in the White House. She misunderstood that to mean americans are gullible and cannot see through lies.

She has been so fake on the campaign, her every word calculated to deceive, he pandering so predictable that she really will not only lose this election but also her potential as a future leader

So, Obama's apologists are once again telling us 'what he meant to say'. What's new about this?

I hope no one is fooled by this scripted routine by the Clintons. President Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton are no fools and his reviving this issue is no accident but a calculated risk/scheme to use the same tactics allegedly used by the out going president of Taiwan. It is alleged he hired someone to shoot him in the leg because he felt he would loose the elections. He won that election with the sympathy vote. President Clinton sensing his wife's defeat, in desperation, is sighting his wife's age and fatigue for her vivid inaccuracies of the event is merely a plot for the sympathy vote for the tired old woman (Hillary) at 60. It worked in Taiwan. The timing of President Clinton's apparently naive but foxy move is no accident. The effect of Senator Obama resent intentionally misunderstood comments plus Hillary's premature senility can be greater then the sum of the two. We are very fortunate that we can see through this and not be fooled by this gimmick. They cannot be trusted. Make me worry about that 3am phone call.

Mainstream media (includes you Jake) is trying real hard! to give this story some legs.

Since Friday afternoon, there have been 12 stories that Jake has posted to his blog. 11 of them have been regarding the bitterness/cling story. I wonder how many stories (blog posts) you did when the sniper story broke. I guess I could look it up, but I am lazy...kinda like all the pundits who are attacking this non-story; i.e. understanding the context of Obama's comments.

Obama was answering a question presented by a woman that was headed out to rural PA to do some volunteer work for the campaign. She was concerned about what kind of reception she was going to receive knocking on doors. Obama then went on to say in a very sympathetic manner, the "why" of how she may experience some potentially frustrated PA voters. And that's the so called big gaffe.

In an Answer to a Question about small-town America Barack answered in earnest and with thoughtfullness: "You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone…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."

What Barack meant in Essence, which is the Clear-Cold Truth, unlike Hillary's Bosnia Fabrication and Continuing Performances, Small America, due to a loss of jobs producing frustration and bitterness and time on their hands, similarly to the Negros in Slavery time, who turned to Religion & Music for an outlet, small-town Americans turn to Religion, Hunting & yes, some blame of the current conditions on Immigrants when they should be turning their blame on Politicians who allow employers to higher immigrants for a much lower wage than Americans would go for. He never said religion or hunting (music) were bad, because people tun to them for an outlet when they have lost hope in their government and with extra time on their hands and in a way to channel their frustration and bitterness. The Wording could have been better, however I am sure this was due to Barack being tired and on the campaign trail for over 15 months. What he could have said instead, which are synonyms for bitter are that People are Resentful, experiencing Pain, and Prolonged Discomfort, due to harsh and painful economic conditions. However, the fact that McCain, Clinton and others are trying to take a poor choice of words and to make nothing into something-- blowing it out of proportion -- and playing politics as usual, is despicable. People in small-town America have experienced a loss of jobs in a greater degree and opportunity that Cities, with very little to look forward to and time on their hands other than to go to church, hunt, and visit their local tavern, and for the young, many join the Military, and so many small town Americans have become bitter and disillusioned. Obama never stated that it was wrong that they turned to Religion and Guns due to time on their hands and a loss of hope, culture, plays, theaters, etc., they for an outlet turned to religion and guns.

In a larger picture, people in general all over America, are bitter over high gas prices, increased food prices, loss of jobs and hope, high education costs, increased mortgage costs and foreclosure, loss of jobs that leave the country and move to India and/or China, and as hard as it is to say, some people are bitter over immigration and the loss of jobs due to companies hiring immigrants for a much lower wage than Americans would go for -- in an America that does not resemble the one we used to know and believe in. We have even lost the respect and admiration of other countries around the world due to the demise of the America we love and believe in. As Barack points out, we should not blame the Immigrants but the policies that have caused this chaos.

America, we have to ask ourselves, which is more eggrecious, a politician telling us the hard truth, the things we may not want to hear but need to hear OR a politician telling us a Fantasy/Lie, like the Bosnia Sniper Fire fabrication and PERFORMANCE, things we did not need to hear because not Truth, and which is a betrayal of the public trust and a deeply flawed Character Issue. There was a time that politicians was the most Honest Game in town -- George Washington, Honest Abe, Thomas Jefferson these are just a few examples, but they were men of high ethics and moral character who would not dare to tell the public a bold face ... for their own personal gain, it just was not done. And to say that Obama is an elitist, is like coloring Sen. Kerry a deserter, which they tried and was somewhat successful at, and look where it got us, into a war that should never have been waged and a host of other woes that only True Change from the bottom-up can Transform. I hope the people will see through Clinton and McCain's politicking, Distorting and twisting his words and Message for their own political gain and rally to Obama's aide who in all honesty is trying to Change Washington from a Power Broker to Power People, because in the end it will be the people's voice and votes that matter.

People may be angry that the government is failing,but they do not CLING to their GUNS and/or RELIGION because of their anger/bitterness towards government!

ANOTHER CLINTON FIB? Reacting indignantly two questions about her recent gun and church experience, Sen. Clinton told CNN that a press query about the last time she fired a gun or attended church services "is not a relevant question in this debate...we can answer that some other time...this is about what people feel is being said about them. I went to church on Easter. I mean, so??"

Well, not so fast, Hillary. Easter Sunday was one of three days you spent at home in Chapaqqua with nothing on the public schedule. We do know, however, from Mark Halperin's The Page, that you left the house Sunday afternoon to have Easter lunch with Bill and Chelsea and her boyfriend at Blue Hlll Farm on the old Rockefeller estate about thirty minutes away. What service did you go to in Chappaqua that morning? Surely, gven the flap that swirled around Obama and Rev Wright at that time, your public observance of Christ's Resurrection would have been noticed by pool, local public, or papparazzi.

So WHERE did you go to church within driving distance of the Chappaqua house? You can tell us.

I just don't get it. Obama's remarks are basically correct. I know 'cause I'm a small town guy from PA. What's the big deal here? It's more like a mountain over a mole hill. He's been clear about what he was saying and I sure don't take offense myself.

Obama made a poor choice of words. Clinton made a poor choice of lies. Her comments about being under fire in Bosnia will alienate most of the veterans - most of whom are really disgusted by someone who lies about having been in combat.

Obama spoke the truth, and the elitists want us to think he has insulted us. He's right - we cling to our guns and our religions and our xenophobias because after the government gets through with us, that's all we have left to cling to.

Clinton is the elitist. Weren't most rural Americans disgusted by her fling in a bar, where she managed to "throw back" a shot of whiskey? Does that make her a better man than Obama? That was about the most condescending thing she's done so far, and she's done a lot of them. Trying to make us believe Obama insulted us by speaking the truth is one of them. We rural Americans know when we've been insulted, and Obama hasn't done it.

Clinton is trashing her own campaign, and while Bill is doing all he can to help her, I still think she'll get the nomination. She has all the superdelegates bought and paid for already, so it won't matter who the lowly people themselves want to be their nominee.

Even more than at these two controversies, the Pennsylvanians will have a good look at Hillary's lies about NAFTA and her husband's and campaign strategist's huge salaries for being FREE TRADE LOBBYISTS and for DEFENDING FOREIGN INTERESTS instead of American and Pennsylvanian jobs. Isn't THAT elitist in the 10th degree, and a BETRAYAL of small town America whose jobs are being shipped overseas, thanks to Big Money grabbers as Clinton and Penn???

That is a major issue in both PA and in this campaign and it amazes me that Jake doesn't keep focusing on this; instead he has about seven or eight post about the "bitter" remark... while Obama is the one DEFENDING the left out folks and defending American jobs.

To break one of the ten commandments and claim to be a Christian is definitely by far worse - a liar is a rogue. This is off the point but the Elections Commission needs to prohibit cross party voting during party nominations. The Republicans should be barred from voting for Democratic Nominees as they are not members of the party. This has been a dirty tactics used by the Republicans for a while as over 100,000 voted for Hillary in Texas as directed by a Conservative radio talkshow host. The democrats don't play that game. Keep the Republicans out of the Democratic Nomination!

I find this to be a hilarious article to compare the two issues and thinking something about a foreign country is a bigger impact on voters then something said about Americans here at home. I mean first off a lot of people I talk to here in PA don't even know what the Bosnia story was even about in the first place. HOWEVER, they know what his "bitter" comments were all about as it was directed right at them by a candidate seeking their vote!

I WAS A FENCE SITTER on the Dem candidates but this is the final straw for me with Mr. Obama.... I've decided on Mrs. Clinton after this issue. I've talked to other previous undecideds here in PA too and the majority agree with me on this one. Mr. Obama doesn't seem to think that anyone should care what he thinks about them and just vote for him. It doesn't quite work that way. I mean he knew what he said and he meant what he said... after all he didn't think anyone would find out about what he said since it was said behind closed doors to his supporters.

I'm finding that he is just clearly a joke at this point! So, my vote goes firmly to Mrs. Clinton next week here in PA.

In this afternoon’s conference call sponsored by the Pennsylvania Sportsmen and Sportswomen for Obama, small-town politicians said the latest attacks from the Clinton campaign are shameless, aimed at creating divisions in their communities.

“Trying to turn small-town Pennsylvanians against each other for political gain is shameless,” said Mayor John Fetterman of Braddock, Pa. Fetterman blasted the New York senator for trying to win votes by patronizing gun owners, a move he said shows a willingness to win at all costs.

“I think it's really discouraging and tacky to see Hillary Clinton pandering as if she's a gun owner,” said Fetterman. “I think it demonstrates and represents willingness to say anything and everything to get elected.”

Rep. Dan Surra (D-PA) said he shares the frustration of the constituents he represents.

“I represent the people that Barack Obama was talking about, that people who have lost their jobs,” Surra said. "I think he understands, there is a frustration out there.”

Here's what Senator Jim Webb said in 2006:

"Working Americans have been repeatedly seduced at the polls by emotional issues such as the predictable mantra of "God, guns, gays, abortion and the flag" while their way of life shifted ineluctably beneath their feet."

Those who know America well, know he's right. And so was Obama.

Here's the most important news today, on FOX:

Report: Carter and Gore to Team Up Against Clinton to End Her Presidential Bid

Hoorah!!!

Hillary's campaign had led her down a path where her only hope is to wait until Obama makes any kind of mistake and then she springs forth like a snake she is and strikes. She hides behind her lies because she can't win on facts. She spends her time trying to cover up her lies while Obama must defend himself because he is willing to tell the truth. I live in a small town and I am as middle class as they get and I am BITTER about what the government has done to this country and the working class.