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Unfortunately, I don't think you get it.
The problem word wasn't "bitter", it was "cling". Obama groups a demographics values (religion, outdoor gaming) with pathologies (racial antipathy). And it's all a result of the economic disenfranchisement of the group.
For him to say this outside his closest group of advisors and not expect to take a hit was naive. For him not to recognize how incredibly offensive it could be to voters who weren't liberal and affluent is arrogance personified.
Can you imagine how this is going to play in the run up the general elections. He has alienated the elusive "Reagan Democrat". Clinton didn't win in '92 because he was the best candidate, he won because those Reagan Democrats related to him more than they did the first Bush.
These are the same Democrats who didn't vote for Kerry.
It's sad because of being able to carry out his change campaign, he will be portrayed as another Democrat in a long line who really can't unite.
I don't think you get it - a least not the meaning behind the statements; perhaps you get the way they were later framed.
He wasn't knocking gaming or religion.
He was saying that people in small town America no longer vote their economic issues - they lack confidence in their politicians and their ability to demand that policies and politicians can be changed to reflect their real needs; they vote religion-based hot-button issues that were presented to them by the right wing conservative (hence the Regan/Bush Democrats) ie. gay rights, abortion, the right to bear arms; the emotional/spiritual/religious issues they feel they still have some control over.
Hillary knows it, McCain knows it, we all know it and the writer here is saying that Obama must play the game to a degree.
I on the other hand and enjoying this call out and don't think he should have backed away from it.
Shake I think you are missing the point. We are living in an era of gotcha politics where words, whatever their intent, are being parsed to divide and conquer.
The fact is, the economically depressed ARE bitter and skeptical about our government. The subtle point is that I don’t think they want a BLACK man telling them about it. Where it was cling, bitter or some other word, it wouldn’t have mattered. Barack would have been taken to task for it.
Barack needs to shed his prof hat and become Barack the community organizer. He is learning--that is the reason why I think this contested battle is doing some good.
Obama's comments are intellectually condescending and offensive. I feel that my faith in God and love of freedom has been reduced to a 'false consciousness' that is blinding me from seeing 'the world according to the Democrats.' And because I am reluctant or skeptical to put more faith in the government than I do in myself, then I am lumped in with bigots and xenophobes. This is what is truly offensive.
I do not vote for a president based on what he promises to do for me.
Obama believes in the power of the state vs. the power of the individual to improve the economic fortunes of Americans.
For those of us who do not see the government as the be-all and end-all, it is healthy to be skeptical of someone who promises even larger, more expansive and intrusive government.
This is the point that drives the controversy.
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Are you saying our current economic uncertainty is so dire that we as a people, are desperate and ignorant enough to ignore the great promise and prosperity of this nation and deserve a comparison to the KKK and radical Islamists!
Talk about fear-mongering!
This is the point that drives the controversy.
I agree. This is Bill Clinton in the LA Times in 1991.
"You know, he [Bush] wants to divide us over race. I'm from the South. I understand this. This quota deal they're gonna pull in the next election is the same old scam they've been pulling on us for decade after decade after decade. When their economic policies fail, when the country's coming apart rather than coming together, what do they do? They find the most economically insecure white men and scare the living daylights out of them. They know if they can keep us looking at each other across a racial divide, if I can look at Bobby Rush and think, Bobby wants my job, my promotion, then neither of us can look at George Bush and say, 'What happened to everybody's job? What happened to everybody's income? What ... have ... you ... done ... to ... our ... country?'"
They find the most economically insecure white men and scare the living daylights out of them.
You are missing your calling as a cable news pundit.
These are the same working class people who didn't vote for Dukakis, Mondale, Kerry and Gore. They are also the reason Bush the elder didn't have a second term (he didn't know the price for a quart of milk).
Even though all of those old white dudes had the political savvy are to utter something as patronizing as Barack's comments outside their immediate circle, they still didn't get the vote.
The fact that Obama is black is irrelevant to this issue. His intellectual snobbiness and the perception that doesn't get them and is talking down to them is the problem at hand. The fact that the comments were made to a group of "San Francisco liberals" just sealed the deal.
I'd be the first to admit for a certain segment of the Democratic party (not necessarily those people he offended) it will be the excuse they needed not to vote for him ( Just like people Clinton's lies as the reason they weren't going to vote for her when in reality they weren't going to ever vote for any woman).
Instead of assuaging the concerns of those rural residents who may vote for him, Obama is making the problem worse.
That's all I'm saying
Talk about fear-mongering!
Fear-mongering? Talk about seeing what you want to see! Only someone that truly is desperate and ignorant would go there.
Did you enjoy your beer with Hillary?
The fact that Obama is black is irrelevant to this issue.
If you believe that, then what do you make of the lack of controversy over Bill Clinton's very similar remarks about "economically insecure white men." Obama didn't even bring up color.
Every time Obama says something "controversial" and Clinton jumps on it, there is a comparable Bill Clinton quote waiting in the Lexis/Nexis database. Interesting...
Have you considered that Bill Clinton was considered a member or that demographic? Kerry wasn't, Gore wasn't and none of the previous Dem candidates had been except Jimmy Carter.
That's the real problem with his comments. It's a glimpse into his mindset and that mindset is: I know better than you. I can just imagine the type of government coming out of that mindset. Four years of talking down to me and asking me to pay for it.
Could it be that some of the bitterness he encounters is bitterness towards a politician and policies advocating even bigger and more expensive government?
Why don't you put your theory that these happy go luck, hard on their luck, small town white folks do not have antipathy towards non-white folks. Take a stroll through rural PA and tell us how that goes. In fact, just take a stroll through south Philly after dark and ell us how that goes. You'll find that "bitter" is more than a word.
Looking ahead to this as a general election issue:
Republicans overwhelmingly disagree with the statement and unaffiliated voters disagree by a two-to-one margin.
Voters under 30 are evenly divided on Obama’s statement while their elders strongly disagree.
Fifty-three percent (53%) of African-Americans agree with Obama’s statement while 29% disagree.
White voters disagree by a 3-to-1 margin.
The fact that Obama is black is irrelevant to this issue. His intellectual snobbiness and the perception that doesn't get them and is talking down to them is the problem at hand. The fact that the comments were made to a group of "San Francisco liberals" just sealed the deal.
I have yet to hear any of these people say completely spontaneously that they are offended by Obama's comments. I'm willing to bet, without Hillary & McCain jumping on this and telling them how they should feel...none of the blue collars would even know about the statement or care. All I see is people telling the poor how they should feel instead of asking them.
You are predators. Most of you oppose Obama and look for reasons to persuade others to oppose him too. You were never going to vote for him anyway...the reasons are irrelevant.
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And will you not admit that progress has been made?
I believe that as a whole, this country has made headway against racism. Of course, it still exists, but not to the degree that is has in the past.
Obama has gone too far. He has alienated a large number of white voters who, contrary to the opinion of Obama and his supporters are not racist.
Even his efforts at damage control radiate arrogance. Speaking in Muncie, Indiana, after the story broke, Obama said “Lately, there has been a little, typical sort of political flare-up because I said something that everybody knows is true, which is that there are a whole bunch of folks in small towns in Pennsylvania, in towns right here in Indiana, in my home town in Illinois who are bitter.”
The flare-up, you see, happened because Obama is the Great Truth-Teller amidst the masses, many of whom can’t handle the truth. Once it dawned on Obama’s aides that expediency demanded an apology, the Senator offered a qualified mea culpa: “Obviously, if I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that.”
So if Senator Obama worded things in a way that made people feel offended (rather than worded things in a way that is offensive), well, he regrets that."
"The fact that Obama is black is irrelevant to this issue."
You're joking - right?
He tried - they're not having him because he can't bowl. Go figure!
I concur. "Come the fuck on!" Or, at least come real so we can have a real conversation.
This attempt to re-write history is delusional at best.
Have you considered that Bill Clinton was considered a member or that demographic? Kerry wasn't, Gore wasn't and none of the previous Dem candidates had been except Jimmy Carter.
Have you considered that Barack Obama was born to an 18 year old who eventually raised two children as a single working class mother with help from her parents?
The only difference with Barack being a member of that demographic is that he is not white like Bill Clinton and those "Pennsyltucky" voters.
It all goes back to the notion that rural white folks like the "Pennsyltucky" demographic are "real Americans" and black people are NEVER "real" Americans, regardless of their background.
Hillary Clinton is a woman who has been privileged for her entire life and her desperate, hypocritical pandering on this is pathetic. She is betting on the voters ignorance like GWB did in 2004, but she is still going to lose because at the end of the day, the math is still against her. If the Jeremiah Wright brouhaha didn't knock Obama out, this sure won't.
I ive in Philly now and walk in South Philly at night at least once a week. I'm considering buying a townhouse in the Italian Market. I lived in rural PA for two and a half years before that.
Did you read the story of Obama's mother in time magazine?
Anyhoo, I loved the article and found myself tuning out MSM because of the sensationalism, not to mention the free pass Senile McBush and Sybillary McLIEberman is getting from the press. I am sick of the double standard that Obama is being held to.
As I said, I am changing my political affiliation to Independent and no longer believe in the "inclusion" factor of the Democrats. I saw nothing wrong with Obama's comments, however, Translation to all of the media hype about this: "How dare this uppidity negro speak about how destitute Americans really are"?
Senile McBush can continure to get a free pass from the media by not releasing his medical and tax records, confusing Sunni/Shiites/Al Quaeda all day long, and cares nothing for real americans and their pain of home foreclosures, and Sybillary, CBC, and supporters is the worst kind of democrats. THe hypocrisy is disgusting.
Most Americans are generous, and favorably disposed towards strangers and eager to help the world.
Obama doesn't know this America, which is certainly the backbone of most suburbs, small towns and rural communities in flyover-country and, truth be told, on most of the coasts outside of the largest urban centers.
What Obama knows is the world in which he has lived, which is a strange combination of some of the toughest neighborhoods in the U.S. and its most elite institutions. He belonged to a church that indulged radical politics in its weekly bulletin and from its pulpit even as it struggled to help some devastated neighborhoods. He did so after attending and absorbing the attitudes of America's most elite law school and having been taught by its --mostly-- hard-left professors. He does so from the lofty perch of the U.S. Senate. He's had a schizophrenic life that combined the toughest aspects of America and its most indulgent.
No wonder he is clueless about "flyover land."
based on what data? I am sure many Americans would be insulted by your wholesale characterization.
Now, he's trying to get ' the mine' to wakeup and realize that the canary was in the same mine as them, and if they don't want to suffer the same fate, it's time to get smart.
Both of those guys are puppets for white folks interest. They are no better then the Barry's or Kilpatrick's...just playing for a different team.
You can get the fuck out of here trying to portray Italian, Catholic or Jewish areas of Philly as being welcoming to folks of our hue. Most of my mother's paternal family lives in philly, and I know it quite while myself. Those areas in Philly are are no different than similar areas of Boston and New Jersey or remaining white enclaves of NYC and upstate New York. You would have a better welcome reception in the deep south. Then again, maybe you've done your 'I'm not like them' tour of the neighborhood.
In his speech on race, Barack Obama tried to explain away his longtime minister’s denunciations of America by saying that for blacks of his generation, memories of “humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away.”
But an examination by Newsmax of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.’s background reveals that Obama’s characterization of his upbringing is mythology.
Described by Obama as his sounding board and mentor for more than two decades, Wright was born in Philadelphia in 1941. He lived in a racially mixed section called Germantown, which consisted of homes on broad tree-lined streets in northwest Philadelphia. The owners then were middle-class families.
For 62 years, Wright’s father, the Rev. Jeremiah Alvesta Wright, was pastor at Grace Baptist Church of Germantown. He was one of the first blacks to receive a degree from the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.
Wright’s mother, Mary Elizabeth Henderson Wright, was a schoolteacher. She was the first black to teach an academic subject at Roosevelt Junior High, the first to teach at Germantown High, and the first to teach at the Philadelphia High School for Girls. She became vice principal of Girls High in 1968.
Rather than attend the more racially mixed Germantown High School at 40 East High St., Wright traveled a few miles to the elite Central High School at 1700 West Olney Ave., graduating in 1959. Opened in 1838, Central High has a distinguished past and admits only highly-qualified applicants who are privileged to attend from all over the city. It is comparable to the Bronx High School of Science and Boston Latin School, both public schools known for academic excellence.
When Wright attended Central High, the student body was 90 percent white, according to students who attended around the same time. At least three-quarters of the students were Jewish. Former students of the period say racial tension did not exist.
Bill Cosby, who attended the school until transferring to Germantown High, has referred to Central as a “wonderful” school. In contrast to Wright, Cosby has denounced blacks who take refuge in self-pitying victimhood and seek to blame whites for problems in the black community.
“Central High was a marvelous academic environment,” says Tod Mammuth, who graduated in 1965 and is now a Philadelphia-area lawyer. “You had to have high academic credentials to be accepted and a high IQ score. Many later said it was more rigorous than college. We had no racial friction.”
In college, “I was so far advanced from the normal kids, it was almost unbelievable,” says H. Yale Gutnick, who graduated from Central High in 1960 and is a Pittsburgh lawyer. “In my freshman year, I didn’t have to do anything. I had already read most of what we had to read in English class, and I was equally advanced in the other academic areas.”
The 211th class yearbook described Wright as a respected member of the class.
“Always ready with a kind word, Jerry is one of the most congenial members of the 211,” the yearbook said. “His record in Central is a model for lower class [younger] members to emulate.”
Saying Wright can be compared to the school handbook’s description of “an educated man,” the description said Wright was “the epitome of what Central endeavors to imbue in its students.”
Next to a photo of Wright wearing black-rimmed glasses, the yearbook listed seven extra-curricular activities, including junior varsity football, band, school orchestra, and swing band.
In contrast to Wright’s comfortable upbringing, Morton A. Klein, who also attended Central High around the same time, lived in a poor, virtually all-black section called West Oak Lane.
“Four times a year, we would go to get big boxes of used clothing that was our wardrobe for the year. I never resented it. I was thrilled with my clothes,” says Klein, who was an economist in the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations and is now president of the Zionist Organization of America.
“We never went out to eat,” says Klein. “We had no car. We did not go to summer camp or take vacations. I had dozens of black friends. We played in the street every day. I remember my childhood as wonderful, and it certainly did not breed hatred of America. I loved America.”
In contrast, the man Obama describes as being like an uncle has blamed America and whites for starting the AIDS virus to kill off blacks, training professional killers, importing drugs, and creating a racist society to oppress blacks.
“The government gives them drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law, and then wants to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, not ‘God Bless America’ — God damn America,” Wright has said.
In a similar vein, Michelle Obama has said she is proud of America for the first time. Last week, Obama said Americans in small towns are “bitter” and cling in frustration to “guns, or religion, or antipathy to people who aren’t like them...”
In his speech on race, Obama sought to evoke sympathy for Wright. He described a “lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family...”
Obama said this was “the reality in which Rev. Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted....Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Rev. Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years.”
In retirement, Wright will continue a life of privilege that dates back to Central High. As a retirement gift, Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ is building him a million-dollar home abutting Odyssey Country Club and Golf Course in the nearly all-white Chicago suburb of Tinley Park. The home sits on land the pastor purchased in 2004 for $345,000. In December 2006, Wright sold the land to his church, which took out a $1.6 million mortgage on the property. In April 2007, the church applied for a building permit for the brick and stone structure.
Wright’s new home has 10,340 square feet of space, about four times the size of a typical suburban house. It includes four bedrooms, an elevator, an exercise room, and a four-car garage.
Rather than being a victim of oppression of blacks, as Obama has claimed, Wright is a symbol of the American dream. Rather than meriting sympathy, he exemplifies what my friend Fox News contributor Juan Williams describes as black leaders who orchestrate support for themselves by manipulating blacks into seeing themselves as victims, creating a black “culture of failure.”
Obama’s attempt to excuse Wright’s hate-America rhetoric by deceptively describing his personal history and his failure to condemn him as a bigot speak volumes about the candidate’s own character and fitness to lead the country.
The criticism of Obama is simply a variation of the "uppity negro" slur.
And shame on the Clintons for being crass hypocrites, for we now see that they have used the very same arguments before.
The Clintons are the worst in all of this, for they should know better. And we definitely have the right to expect better from them.
A vote for Obama should not be some sort of 'racial test' nor a national referendum on racism.
Reasonable people can disagree with Obama's policies and will not vote for him for reasons that, believe it or not, have nothing to do with race.
Progress?
Truth-tellers are always labeled arrogant.
Always.
Probably because there's nothing humble about the truth.
It's perceived as coming from "on high" and it always kicks you in the gut.
Thus was born the phrase, "Don't shoot the messenger."
Quiet as it's kept, Obama is a messenger, not a messiah.
"Reasonable people can disagree with Obama's policies and will not vote for him for reasons that, believe it or not, have nothing to do with race."
And there will be unreasonable people who don't care about his policies and won't vote for him and it will have everything to do with race.
The existence of those who understand and don't does not erase the existence of those who understand and won't.
Please. Do you really believe that Wright's family was more accepted because they were comfortable? Not. They were probably even more hated for their status at that time in history.
I'm sure he can attest to the very racism described. In fact, more so than a black that grew up amongst other blacks.
It's quotes like these that make me feel the way I do about Cosby.
"..."Cosby has denounced blacks who take refuge in self-pitying victimhood and seek to blame whites for problems in the black community""
Each of us is unique, our values and beliefs, shaped by our personal experiences and family history, environment, education, etc. The one thing we do share in common is a desire to communicate those beliefs, otherwise, we would not be here.
I am humbled, and grateful to JJP to have the opportunity to be part of a virtual community that enables me to meet and debate people with whom I would probably never encounter in my day to day life.
All that said. I would like to offer my thoughts on 'Bittergate.'
"Truth" in politics can be a relative term. We can debate whether or not Obama is 'elitist' and whether his remarks are 'true' or not. But for me, those are not the issues.
I could go to a dinner party or a charity event and give my thoughts on why I think the JJP community supports Obama, but frankly, I would feel presumptuous and uncomfortable in doing so.
I could post here now, and state why I think the readers here are supporting Obama and I can only imagine what the response would be!
Many of the things I may say would in fact, be 'true', many of the reasons would be pure conjecture, based what I have read here, others would drawn from other sources, etc...you get my meaning? But I would be apprehensive to do so, because deep in my heart I know that it is wrong and unfair for me to tell people here that I know what is in their minds and hearts.
Heck, I can't even say that about my own husband some of the time!
So, what ultimately bothers me about Obama's comments is the lack of humility with which they were stated, as well as the fact that they were stated at all. Same thing about the "race speech." He may have been right about some things, wrong about others and I can bet that we would disgaree on what was 'true' in that speech.
Frankly, I would have said, "That's a really good question. I have some ideas about that, but at the end of the day, each person has their own story to tell, and their own set of reasons. I can only truly talk about myself, what I feel, what I believe to be right and wrong, what I propose, and how I will lead. I am confident in myself and my ideas, and I have confidence in the voters to make the right choice."
So, enough about hearing about what Obama thinks he knows about 'us', because he will never get it completely right! I want to hear what he thinks about himself.
Also, for me, an apology and a little humility would go a long way.
Fenty and Booker? The Newest race hustlers? Where did you get that from?
Fenty, well the jury was out on him as far as I was concerened, when he sat on City Council.
But Booker? Have you ever lived in Newark? Do you know the wholesale shennanigans that were used to intimidate government employees during the James administration and both times Booker ran against him? Do you know the fundemental brokeness that he has inherited in a city that is broke, where land has been sold to James cronies at such a steep discount with no due diligence that now the city is mired in a suit to try and recoup the losses.
I'd like to know how folks come to conclusions like that, when the real hustlers are the current mayors of Memphis and Detroit just to name a few.
anyhow what we patriots have to understand is obama represents a test of our country's racial identity. i would like to pass the test. it sounds like you want to fail. that's cool. you have your vote. we will confirm our racist national identity if he loses. how is that gonna make things better? show some patriotism. or maybe you don't care about our national identity? you need to apologise to obama for your annoying unpatriotic postsposts
Unpatriotic?
Your perspective, ideology, values and beliefs make you comfortable being an Obama supporter.
I don't have as much in common. I don't have that level of comfort.
If I truly felt that Obama is a candidate who would in some way represent me, he would get my vote.
Honestly, I am undecided.
Are you asking me to put aside my perspective, ideology, values and beliefs in order to pass some fabricated test that will, in your eyes, if I do not vote for Obama, label me unpatriotic and racist?
I think that your premise, will become an argument for Obama's election, but it is unfortunate.
It might even create a blacklash, among those who value freedom and do not appreciate being manipulated.
Before debating on this subject, you need to arm yourself with the facts surrounding the statements.
The statements were made to a group that was about to go out on the ground in Pennslyvania to register voters. They asked him what to expect and he told them the truth.
I wasn't suggesting that James wasn't a race hustler. But Blacks who pander to whites are no more useful than Blacks who pander to Blacks. I don't think Booker is any more useful than James, with his voucher speak and other right leaning ideas that are useless to Black folk.
And Fenty...come on...
Ford to..
These guys fall into the "look at me White people I'm not like those other Negroes."
One race hustler is just as bad as the next.