Senator Obama is excellent at avoiding a topic by speaking in general terms when the issue is specific. His response to his statements about small town PA completely ignores the fact that his comments were belittling people’s lifestyle, beliefs, and faith. His statement, “they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations” flies in the face of his rhetoric about unifying the country. At some point he’ll have to explain himself instead of trying to deflect criticism to his opponents.
Tags: anti-immigrant, antipathy, Barack Obama, change, cling to their guns, Obama, religion, religious intollerance, response, sentiment, small town usa, social views, unity
April 11th, 2008
Ben Smith of Politico documents Senator Obama’s remarks about small town America…
You go into 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 toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
While generally condescending and overreaching, Senator Obama’s biggest problem appears to be religion once again. Stating that people cling to religion because of economic hardship and not faith is rather insulting. It’s ironic he asked for understanding of his pastor’s perspective, but lacks an understanding of small town America.
Steve Schmidt of the McCain campaign stated, “remarkable statement and extremely revealing. It shows an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking. It is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans.”
First published at Blogs4McCain.com
Tags: clings, fundraiser, guns, huffington post, mccain, mccain reaction, middle america, midwest, Obama, obama quote, religion, rural communities, san francisco, small town, western states
April 11th, 2008
