Speaking for me only
Rather than write up a long post about this manufactured bullshit coming from the Republicans and the Clinton campaign (aka “She”berman), let me just post some facts and some comments and let you figure it out on your own. And yes, I know that assuming you can think for yourselves is elitist, but so be it.
1.) What Obama said last night:
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. So it’s not surprising then that 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.
2.) What Obama said again today:
“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 hometown in Illinois, who are bitter,” Mr. Obama said.
“So I said, well, you know when you’re bitter, you turn to what you can count on,” he added. “So people, they vote about guns, or they take comfort from their faith and their family and their community.”
3.) The margin of victory in the 2004 Presidential election: 286-252
4.) Karl Rove’s 2004 strategy, as stated by Matthew Dowd:
One of the first things I looked at after 2000 was what was the real Republican vote and what was the real Democratic vote, not just who said they were Republicans and Democrats, but independents, how they really voted, whether or not they voted straight ticket or not. And I took a look at that in 2000, and then I took a look at what it was over the last five elections or six elections.
And what came from that analysis was a graph that I obviously gave Karl, which showed that independents or persuadable voters in the last 20 years had gone from 22 percent of the electorate to 7 percent of the electorate in 2000. And so 93 percent of the electorate in 2000, and what we anticipated –93 or 94 percent in 2004, just looking forward and forecasting –was going to be already decided either for us or against us. You obviously had to do fairly well among the 6 or 7 [percent], but you could lose the 6 or 7 percent and win the election, which was fairly revolutionary, because everybody up until that time had said, “Swing voters, swing voters, swing voters, swing voters, swing voters.”
And so when that graph and that first strategic imperative began to drive how we would think about 2004, nobody had ever approached an election that I’ve looked at over the last 50 years, where base motivation was important as swing, which is how we approached it. We didn’t say, “Base motivation is what we’re going to do, and that’s all we’re doing.” We said, “Both are important, but we shouldn’t be putting 80 percent of our resources into persuasion and 20 percent into base motivation,” which is basically what had been happening up until that point — look at this graph, look at the history, look what’s happened in this country.
And obviously that decision influenced everything that we did. It influenced how we targeted mail, how we targeted phones, how we targeted media, how we traveled, the travel that the president and the vice president did to certain areas, how we did organization, where we had staff. All of that was based off of that, and ultimately, thank goodness, it was the right decision.
5.) The fine-tuning of the strategy at the state level:
Six months after gay and lesbian couples won the right to marry in Massachusetts, opponents of same-sex marriage struck back Tuesday, with voters in 11 states approving constitutional amendments codifying marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution.
Voters in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon and Utah all approved anti-same-sex marriage amendments by double-digit margins.
You can go to the census bureau and look at the state rankings for unemployment, per capita income, persons below poverty level, health insurance, etc., and look at where these states ranked. Any guesses?
Again, this may be the elitist in me, but I am thinking you all can put this together on your own with the information I have given you. If a dumb rube like me can put this together and figure out that what Obama said is not only true in the anecdotal sense, but as far as actual numbers and facts go, certainly the alleged “progressives” leaping to seize some sort of advantage for Hillary can figure that out, as well. Which makes their smearing of Obama the past 24 hours all the more depressing.
And really, I have been brief. I just picked gay marriage because it was a glaringly obvious choice. You could go through the list of bullshit they churn up to keep you preoccupied- immigration, the war on Christmas, etc., and do this over and over again. No wonder they feel the need to destroy Obama. He really is a threat to the status quo.
Adam
3 out of 3 CNN pundits agree with you, John.
THAT MAKES YOU AN ELITIST
Adam
Also, I demand to know why I should listen to a Santa Claus apologist — are you implying that we should just *give* things away to everybody like a typical latte-sipping socialist? I would call you a Manchurian Candidate but it’s already obvious that you’re already pro-Manchuria so I don’t think I need to even point it out.
TR
Great clip, Adam. Nice to see some actual sense breaking through at CNN.
Toobin’s angle is the right pushback — a guy from a single-parent home, who was a community organizer in Chicago? He’s the elitist? Really? Not the guy who’s second wife is a billionaire beer heiress? Not the former First Lady who’s worth $100 million?
OK, then.
borehole
Yay! I coined a nickname! I’m just like… uh… who’s that public figure famous for giving people nicknames? Somebody cool, I hope.
PaulB
That’s the sad thing about our political discourse — that a bit of common sense like this is somehow a gaffe that needs to be trumpeted 24/7, ignoring the very real issues that Obama is trying to raise.
Eural Joiner
Hey John, great collection of data/quotes and interesting juxtapositional stuff! Reminds me a lot of an AP level DBQ assignment from my class.
BTW, when Hilary hollers about the need for “change” – that people are upset with the direction of the country under Bush and they are motivated to do something about it – isn’t she saying the same thing as that damned elitest Obama? Or is her campaign now based on how great things have been and will continue to be under her administration which will promise to continue the wonderfully successful and popular policies of the current administration?
You can’t have it both ways.
cleek
Obama is ignoring the common wisdom about what politicians can say to the public; he speaks to people like adults not as focus-grouped vote-providers. he says things Hillary and McCain would never dare saying. and that leaves Hillary and Methuselah to try and reframe what he says in ways that they’re comfortable attacking, so they spin it the best they can, issue their tag-team press releases and squawk about how awful he is. but that gives Obama a chance to elaborate on his point, to more people, and he just blows them both out of the water; he shows what his actual point was, how wrong their attacks were, and how petty and typical both of them really are. he’s playing a much different game than the two throwbacks are.
it’s really beautiful, IMO.
Jorge
I.
Am.
So.
Tired.
Of.
Hillary.
Clinton.
Please.
Go.
Away.
nightjar
This post is why BJ is still the best blog around! Now that Obama has climbed aboard this bucking cultural bronco, he has to ride it till it’s broke, or get stomped jumping off.
Just Some Fuckhead
Oddly, Chris… (wait for it).. Berman.
jake
Because there’s nothing at all elitist about being FLotUS and arguing that your First Ladying makes you qualified for PotUS.
Is she really going to run with this? Really?
Wow.
TenguPhule
Dear Hillary,
Please shut up and go the fuck away.
Failing that, strap on a bomb vest and take McCain with you.
-The voters
Ninerdave
Noam Scheiber:
Dave L
Take a good look at what Hillary and Co. are saying – NOT that Obama’s wrong, just that he’ll make the yahoos upset. As in so many other respects, the Clintons’ politics are profoundly illiberal.
What they’re really offering is their proven skill at handling the Morlocks, at patronizing them from a kind-of Democratic angle (feeling their pain, calling them “folks”, tossing an occasional bundle of bills over the transom) in sharp contrast to the Republican brand of patronization (us normal people have to stick together, what kind of a homo drinks latte, “God, God, God”).
west coast
“He really is a threat to the status quo.”
You got that right.
Karmakin
What cleek said.
I am so tired of the old. Please go away. All of them.
Rick Taylor
Via Mark Ambinder, yet another elitist Democrat suggests that people are anti-immigration and anti-trade because they’re bitter at loosing their health care and jobs.
myiq2xu
How do you “smear” someone with their own words?
Obama’s words, verbatim and in context, are an insult to millions of Americans.
Rage all you want John, but your anger is misplaced.
BTW – He wasn’t talking to small town America when he said it, he was talking about them, to wealthy liberal elites in San Francisco.
Or, as us dumb hillbillies say: He was talking shit behind our backs.
Just Some Fuckhead
Darn, reckon we lost your support in November.
Karmakin
QFT.
More than a threat. Obama’s campaign (and it’s not the guy himself. He himself admits it…which is part of why I like him.) is literally on the cusp of uprooting the status quo.
cleek
tee hee.
i love how this episode shows how completely hollow Clinton’s campaign is.
she’s just swinging blindly, attacking everything in whatever way she thinks will help her, without even reconciling her attacks to her own campaign’s positions and statements on these same issues.
but again, her only goal is to tear Obama down, however she can, regardless of what it makes her looks like. it’s all she has at this point. but i wonder if she realizes that should succeed in tearing down Obama, having sold her soul to do it, the party will be left with nothing but a hollow wretch of a candidate to shrug into the nomination… who would want to get behind that ?
i will now quote a Yglesias commenter
myiq2xu
Incorrect. Obama is wrong, as are you.
Small town America was not filled with “enlightened, latte-sipping liberals” until their jobs were outsourced overseas.
They didn’t suddenly turn into bigoted “Archie Bunkers” when the econmy tanked.
Those people were the same when they were doing well economically as they are today.
They are not stupid, ignorant nor racist because they fail to recognize the transcendant wonder of the Magic Unity Pony.
You can say it fancy and with big words but they know when they’re being insulted.
myiq2xu
Only if you are a McCain supporter like John.
Just Some Fuckhead
And then the trolls show up to claim it’s The. Worst. Thing. Ever. and Obama goes up in the polls and raises even more money and HRC still can’t legitimatey win. It’s like fucking Groundhog Day.
Svensker
So, micky, you gonna fess up to saying “Hillary never said he was an elitist” and then quoting Hillary saying Obama was elitist?
Are ya, huh, huh?
Perry Como
On a side note:
1) President Bush threatens Iran
2) Bomb goes off in Iranian mosque
3) ????
4) Profit!
Just Some Fuckhead
Wait a minute, TrollDawg. You claim it’s an insult to millions of Americans but it’s not an insult to you? So yer still voting for Obama in November?
some guy
You can say it fancy and with big words but they know when they’re being insulted.
Well, if they know they’re being insulted, let’s hear it from them, and not from some elitist like you who fancies him/herself twice as smart as everyone else.
Just Some Fuckhead
We didn’t need a commenter from MY to tell us this. I already said it weeks ago. Everything is exploited for maximum short term gain with absolutely no eye towards the longer narrative or consistency or strategy.
When it’s over HRC can console herself with the “Most Newscycles Won” award while someone else gets to run for President as the Democratic nominee.
Dug Jay
Sorry, Mr. Cole, but you are going to have to find yourself a new horse to ride. After this latest gaffe, Obama is well along the path to turning himself into toast….make that burnt toast. This incident just further illustrates that he’s not up to playing in the major leagues; it’s back to the Chicago wards for him. The Super’s are already adjusting their planned votes, and they’re not moving in Obama’s direction.
TR
Come on, there can’t be that many retarded people in America.
I mean, MyIQis2; there’s one. But another 1,999,999?
Ted
That, coupled with your previous couple of paragraphs John, is some of the better commentary out there right now, mainstream media included.
We’ll never know how Myiq votes in the November election. What will be eminently telling is what he does on his blog and elsewhere on the nets where he frequents, should Obama win the nomination (all but guaranteed). I’d bet good money he doesn’t throw this kind of insane wingnut-style support to Obama.
some guy
So who’s direction are the superdelegates moving in, Dug Jay? I’m pretty sure it’s not in the direction of the Tigress of Tuzla.
Just Some Fuckhead
See? Every week a new outrage, every week a solemn pronouncement of “the end”. You’d think the embarassement of being wrong about everything else up to this week would at least temper it some in the upcoming weeks.
cleek
yup
DonkeyKong
You go into inner city areas in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of urban areas in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 40 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. So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to ghetto culture or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-white sentiment or anti-business sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
With a few alterations I placed the focus of Obama’s statement on inner city african americans.
Would this be viewed as an elite statement by the media, or “something that needed to be said” but could not because of “political correctness.”
Race is still a hall of funhouse mirrors, and the elites in the media are still full of shit.
Perry Como
Dug Jay is the same sort of fuckwit that said Iraq would be a cakewalk, the war would pay for itself, etc. etc. Embarrassment is something only latte drinking libruls feel.
ThymeZone
myiq is posting to this thread?
Fuggeddaboudit.
The shitstain never answers a question, but keeps asking the same useless ones over and over, biting ankles and trolling and queering — yes, queering — the threads.
Fuck it. I have things to do. The primary is over, and Hillary lost. This is a waste of time.
Bob In Pacifica
myiq wrote:
Obama didn’t say it. You just wrote it. It’s all your straw man.
But maybe if you didn’t get the point of Cole’s post, why do you think that Republicans put anti-gay marriage bills and anti-immigrant laws on the state ballots during election years? Think really hard, little iq. Do a little cogitatin’, faux hillbilly girl.
We know you worship at the cuff of Hillary’s pantsuit. Does your worship of your icon blind you from common sense? Obama said that no one’s delivered for the American working class (and that includes people of all genders, races, ethnicities) over the past 25, 30 years. Are you saying that, no, the economics of the American working class has risen over that time? That everyone’s happy? That people aren’t losing their jobs and their homes? Think really hard, little iq. If what Obama is saying isn’t true, then why aren’t you voting for McCain?
cleek
now this is elitist. no wonder he didn’t win!
Iwonder
Perhaps because that’s when you vote on measures put forward by the state legislature you moron.
Adam
But when we get TVs and can watch it too, well we’ll see who’s laughin’ then! Ha! Ha *ha*! How’re you gonna talk behind our backs when everyone’s *watchin’*?
MBL
I’m kind of enjoying being called an elitist by the same stupid motherfucker whose handle announces that he’s twice as smart as me.
AkaDad
That’s it. I’m done with her lying ass. I’ll never vote for Hillary. EVER.
Cassidy
Unfortunately, she’s counting on “the lesser of two evils vote” at this point. And in the end, she’s probably going to get it, if she gets the nomination.
AkaDad
I used to defend the Clintons from Republicans who said the Clintons were liars and that they would say anything to win.
They were right. I was wrong.
jake
But how can they tell if it’s worse than the Worst Thing Ever he said last week or not quite that bad but definitely worse than the Worst Thing Ever he said last month?
The Hills must have a finely calibrated Worst-Thing-Ever-O-Meter.
nightjar
Same here!
Frank
John- Good post you managed to suck me in in spite of myself.
Obama could have made his point better by using the word “embattled” instead of “bitter”.
As far as the MSM is concerned elitist is a negative word and therefore cannot possibly refer to the rich, who after all run the MSM. They think elitist means something like smarty-pants dogooder who thinks he knows better than you.
Soylent Green
Hillary cannot win the nomination. We know it, she knows it, the Repugs know it, only her bots don’t know it.
But EVERY SLIMY WORD she says against Obama will be used by the GOP against Obama, now and in the general.
Is she on their fucking payroll or has she gone insane? I can’t think of another explanation.
myiq2xu
Y’all just don’t get it. The issue isn’t whether the people in small-town America are bitter, or just unhappy.
Obama accused them of being gun-toting, bigoted religious fanatics. He implied they were too stupid to realize that they were being manipulated. John Cole threw in gay-hating.
Blaming it on their economic situation doesn’t take away the insult.
Evilbeard
You know, at this point I feel like the Jedi in Revenge of the Sith. Our side is totally being manipulated by the Dark Side and we don’t even know that every action we take to fight the dark is really just the step laid out for us on the path to eternal darkness.
crw
I don’t know how this is going to play out, but I will say this is an excellent test case to see if the evolution of the Southern Strategy is still in play. If Obama is successfully painted as an America hating (because Real Americans™ love guns and hate brown people) elitist (because he said ‘clings’ ergo he think you’re stupid) Dimmicrat then yes. If Obama successfully jujitsus this (my opponents are playing the same old dog and pony show and distracting from the real issues) then no. I will say Obama’s counter-punch is the most direct public challenge to the Southern Strategy framing I’ve seen in a long time. Lets wait and see how the voters react.
Grace Nearing
Just whose status quo are you talking about?
Anyway, Obama may or may not be a threat to any of the myriad perceived status quo‘s in this country, but true threats to the military-petroleum-finance sectors will never get elected president in contemporary America. It’s, well, it’s just arranged that way.
Just Some Fuckhead
Your concerns have been noted, Concern Troll. You are free to go.
Onihanzon
But that’s the irony, AkaDad. It’s the same ‘mountains out of molehills’ bullshit from the Right, whether it’s to take down the president for a blowjob or to rend their garments over a true statement about the abandonment of the American people by past administrations.
They draw from the same cheap well of theatrics, to hit on something that has NOTHING to do with the original context, rather than engaging with the real issue. And they do it because it works.
p.luk knows it. myiq knows it. And Clinton knows it. She knows first hand the distraction value of non sequiturs and strawmen. And if you think that Clinton doesn’t have her hand in the pockets of the Right at this point…then you haven’t seen her or her supporters’ new love affair with Scaife or with FOX or with Newsday. She can spin her way through the Iraq vote or the Kyl-Lieberman amendment all she wants, but at this point, she is a fundamental member of the conservative wing of the Democratic Party. And it is for that very reason the Ann Coulters and Rush Limbaughs of this country are urging conservatives to go Clinton. Because she’s their best chance at getting what they want.
Obama, and his statements about how the people of PA and other states have been wronged by the leadership of this country, threatens the powers-that-be. And they will step before her and throw every dishonest salvo they have at him in an effort to see that truth silenced.
Expect the cries of “elitism!” or “he hates the people!” to get even more ridiculous.
There’s far too much to lose by the Right for Clinton to give up now.
TenguPhule
Translated for BJ newbies.
TenguPhule
Completed.
Martin
Nobody but the Clinton folks and the GOP are making the logical fallacy that you can turn this and run it in reverse. Obama certainly never suggested that you could.
No, but why do they often vote like Lou Dobbs? We can blame the Mexicans for taking their manufacturing jobs, but when WalMart told the company they wouldn’t stock their product unless they slashed production costs by moving to China, that doesn’t really follow, does it? Again, we’ve always asked aloud why people vote against their economic self interest. Vote Reagan because he’ll let you keep your gun, but don’t mind that he’s working double time to crush your union which had been keeping you employed.
Again, that’s not the point. Were they voting the same way? That’s what he’s saying. It’s fine that you were deeply religious before and now, but why are you voting the abortion ticket when the same people are passing policy to keep you in poverty? If you look back at when they were doing well, they were more often than not voting in their economic self-interest. Democrats used to be the stronghold of blue-collar workers. Look at the ones that have suffered the most and they are mostly Republicans. Why? Because the GOP convinced them that economics are less important than guns, fetuses, mexicans, and gays.
No, they have been misled. That happens to all of us from time to time. Obama is an equal-opportunity basher on this one by blaming both Dems and Republicans for basically doing jack shit to help them. They were never given an economic choice here. Bill Clinton didn’t help them either. Will Obama? Maybe. Maybe not. At least he recognizes and is willing to point it out. The question here is how did the Clinton administration help Ohio and Michigan? If Hillary is opposed to the Columbian trade deal, why is Bill supporting it? I’d like to hear Hillary resolve that for us.
Apparently they don’t since the negative reaction to the speech doesn’t seem to be there. Apparently only the Clinton supporters and the pundits can recognize when other people are being insulted.
sparky
myiq=?:
presumably JC sees some point in your posting here. howsabout posting something besides HRC talking points? i mean, aside from being wrong, it’s just not interesting, and i suspect you can do better than those idiots.
c’mon–give us some magic pantsuit dust. or just go back to insults. anything but this day-old outrage. i feel like i’m reading a script from a GOP cable tv show beamed from somebody’s basement.
John Cole
Please don’t accuse me of thinking Myiq has a point. I just have the general belief that it is better to let people make an ass out of themselves than it is to run around trying to stifle stupidity. Let him say what he wants and feel free to point and laugh.
Onihanzo
Eerily similar to the same rush to defense of Michigan and Florida voters. I.E. when it suits the Clinton campaign’s struggle to win.
Just Some Fuckhead
Perhaps you could clear up the confusion by letting dumbass know you didn’t, in fact, invite him back from his GBCW, implicitly or otherwise. :)
Splitting Image
“Apparently they don’t since the negative reaction to the speech doesn’t seem to be there. Apparently only the Clinton supporters and the pundits can recognize when other people are being insulted.”
Bullseye.
The common theme I’ve noticed in the responses I’ve seen on the net is that the people defending Obama say “I live in a small town and Obama nailed it”, while the people trying to crucify him say “Obama blew it with small town blue collar workers”.
Over and over again. Guess who’s more likely right?
By and large the small town folk who aren’t happy with Obama’s comments seemed to feel that he’s right, obviously, but he blew his line. They are not so much offended as fearful that his point is going to get lost in the Right Wing/Clinton Noise Machine.
“Six months after gay and lesbian couples won the right to marry in Massachusetts, opponents of same-sex marriage struck back Tuesday, with voters in 11 states approving constitutional amendments codifying marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution.”
To me, this was the biggest disappointment of the Kerry campaign. In the June 2004 election in Canada, the Conservatives made gay marriage an issue in the final weeks of the campaign. The Liberals stared them down and broke the Conservative movement in two. Harper lost a fifth of his party’s support in the last five days and pollsters couldn’t even keep track of it.
Damn Kerry for not taking notes. Strangely, the only guy who seemed to appreciate how toxic this issue was for conservatives was John McCain. I think that was the last time I respected him.
TR
The Clinton people, of course. They’re the social betters of the working class and they know what their feelings really are.
The Grand Panjandrum
We’ll know soon enough if blue-collar folks were offended by Obama pointing out that they been getting screwed for several decades. I personally believe this works to his advantage because, unlike previous Democratic nominees (Kerry come to mind) he is perfectly comfortable in his own skin. He is also an effective counterpuncher. The supposed “I’ll talk to filty commies and wild-eyed Muslim radicals” non-gaffe has actually worked out to his advantage.
First Read at MSNBC.com has this great report on “bitter” sticking in North Caronline. Its worth a read. The Clinton campaign trotted out a surrogate before an appearance by Bubba for his first two stops (of six scheduled), and by the third the surrogate was nowhere to be found.
I doubt this will have much effect on Obama with rural blue collar voters, but don’t be surprised if urban Pennsylvania voters don’t turn against Clinton for these scurrilous attacks on Obama.
Only a mouthbreathing, half-bright, atavistic rat-bastard would believe Obama was saying anything other than pointing out the facts that people are bitter because they have been lied to for decades.
myiq2xu
Despite my differences of opinion with John, I respect the fact that he doesn’t exclude other opinions.
sparky
John–my bad–i inferred too much from you-know-who’s remark of the other day.
sometimes it’s ok to be wrong. :)
Davis X. Machina
This isn’t a gaffe.
Isn’t the most famous definition of ‘gaffe’ when a politician accidently tells the truth?
This is the truth, and this isn’t an accident.
tballlou
John – the elitist part of what Obama said is this:
“…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…”
Everything else he said is true. The part quoted above is BS and offensive to many people, especially people that own guns or are religious or think we should control our borders or think we should protect our economy.
Tropical Fats
The thing I notice is the naked relief and barely restrained glee in the media stories. I think they were terrified she was going to run out of money and the big show was going to come to an end. But now, “the tempest”, “the furor”… Hey, if McCain doesn’t have to campaign for real for another couple months, maybe he’ll have us over for another barbecue! OMG, if he gives me a nickname I’ll just *die*…
For a bunch of people who are alleged to be completely in the bag for Obama, they’ve sure got a funny way of showing it.
tBone
I guess you and Hillary are hoping they don’t know when they’re being patronized, though.
Did you bother to read John’s post? If so, did you bother to think about it for more than a nanosecond?
myiq2xu
Their contract says they have to be in the bag for Obama until he wins the nomination.
Then they can go back to knobslobbing McCain 24/7/365
Just Some Fuckhead
I’m pretty sure “elitism” doesn’t mean what you think it means, tballou. JC has been trying to explain to you illiterate shitstains that ELITISM is a tag pushed by Republicans with good results – for Republicans. If you want to jumpstart Republicans’ chances in November go ahead and keep throwing the term around indiscriminately.
If, OTOH, you give two shits about the truth please find another word with which to diss Obama. As you are clearly uninterested in the actual meanings of words, pick any word you like. Just not a rightwing one.
t jasper parnell
On one level, I am a member of the “elite,” in that I have way to much edumacation. On another level, I am not, my pay is at the median and I cannot afford, well, anything. I am, therefore, bitter about the failures of the political class to do a god damned thing about the actual conditions on the ground. I am equally bitter that every fucking thing they try to do screws me somehow or another. As it happens, all the edumacation to one side, most of those I know are “regular folks” and they are bitter as well. Things are not going the way they are/were supposed. And now this is a fact of the matter not just for the “regular folks” whose jobs are gone and ain’t coming back but also for those whose retirement funds are down 13 percent or more, whose houses have lost value, who look around and see a badly managed and unwinable war. Obviously, life is so uncertain, but ye gods, it just might be the case that a bright, coherent candidate can actually win an election by telling the fucking truth and having won the election might actually make a difference.
To attack someone for stating what is clearly the truth is unbelievably stupid, counter productive, and damaging to any chance to make the changes necessary.
I write all this, of course, because I bitter elitist, who most likely, hate the troops, and probably went to a Madrassa.
tBone
You forgot “and has really awesome countertops.”
louisms
Yeah, Dad, I’m right there with ya. And I really hate admitting that the Rethugs were clearly right about the Clinton Character Issues.
Of course, I realized that long before Hillary reared her ugly head. They lost me when Bill pardoned the Riches at the end of his second term. I’ll somehow manage to vote for Hillary if it’s between her and McCain, but it’ll hurt me to do so. I just hope Obama can duck all the inevitable flak and win the nomination. But I’m a pessimist by nature.
JackieBinAZ
Ballot initiatives are put forward by citizen petition. While the petition must be signed by registered voters, anyone can whip up enough grievance to start the process and fund it. Here are some people who have backed “grassroots” campaigns for initiatives.
you moron.
link
Davis X. Machina
I am, therefore, bitter about the failures of the political class to do a god damned thing about the actual conditions on the ground.
Surely being freed from the twin specters of gay marriage and slightly higher top marginal rates of income tax is worth something to you.
What an ingrate…
t jasper parnell
They are concrete, cracked, and came with the squalid dump, really, honest, and no fooling. However, I do hold out high hopes for ponies and boats.
betamu
Sorry, I cannot agree that this was “elitist” or “BS” or “offensive” or anything other than a guy calling it as he sees it. I see it the same way. Living in Ohio while our jobs disappeared, the talking points uttered ad nauseum were anti-immigration and anti-trade and the atmosphere was resentful..not so much towards the politicians (we knew they did not hear us), but towards those that seemed to take what we worked so hard to get. I moved to Texas and excelled in the tech industry; now I’m barely holding on to my job, wathcing positions go to less qualified folks in India and Poland…so I see resentment and bitterness rising here, too. We know there is nothing we can do about our jobs slowly disappearing, so it is natural, I think…not right, but natural, to feel some resenment, bitterness and dread about something so beyond my control to halt.
I also believe that in times where we feel helpless, it is natural to sometimes looks towards irrational outlets, like religion (not that I feel that religion is irrational, but that people can take refuge inside it in an irrational manner)or violence.
I heard about 8 minutes of his speech and I found myself thinking that he was right on target. I was not offended, and think that many of us, if we are honest and look at ourselves, will realize this.
When the democratic primary season started, I was 100 percent in the Clinton camp. Sorry, but through her behaviour and her inability to sound authentic, she lost me just before the Texas primary. Obama benefitted.
Just my 2 cents.
Bob In Pacifica
Iwonder wrote:
Let me rephrase. Why are these issues put before the voters by the Republicans in Presidential election years? They’re trying to get a gay marriage ban on the California State ballot this year. Whatcha think? Because they want voters to consider their economic interests or if God’s wrath is gonna come down on us if there’s gay marriage? Just asking.
myiq2xu
I’d suggest “just some fuckhead” but that one’s taken too.
t jasper parnell
And finally one of America’s greatest public intellectuals on Hillary’s campaign.
NR
If that’s the case, they’ve sure got a funny way of showing it.
Meanwhile, we now have the NRCC pressuring Democratic superdelegates to back Hillary. Can there be any doubt now that she’d sell us out even faster than her husband did if she got elected?
Just Some Fuckhead
Zing!
Bob In Pacifica
I think that people really need to do some reading around here. Start with THE MASS PSYCHOLOGY OF FASCISM.
You don’t necessarily have to be white or live in Pennsylvania to transfer your problems onto something else while voting for the same bastards who have been screwing them over. I think some of the same was bubbling over in Kenya recently. It happens daily in Iraq.
NAFTA sent American corn to Mexico which bankrupted Mexican farmers who came north to get work in America. Now corn is being poured into our gas tanks as ethanol and people in Mexico are rioting because corn is now too expensive. Hating Mexicans who don’t want to starve makes as much sense as them hating you for trying to keep them out. At the end of the day your conjoined miseries lay more at the feet of the people who gave you NAFTA, GATT, etc. It wasn’t gay people. And the government didn’t take away your guns. They sent away your jobs.
Quackers
Can’t someone please just drag the bitch away before she single handedly gives McCain the election?
AkaDad
Attention Superdelegates
Hillary can’t win the GE when 53% of voters view her unfavorably.
Bitterly yours,
Dad
t jasper parnell
Quackers let us not make the same kind of errors in judgment and language as Hillary.
Martin
Exactly. Please don’t look at the fact that we want to fuck over everyone earning under $100K, instead vote for a law to make sure you don’t wake up tomorrow to find yourself accidentally married to a gay man.
One of the funniest TDS pieces hit this point well:
http://www.superducky.com/view.cfm/media/30134
When pressed how gay marriage harms others, nobody can give an answer. Any answer. Even a shitty answer. Yet it gives the talk radio set something to blather over instead of pointing out all the economic shit.
AkaDad
1. Hillary helps pass NAFTA.
2. Pennsylvanians lose good jobs.
3. Obama empathizes and understands why their bitter.
4. Hillary calls Obama out of touch with the people.
5. I go off the wagon and start huffing paint again.
tballlou
AkaDad Says:
” 3. Obama empathizes and understands why their bitter. ”
3a. Obama then offers some BS pop psychology on why said people own guns, go to church, dont like illegal immigration or endless outsourcing of jobs.
That is the problem with his statement. It is really that simple. There are many reasons people own guns, go to church etc that have nothing to do with being bitter about the Rustbelt! One does not necessarily lead to the other.
SocialScientist
tballlou says:
“That is the problem with his statement. It is really that simple. There are many reasons people own guns, go to church etc that have nothing to do with being bitter about the Rustbelt! One does not necessarily lead to the other.”
Of course, one could lead to the other even if not necessarily so. Jesus, quit being such a simpleton.
CT
John, “speaking for me only” is comic gold. I chuckle every time I see it at at Talk Left because it just reeks of pomposity-“I am going to lay down some big time TRUTH of such import that it may cause those of fainter constitution to go insane, and I can’t have Jeralyn held responsible.”
I’m going to start using it in real life-I’ll report back on how long it takes for my wife to smack me in the face.
Martin
Did he say that? Look at the statement again. He said ‘cling to’. They take these positions they already held and dive in deeper and make them the primary issue for their situation rather than focusing on what really is the primary issue. I’ll admit he could have said it better, but he never said that one leads to the other. You just want it to say that.
Pb
John Cole,
Here are some more awesome statistical correlations for ya. For example:
AkaDad
tballlou
Shorter Obama: People vote Republican because of these wedge issues, which is not in their best interest, economically speaking.
ShouldKnowBetter
Except that is not what he said. He gave several examples of ‘social issues’ that people choose to focus on at election time when they feel that voting on economic issues is pointless.
He has expressed similar thoughts repeatedly when talking about political apathy in other groups, so I’m not sure why this should be even remotely shocking or insulting.
Phoenix Woman
The Clinton efforts to use this against Obama on the stump in NC don’t seem to be doing that well.
Meanwhile: What, so Vowel-Challenged Troll Boy actually did a GBCW comment a while back? Heh. Of course he’s back; nobody who ever wrote a GBCW comment ever actually stayed gone unless somebody shot him immediately afterwards.
jake
Those previous expressions of thought occurred when he wasn’t expected to come within 2,000 light years of the nomination. Expect an in-depth analysis of his wardrobe if he takes PA.
Note: If an in-depth analysis of his wardrobe has already occurred please leave me in my blissful ignorance. Thank you.
Soylent Green
Or as Edward Abbey put it (if I remember it right):
“Always tell the truth. Nobody will ever believe you.”
incontrolados
I haven’t read the comments and I WON’T. John, I respect you. You have let some people run your comments section. They are not the best people. They seem to rally in their success with you. I admire you for standing firm.
Your comment section is crap for the most part. And I include myself.
You are a good man John. I hope that this election will be different. I hope it won’t be about guns, god, gays, abortion.
I still read you guys, John and Tim. Thanks for being here. As for Jen, TZ, and whoever else, I know how to find links now thank you very much.
I’m bitter and I admit it. But not for the reasons stated in this post.
Notorious P.A.T.
This is all just so laughable to me.
Don’t try and tell me that losing jobs, taking pay cuts, having promises broken, etc. doesn’t make people do weird things. I’ve watched it happen. I’ve lived in Michigan all my life. Things like the rise of “militias” here, for instance. Why are adult white men stockpiling guns and talking about UN conspiracies? Did they become stupid from eating lead paint chips, or are they terrified and angry about having their livelihoods taken away from them?
We have been devastated by the dismantling of American manufacturing, then bunches of people who lost their futures start acting crazy. But it’s “elitist” to say that? It isn’t elitist to suggest that losing an auto assembly plant job might make someone do things they otherwise wouldn’t?
JackieBinAZ
Just as an aside, since we’re talking about insulting campaign moves, who else found it offensive to have Elton John slam us all for being misogynists this week? Hell, it’s not even his fucking country. And he’s a “Sir” – how elitist can you be.
That his music sucks is just beside the point.
DougJ
Good God, Mark Halperin is hitting this one hard.
He’s lucky that growing up as the son of a prominent government official, attending Harvard, and earning millions of dollars producing a political tip sheet aimed at political insiders doesn’t make you elitist. Otherwise, he’d look pretty silly.
Psycheout
Goodbye cruel world.
AkaDad
If one comes upon hard times and has to rely on a church for food and shelter, wouldn’t that be clinging to religion?
Psycheout
I’m back. And my brain is bigger than yours.
John Cole
I have no idea what is going on.
I say again, I have no idea what is going on.
With all the spoof, the coded talk, and the side references,I say again, I have no idea what is going on here anymore.
binzinerator
The reason I have come to like this blog is because of that kind of stuff. It’s true, even as it comes across as snark.
I want to be an elitist. It’s not that I want to be a millionaire, I just want to think for my self.
And that’s why 30 minutes ago I gave a hundred bucks to Obama’s campaign.
myiq2xu
Well, it looks like we have something in common.
Cassidy
But it isn’t pop psychology. You can attempt to marginalize his comments that way, but it’s a very logical correlation. Through several Administrations, of both political persuasions, the industrial sector of our nation has been screwed. My family originally hails from Ohio and I’ve seen it first hand. So, they’ve learned that no matter who they vote for, they’re best interests are not going to be looked out for…but wait a minute, over here, we have someone who is professing your very same beliefs on social issues.
It’s very simple. When you can’t influence what you want, you cling to what you can.
Like I haven’t had some chick call me sexist before…
Cassidy
And for the record, I’m an elitist and sexist.
tBone
I’m conversant in most of the spoof, code, and side references, and I have no idea what’s going on in those two posts. I don’t think the writers do either.
Billy Bob Neck
I am so sick of this Hussein Homobama and his arrogance thinking he’s so much better than regular, hard working Americans. American ain’t gonna stand for an arrogant president. He ain’t one of us so he oughta just put the towel back on head and go back to “yes we KEN-YA!”
God is Love!
Pb
Yeah, you’d almost have to read a separate email list or something to keep up with it all.
Well yeah, but that’s just incontrolados. And, well, Psycheout. Just assume they’ve been drinking, that’s probably the most charitable explanation anyhow.
cleek
i haven’t read this book, but i assure you it’s the reason you will fail. i know this because all the paragraphs are about things that i disagree with. anyhoo, thanks for your support hose. my thighs tingle with delight.
Just Some Fuckhead
I’m conversant in GBCWese. I can explain the commenters remarks.
First, you must understand that Incontrolados is a huge Obama fan. This helps illuminate the remarks.
Incontrolados is happy that JC is writing about the egregious behavior of the Clinton campaign. But Incontrolados won’t look at the comment section because he/she knows that they will be full of hateful remarks about Obama. Incontrolados feels JC has let the Clintards run roughshod and unchallenged in the comment threads. He/she thinks they rally against JC’s frequent Clinton posts. Incontrolados admires JC for attempting to stick it to them.
Incontrolados is tired of reading the half-assed logically inconsistent and irrational remarks of Obama haters and Incontrolados finds himself/herself reacting in kind to these hideous folks and therefore exacerbating the problem.
Incontralados thinks you are a good man, JC, but he/she offers no explanation for such an unfounded belief. Incontrolados has recently written a blog piece about how every election comes down to god, gays, guns and abortion and he/she is concerned with the recent developments that we are headed there at this very moment.
Incontrolados finishes up by expressing an acknowledgement of Obama’s accurate portrayal of his/her bitterness. But it has nothing to do with the comments thread. It is because, invariably, every campaign comes down to which candidate can demagogue best on god, gay and guns. And we’re not even to the general yet and it’s already started, most depresseingly, by our fellow Democrats.
Person of Choler
Keep spinning John, that’s what your’re good at.
4jkb4ia
Good grief, this is all John Cole can write about! I saw Obama’s remarks in the paper and spelled the word GAFFE. I expect Rush to be all over it on Monday.
4jkb4ia
This is the sort of “elitist liberal politician” thing Rush eats for breakfast.
4jkb4ia
Dallas 4, Anaheim 2. Over approx. 15 minutes ago.
4jkb4ia
Unfortunately Dallas and Anaheim cannot both lose, as is fitting and proper since neither have any ice or snow.
4jkb4ia
Two front-page posts on this! At Daily Kos! No Effing Way! Which candidate is the one using Republican frames now!?
Psycheout
Hmmm, that’s okay. I don’t read the posts.
Please respond incontrolados, if you read this.
Congratulations. Wow, what a fancy pants elitist.
Phoenix Woman
When Clinton calls people out for being elitist, she’s projecting her own behavior onto them. Just check this out:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080308/D8V98FO00.html
http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/1007/Hillarys_Mississippi_comments.html
incontrolados
Just Some Fuckhead and cleek: you allare screwing yourselves. I didn’t start out as an Obama supporter. But I have come around and have convinced at least a couple of people who voted for Clinton in the primaries to come over to Obama’s side.
Your nonsense in the comments doesn’t help much. cleek, I find it very troubling, but if you side with (or are a part) of all the mischief making in the comments, then what can I say.
Politics are not what they once were, I hope. JSF and cleek and Jen can go on with norm. We are in the 21st century now.
(Oh, and if you have a problem with what I blogged about, I have puppy who needs a forever-home.)
incontrolados
Congratulations. Wow, what a fancy pants elitist.
yeah, right. The fancy pants are on all of the drama types who sucked up.
Why do I read this blog? John and Tim.
Not Jen, TZ, cleek or Pb.
binzinerator
My family hails from Michigan and I’ve seen it first hand too.
And crap, I never thought I’d be agreeing with Cassidy, but…
What Cassidy said. Exactly.
Just Some Fuckhead
Yeah, a couple of anonymous commenters taking shots at Clintards on a formerly Republican blog are totally destroying Obama’s chances in a primary in which he has an insurmountable pledged delegate lead.
So? Neither did I. He was actually my fifth choice behind Dodd, Edwards and two folks that didn’t run. (Although to be fair Edwards lost my support before he dropped out.)
Fat lot of good that does us since they already voted. Maybe you could start working on bringing over some Republicans come November 5th.
Oh well, if it only helps a little bit and makes me feel better- that’s a net plus.
*eyes glaze over*
Not at all. For the most part, I even agree. Didn’t I accurately characterize it? Wait, you wouldn’t know that since you haven’t read the comments…..
*eyes glaze over again*
Conservatively Liberal
Bitter it is. I talked to a few customers and some friends in town today. Small coastal town of 6,500 in a county of just over 20,000. Guess what? Even the repubs I talked to today say that Obama is right. Two of them say that they are voting for him because they feel that their party is a total mess.
My wife talked about this with her lady friends at work during lunch. She reports that one person was ‘offended’, but she says that the lady is also an ardent Hillary supporter. She tried to take over the conversation from my wife, and that was not a very wise move on her part. If my wife is talking to you, you listen or you pay. My wife laid it down as it is (the ‘bitter’ incident), and basically told the Hillary supporter that she was not buying it. Her other co-workers agreed with her. Most of them have been working at the job for 10+ years, and they topped out on the wage scale long ago. No COLA, and their insurance costs have skyrocketed over the years.
Ask the people in my small town, and they vote for bitter.
Every single person I talked to said that Obama was right. A couple of them said that they were upset at first, but when they found out what really happened, they got angrier. You don’t lie to bitter people, they are bitter enough already. It is funny how Hillary posits that she is the one to do what is best for the downtrodden, yet everyone is optimistic and happy! Which is it?
If McCain is the ‘Straight Talk Express’, Hillary must be running the as the ‘Double Talk Express’. Between them, they are two train wrecks looking for a place to happen. I hope Obama derails Hillary, and then knocks McCain off the tracks.
Regarding NoIq, while I tire of his talk about pie and hot goat sex, he is kind of a court jester here. You know anything he says is calculated to outrage you so you feed him with your response. That is why I have relegated him to the hot goat sex bin, and from what he is saying it sounds like he is grinning from ear to ear.
Must be great hot goat sex!
Just Some Fuckhead
Hahah!
Conservatively Liberal
Well, since you love Rush so much, I would not expect you to be much of an Obama supporter to begin with. So if what Rush says matters to you, then you ought to be in seventh heaven.
Some of us can think for ourselves, and we don’t worry about the Rush Limpdicks and Sean InsHannitys of the vapid right wing loonie bin.
People who listen to Rush are not going to vote Obama. Check it out at Hillaryis44, and you can see for yourself. They luvs them sum Fox and right wing talk radio and blogs over there. It fits their image perfectly.
Screaming batshit insane.
Fledermaus
I are a serious commentator, this is a serious discussion.
marjowil
I’m in Michigan and I am “bitter,” except I call it cynical. From an idealist a few years ago, I am finding it hard to believe in anything anymore. I have an Obama magnet on my car that says “got hope?” And every time I see it, I ask myself, do I? The answer, usually, is “a little.” If we lose this election, I surely won’t have any left. First losing Gore, then Kerry, just about broke me.
A mostly Republican/Indie Catholic coworker, with his wife who luvs her some O’Reilly, said that they’ve both decided they will probably go dem this year. He was leaning Clinton because his brother-in-law told him Obama won’t say the pledge of allegiance, etc. I informed him about all those lies, and his next question was, did I think Obama was “sincere.” I said yes. But thought: huh? What, he’s a Commie or something? Not sincere? Obama reeks sincerity.
Then I got into an argument with the office Hilbot, who claimed that Clinton would be ahead if our primaries were winner-take-all (thanks, Salon), big state garbage, Obama doesn’t care about Michigan’s vote counting, all the Hilbot trademarked spins, etc. But we both agreed at the end that Michigan’s primary was a gigantic mess overall and both of us would vote for the dem nominee.
I’m really tired of all this shit. I wasn’t an Obama supporter at first (Edwards, then Dodd) but he won me over. I was never pro-Hillary but at least could tolerate, even like the Clintons as I thought they were. That’s over now. I’ve no respect for either of them, but feel McCain would put the stake in the heart of this country once and for all.
Bitter? goddamn right I am.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
the inmates have officially taken over the asylum.
Just Some Fuckhead
Yeah, I did the same thing. Why did you lose interest in Edwards?
hjmler
“But there is a far greater issue of transparency with someone much closer to Mrs. Clinton–her husband. In 2005 and 2006 the William J. Clinton Foundation received donations of $216 million, the bulk of it from only 18 donors.” John Taplin
D0n Camillo
And promptly shits out.
ThymeZone
That’s good information, the world can take a breath now.
marjowil
Well, I was with Edwards until he dropped out, but I was pissed because his name wasn’t on the Michigan ballot. Then I was going to vote for Dodd, but he dropped out just before the primary. So I voted Uncommitted so that Clinton would claim a mandate, as the cynical/wise among us predicted.
It bothered me that some people were making comments that Edwards was smarmy or insincere, but I still liked him and his policies. Thought he was “electable” as a white male, before Obama started pulling in the crowds.
I liked that Dodd stood up on FISA.
I started listening to Obama’s speeches instead of just soundbites, and he won me over, not just as a last resort candidate, but someone I do have hope for… my last chance.
Randolph Fritz
It’s the boys in the Village, though Clinton is taking advantage of it. I went to the gym yesterday & was treated to 20 minutes of CNN discussing this one out-of-context quote. Birth of a media narrative: he’s a big-city liberal, who doesn’t understand Real American Values. Maybe he can scotch it. I hope so. Because if not, we’re going to be hearing it for months.
Just Some Fuckhead
Yeah, me too. When Dodd dropped out and it was clear a)my other favorites weren’t running and b)Edwards was a phony populist with a DLC record, I started checking into Obama.
Conservatively Liberal
Ditto here. I was for Gore, but he stayed out. Dodd was my next choice, but he got no traction. His FISA fight has shown me that he would have been a good choice (along with his other positions that I like). Hillary was never really a consideration because I do not agree with her triangulating style. She does what she thinks is good for her and her political career, end of story. The flag burning bill, Kyl-Lieberman and the AUMF really told me that she is out of step with progressives. And when she makes a mistake, she does not own up to it. She spins it as a positive, no matter how stupid she sounds.
So Obama it was, but not enthusiastically. I liked his direct way of talking to people, and he seemed like a very steady person. As he has had to dodge everything that has been thrown at him by Hillary, he has shown me that even under pressure he does not crack. Hillary has tossed every single thing that she can find at him and he handles it face on. No running and hiding, no throwing people under the bus for political gain.
He is reliably consistent, no matter the pressure. It takes someone with talent to deal with things the way he has. Is he perfect? No, he is as human as anyone else. But he tries, no matter the odds, to do what he believes is right.
You have to admire a man like that. Grace under pressure, but when he has to he can step up and deliver a counter punch that is not a cheap shot. This is evidenced by his response to McCain and Hillary over their latest feigned outrage at hearing the truth.
People are bitter, and they are pissed. Ratings for our government are in the toilet, and the last thing that Hillary and McCain want you to do is to stop and think about what they are really offering you.
More of the same. That is why they are going after Obama like they are, he is a threat to the status quo. If he wins, the rules of the game of politics changes. Hopefully for the better, and hopefully for a long time. Obama knows that if he wins, he owes a lot of it to the people who put their trust in him. He is the kind of man who I believe will honor that trust by trying to do the best he can for everyone, not just those who voted for him.
That is why I support him wholeheartedly, without reservation. Obama has earned my respect, and my vote.
Rick Moran
Cart before the horse. People were already inclined to reject the idea of gay marriage before Karl Rove even got to the White House.
You are right. It is elitist of you to think that Rove manipulated these people’s deeply held beliefs into voting Republican. Where the hell else where they going to go?
DougJ
It’s fun being called elitist by the brother of a millionaire tv reporter.
If we get tough with you here, will you send Terry over to stick up for you like he does on the ABC blogs?
DougJ
cleek
strange, it doesn’t feel like i’m doing that.
then by all means, keep up the good work!
merrinc
This is so true it made me cry.
I’m trying to be hopeful but the corporate media Will. Not. Shut. The. Fuck. Up. about the “gaffe”. And I have that same sick feeling I had when we were repeatedly told that Gore claimed to have invented the internets and Kerry’s service in Vietnam wasn’t so honorable after all.
Janet Reno
Obama’s efforts to connect to the Republican Party, specifically Bush, and Dick Cheney, of the Halliburton Company, dates back to the Presidents Grandfather, Prescott Bush, and indeed Cheney was once an executive officer of Halliburton.
The American military pounds Iraq with Artillary, bombs, and the like, destroying large sections of cities, and infra-structures, then Halliburton comes in to rebuild. Halliburton and Halliburton associated companies have raked in ten’s of billions.
Obama is just like the BIG HALIBURTAN. Haliburton has contracted to build detention centers in the U.S. similiar to the one in Quantanammo Bay, Cuba. Halliburton does nothing to earn the Two Dollars for each meal an American Serviceman in Iraq eats.
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/
Halliburton was scheduled to take control of the Dubai Ports in The United Arab Emiirate. The deal was canceled when Bush was unable to affect the transfer of the American Ports.
Now we see what some might suspect as similiar financial escapading from the Democrats.
Two years ago, Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity gave a $50 million contract to a start-up security company – Companion- owned by now-indicted businessman (TONY REZKO) Tony Rezko and a onetime Chicago cop, Daniel T. Frawley, to train Iraqi power-plant guards in the United States. An Iraqi leadership change left the deal in limbo. Now the company, Companion Security, is working to revive its contract.
Involved along with Antoin “Tony” Rezco, long time friend and neighbor of Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama, and former cop Daniel T. Frawley, is Aiham Alsammarae. Alsammarae was accused of financial corruption by Iraqi authorities and jailed in Iraq last year before escaping and returning here.
LIKE FATHER LIKE SON —
Recently, Obama’s campaign staff have been vetted by the IRS to disclose his connection to the criminal money generating underworld. Besides, his connections to the REZCO MAFIA types, his up-coming tax fraud charges — Obama needs to disclose why he is a MUSLIM “PATWANG-FWEEE” and disclose Obama’s MUSLIM Farrakhan mob connection to Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ. Its minister, and Obama’s spiritual adviser, is the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. In 1982, the church launched Trumpet Newsmagazine; Wright’s daughters serve as publisher and executive editor. Every year, the magazine makes awards in various categories. Last year, it gave the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award to a man it said “truly epitomized greatness.” That man is Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan and Chicago’s Trinity United Church are trumpeting Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama as the second coming of the messiah. Obama should stop suppoting our intervention in IRAQ. It’s time to introduce this false, fake Xerox – X box Obama and invite the self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke “GLORK” Xerox – X box to meet the Buffalo “GAZOWNT-GAZIKKA” Police Department Buffalo Creek. He is MAD!!! —
OBAM YOU’RE NO JFK —
“GLORK” Obama looks like Alfred E. Newman: “Tales Calculated To Drive You.” He is a MUSLIM “Glork” He’s MAD!!! Alfred E. Neuman is the fictional mascot of Mad. The face had drifted through American pictography for decades before being claimed by Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman after he spotted it on the bulletin board in the office of Ballantine Books editor Bernard Shir-Cliff, later a contributor to various magazines created by Kurtzman.
Obama needs to disclose why he is a MUSLIM “PATWANG-FWEEE” and stop suppoting our intervention in IRAQ. It’s time to introduce this false, fake “GLORK” Xerox – X box Obama and invite the self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke Xerox – X box to meet the Buffalo “GAZOWNT-GAZIKKA” Police Department Buffalo Creek.
Michelle Obama should be ashamed.
“GLORK” Michelle Obama should be ashamed of her separatist-racist connection to Farrakhan and Chicago’s Trinity United Church trumpeting Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama as the second coming of the messiah. Beneath that Darth-Vader-Mace-Windu-Jedi-Me ssiah Helmet hairdo of Michelle Obama lurks a Wildabeast. If Michelle Obama new what her husband — the Hope-A-Dope, Fonster Monster — Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama did in Harlem, she would wash her wide-open, Hus-suey loving MUSILM mouth out, with twenty-four (24) mule-team double-cross X-boX-BorraX. The Lexis Nexis Albatross Abacus Complex of Obama and Michelle’s relationship with MUSLIM “PATWANG-FWEEE” Rev. Wright, Louis Farrakhan, and black demagoguery is about as much of a Hoax as Oxfam volunteers believe in HIV– AIDS witch doctors in Africa they feed. If Barack Obama had married Shaniqua instead of Michelle, his jackenapes collegial elitism attraction would be taken a lot more seriously. Expectations are that Obama will manage his explosive MUSLIM JIHADI — FATIMA EXTREMISM obsession bitter. He is a MUSLIM “Glork” It’s time to introduce this false, fake “GLORK” Xerox – X box Obama and invite the self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke Xerox – X box to meet the Buffalo “GAZOWNT-GAZIKKA” Police Department Buffalo Creek. He’s MAD!!!
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/
THE SPEECH —
The Apologia has arrived and once again the self-indicting, separatist-racist Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama, promises to heal the wounds of the world. The speech is the rude awakening of mass messianism of his campaign. Apologetically, Obama the MUSLIM double-cross X-boX-BorraX has an astonishingly empty two-prawn echelon explanation of his misjudgment.
In the first prawn: with regard to his connection to separatist-racist Rev. Wright; Obama summons voodoo and juju to express slavery as beginning and ending with the Rev. Wright.
In the second prawn: Obama’s speech takes credit for Ashley’s dream. A dream of unity Martin Luther King, Jr. borrowed from Ashley for his historic “I Have A Dream” speech. In Obama’s speech, the connective bond Ashley, the elderly black man and Obama’s grandmother share; represents Obama’s self-indicting rise to the Harvard Yard. For Obama, the grand flag of language is the semi-fore of words, bestowed upon our nation by the messiah-alumni from Harvard. Obama’s Swoon-Song Apologia to the nation represents a failed hymn — a hymn that fails to heal the nation, repair the world, or make this time different than all the rest. Obama’s speech is a brilliant failure.
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/
MUSLIM LIES —
The ILLIGITIAMTE MUSLIM MESSIA has blundered yet again!!! The self-indicting, separatist-racist Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama, lied about the politics of his campaign. The danger involved with this self-aggrandizing, -a-hoop, Hope-A-Dope, Fonster Monster — Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama is that — “Like Father Like Son” Obama is constantly wanting to impress America with “…his incapacity for sound judgment.” In 2005, Sen. Obama voted for the Dick Cheney energy bill, which Cheney wrote in secret with the oil industry. Hillary Clinton opposed Cheney’s energy bill, has a plan to eliminate oil industry tax breaks, and would require oil companies to contribute to a $50 billion strategic energy fund to jump-start research and investment in clean energy technologies. On top of the horrible crime Obama executed in Harlem, the fact is, we have to hear it from Karl Rove about Obama’s latest Campaign Crisis: “GLORK” Top Ten Obama Lies:
1. Obam said his parents met at the Selma march — Reality: He was born 4 years before that.
2. Obam said he was a constitutional law professor — Reality: . . . Obama Made This False Claim In His 2004 Senate Race. “Several direct-mail pieces issued for Obama’s primary [Senate] campaign said he was a law professor at the University of Chicago. He is not. He is a senior lecturer (now on leave) at the school..
3. Obam said he spoke fluent Indonesian as a child — Reality: . . . Obama has claimed on numerous occasions to have become fluent in Indonesian in six months. Yet another Phi Beta Krakatau lie from Obama. Those who knew him disputed that during recent interviews. Israel la Pareira Darmawan, Obama’s 1st-grade teacher, said she attempted to help him learn the Indonesian language by going over pronunciation and vowel sounds. Truth-be-told: Obama’s Indonesian teachers say Kaku-Pooh.
4. Obam said he was involved in community asbestos and housing project for the poor — Reality: Didn’t happen. This was the basis for Barack and Michelle’s claim, that he was a community activist on the South and East Side of Chicago. Usher United Arab Emirates (UAE) A+ lie both he and his twenty-four (24) mule-team, Hus-suey loving wife Michelle Obama have been claiming in the campaign — Reality: The Chicago Newspaper’s Obelus — Kiss-A-Cuss:…NO-MAMA.
5. Obam said in his book that he received his racial awakening at age nine reading a Life/Ebony Magazine story about a black man who was scarred trying to dye his skin white — Reality: Didn’t happen. Both Magazines (Life and Ebony), and the Rev. Wright and Farrakhan MUSLIM Trumpet Newsmagazine say, just didn’t happen.
6. Obam’s Campaign Didn’t Have The “Technical Capacity” To Produce The “1984” Ad:
Obama: “But it’s not something that we had anything to do with or were aware of and that frankly, given what it looks like, we don’t have the technical capacity to create something like that.” (CNN’s “Larry King Live,” 3/24/07) — Reality:…The Creator Admitted All It Took Was A “Sunday Afternoon” On His Mac. Phillip de Vellis: “I made the ad on a Sunday afternoon in my apartment using my personal equipment (a Mac and some software), uploaded it to YouTube, and sent links around to blogs.”
7. Obam’s Campaign Claimed His High School Friend Tried To Extort Money From Them:
“According To The Obama Campaign, [Obama’s Punahou Classmate Keith] Kakugawa Explicitly Raised The Possibility That He Could Make Up False Stories About Obama, Implying He Would Do So If The Campaign Did Not Give Him Money.” (Maurice Possley, Kirsten Scharnberg and Ray Gibson, — Reality: “…An Old Friend’s Troublesome Return,” Chicago Tribune, 3/25/07).
8. Obam voted to bring low-cost foreign labor into New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina — Reality:…This was a slap in the face against the African-Americans who were displaced in that city. Obama also voted to place Michael Chertoff, the man responsible for the Katrina catastrophe, in charge of Homeland Security. Obama voted for Senate-Bills that gave Blackwater the funding they needed to shoot the folks of New Orleans who were only trying to save their own lives. The towel head voted to allow Michael Chertoff to waive all applicable laws, including murder, torture, kidnaping, and he suppoted water-boarding.
9. Obam voted more than five times for USA-PATRIOT ACT renewal — Reality:…This is a Senate-Bill patently offensive to most Americans. City after city has passed resolutions condemning USA-PATRIOT ACT. Obama chose to side with tyranny over freedom and Bush over the folks on this issue. The Real ID Act, which would allow Michael Chertoff to declare martial law and imprison Americans, was supported by Obama, as noted above.
10. Obam is not a MAD MAN. Senator Obama Is not involved along with Antoin “Tony” Rezco, long time friend and neighbor, now-indicted businessman (TONY REZKO), or Tony Rezko and a onetime Chicago cop, Daniel T. Frawley. Senator Obama is not involved in any nuclear security, bribery, money payoffs, or cronyism in the state of Illinois; or criminal activities related to the BIG HALIBURTAN and V.P. Cheney’s Halliburton bribery case; or any political misjudgment in his escalating campaign crisis. “GLORK” Senator Obama is not a self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke Xerox – X box. Obama executed no crime in Harlem. Obama is Not America’s Poison — Reality:…He’s Radio-Active.
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/
SOULJAH JIHAD — OBAMA CAMPAIGN CRISIS
The Republicans’ disengagement (media bias), if not disillusionment, with the economic campaign issues is borne out by the fact that many more Republicans are able to explain, extinguish, and excoriate the name Barrack Obama with the term (JIHAD), than can name Bush/Dick Cheney and McCain — as the Big Oil — BIG HALLIBURTAN politicians expanding GOP IRAQ WAR ideology, and Republican White House Party Elders’ GI Bill of Rights for the 21st century IRAQ WAR ECONOMY. Even among Republicans, Clinton is much more visible than GOP presumptive candidate John McCain towards affecting positively the important economic issues facing America’s middle class economy.
When asked who they would vote for in the general election for president of the United States, the natural pendulum swing in America is 79% of Republicans named Hillary Clinton as their choice. Reasons for Obama’s Campaign Crisis “GLORK” Campaign Crisis include:
“Obama has more holes in him than Swiss-Cheese.” (CNN’s “Politics.com,” 4/01/08)
Obama’s presidential campaign has received $2,812,336 from firms that employ registered federal lobbyists. [fec.gov]
Obama has taken $405,747 from the Pharmaceutical industry. [opensecrets.org]
Obama has received $1,185,937 from the Commercial Banking industry. [opensecrets.org]
Obama has received over six million dollars from the Securities & Investment industry. [opensecrets.org]
Obama has taken $608,822 from the Insurance industry. [opensecrets.org]
Obam has taken $168,584 from the Mortgage Banking industry. [opensecrets.org]
“GLORK” SOULJAH JIHAD — CAMPAIGN CRISIS
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3369102968312745410&q=Fitna&total=1413&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=5
WASHINGTON — Obama’s support among Democrats nationally has softened.
“GLORK” Sen. Barack Obama’s support among Democrats nationally has softened over the last month, particularly among men and upper-income voters, as voters have taken a slightly less positive view of him than they did after his burst of victories in February, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
The survey suggests that Mr. Obama, Democrat of Illinois, may have been at something of a peak in February, propelled by a string of primary and caucus victories over Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, and that perceptions of him are dramatically trending downward.
Mr. Obama’s favorability rating among Democratic primary voters has dropped seventeen percentage points, to 42 percent, since the last Times/CBS News survey, in late February. While that figure is steadily declining, this dramatic decline came in a month during which he endured withering attacks from Mrs. Clinton and responded to reports that his former pastor had made politically inflammatory statements from his church’s pulpit in Chicago, and swirling questions about what Barack Obama did in Harlem.
The events of the last month appear to have fundamentally altered the race for the party’s nomination and provided what Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has been seeking: evidence of a collapse in Mr. Obama’s standing or an overwhelming preference voiced for Mrs. Clinton by Democratic and Republican voters in polls: — developments in Obama’s ongoing Campaign Crisis, that could be used to persuade uncommitted super-delegates to sign on with Hillary Clinton.
Twenty-six percent of the general electorate voters who heard of the Apologia speech that Mr. Obama the self-indicting, separatist-racist Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama gave to try to deal with the controversy over Obama’s separatist-racist connection to Farrakhan and Chicago’s Trinity United Church trumpeting Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama as the second coming of the messiah, said it made them dislike him. And 74 percent of Democrats and Republicans said Mr. Obama’s Campaign Crisis “GLORK” Campaign Crisis stems from the fact that he shows continued misjudgment for even the most challenging problems. Mr. Obama lacks the decisive capability to lead, willingness to listen, conviction and courage. Mr. Obama uses false charges and exaggerated claims to play politics with national security. Mr. Obama lied about the politics of his campaign, and knew about Rev. Wright’s MUSLIM Farrakhan – JIHADI — FATIMA EXTREMIST mob connection to Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ.
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/
Fact Check: Sen. Obama on Lobbyists —
“When it comes to lobbyists, Senator Obama’s words might sound nice but voters need to make sure they read the fine print. Despite trying to give the impression that he has no relationship with lobbyists or special interests, the reality is that Senator Obama takes money from people who hire lobbyists, partners of lobbyists, spouses of lobbyists, former lobbyists and state lobbyists.” –Statement from Clinton Deputy Communications Director, Phil Singer
Sen. Obama Has Ties to Lobbyists in His Presidential Bid
Public Citizen: 10 of Sen. Obama’s bundlers have been federal lobbyists. The Public Citizen report listed the following ten bundlers for Sen. Obama who have registered as federal lobbyists: Frank Clark, Commonwealth Edison; Scott Harris, Harris Wiltshire and Grannis; Allan J. Katz, Akerman Senterfitt; Robert S. Litt, Arnold & Porter; Thomas J. Perrelli, Jenner and Block; Thomas A. Reed, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP; Paul N. Roth, Schulte Roth & Zabel; Miriam Sapiro, Summit Strategies; Alan Solomont, Solomont Bailis Ventures; and Tom E. Wheeler, Core Capital Partners. [Public Citizen, 1/29/08]
Sen. Obama takes money from employees of firms that lobby and has lobbyists as advisers. “But those who lobby for a living say it’s not that simple, and even Obama’s stance shows some flexibility. He won’t take money from federal lobbyists but accepts money from employees of firms and corporations that lobby, and he uses lobbyists and other government relations professionals as advisers… Obama has also used major fundraisers who are registered lobbyists on the state level. And he uses registered federal lobbyists such as Broderick Johnson, who lobbies for AT&T and Shell Oil, among others, as a campaign adviser. Because Johnson isn’t giving money to Obama, his name won’t show up in Federal Election Commission records.” [Chicago Tribune, 2/10/08]
Bloomberg: Five of [Obama’s] ten biggest sources of funds are groups of employees at law firms that lobby in Washington. “While Obama doesn’t accept money from registered federal lobbyists, five of his 10 biggest sources of funds are groups of employees at law firms that lobby in Washington…Among Obama’s top donors were employees of the Chicago-based law firm of Sidley Austin LLP, who gave $105,750 in the first quarter. The firm was paid $4.5 million last year” for lobbying the federal government. [Bloomberg, 6/7/07]
Obama’s presidential campaign has received $2,812,336 from firms that employ registered federal lobbyists. [fec.gov]
Obama has taken $405,747 from the Pharmaceutical industry. [opensecrets.org]
Obama has received $1,185,937 from the Commercial Banking industry. [opensecrets.org]
Obama has received over six million dollars from the Securities & Investment industry. [opensecrets.org]
Obama has taken $608,822 from the Insurance industry. [opensecrets.org]
Obama has taken $168,584 from the Mortgage Banking industry. [opensecrets.org]
Prior to His Presidential Campaign, Sen. Obama took Money from Lobbyists and PACs
1996-2004: $296,000 of the $461,000 Sen. Obama raised as a state senator came from PACs, corporate contributions or unions. “But behind Obama’s campaign rhetoric about taking on special interests lies a more complicated truth. A Globe review of Obama’s campaign finance records shows that he collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from lobbyists and PACs as a state legislator in Illinois, a US senator, and a presidential aspirant. In Obama’s eight years in the Illinois Senate, from 1996 to 2004, almost two-thirds of the money he raised for his campaigns — $296,000 of $461,000 — came from PACs, corporate contributions, or unions, according to Illinois Board of Elections records. He tapped financial services firms, real estate developers, healthcare providers, oil companies, and many other corporate interests, the records show.” [Boston Globe, 8/9/07]
In his 2004 U.S. Senate race, Sen. Obama raised $128,000 from lobbyists and $1.3 million from PACs. “Obama’s US Senate campaign committee, starting with his successful run in 2004, has collected $128,000 from lobbyists and $1.3 million from PACs, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit organization that tracks money in politics. His $1.3 million from PACs represents 8 percent of what he has raised overall.” [Boston Globe, 8/9/07]
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/