At issue are comments he made privately at a fundraiser in San Francisco last Sunday. He was trying to explain his troubles winning over some working-class voters, saying they have become frustrated with economic conditions:Uh huh.
"It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Let me take just a second here to regain my composure so that I can respond with some rationality rather than just go the rather un-Christian route and flip this jackass (and I say that only because that's the mascot of the party he represents) the bird and be done with it.
...
Okay. I think I'm better now.
We cling to guns, Mr. Obama, because it's our Constitutional right to do so. If you hope to become President, the Constitution is something you might want to familiarize yourself with.
We cling to religion because we understand that only though a personal relationship with the living God and by His divine providence can we ever have hope to become more than what we are and everything that we're meant to be.
Religion is not a function of bitterness, it's a function of hope. And I find it to be truly ironic that the man who claims to be a man of religion, who has gone to great lengths to be the candidate of 'Hope!' doesn't understand that.
Unlike his whackjob pastor(s), Jeremiah Wright and James Meeks, we don't hold antipathy to people who aren't like us. And, all of us 'typical white people' are getting a little tired of being lectured to about race by a guy whose 'spiritual mentors' are on the front lines of race-baiting and bigotry.
We're not 'anti-immigrant'. Heck, we're all immigrants ourselves somewhere way back up that family tree. We're anti-ILLEGAL immigration because we're FOR the rule of law and national security -- we've got nothing against the immigrants themselves but for the fact that they've violated our laws and our borders and are here taking jobs and money while siphoning off benefits (like healthcare, education, etc.) that they're not supporting with tax dollars.
And, we're not anti-trade -- though, I seem to recall Obama himself being 'anti-trade' when it suited his political purposes in Ohio.
Obama tried to quell any political fallout by digging a deeper hole.
"[There's been a] 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 ..."Now, of course, Hillary Clinton responded.
And she responded well, first by passing out 'We're not bitter' bumperstickers in various states and then, by making pointed (and correct) statements about just how out-of-touch with reality Obama has to be in order to make those kinds of statements.
"The people of faith I know don't 'cling' to religion because they're bitter. People embrace faith not because they are materially poor, but because they are spiritually rich.She goes on to say:
"I also disagree with Senator Obama's assertion that people in this country 'cling to guns' and have certain attitudes about immigration or trade simply out of frustration.
"People don't need a president who looks down on them. They need a president who stands up for them."
"I think his comments were elitist and divisive and the Democratic Party has been unfortunately, viewed by many people over the last decades as being elitist and out of touch. I mean, we have waged elections over that. You don't have to think back too far to remember that good men running for president were viewed as being elitist and out of touch with the values and the lives of millions of Americans. So I think this is a very significant concern that people have expressed."Now, admittedly, there aren't many things that I'll ever agree with Mrs. Clinton on. But, on this point, she is 100% correct (and, usually, she's right there with him as one of the elitist, out-of-touch patronizers).
Barack retorted:
"The Scripture talks about clinging to what's good. This is something that I've talked about before, something I've talked about in my own life, which is that religion is a bulwark, a foundation when other things are not going well."I'll admit, I'm confused.
So, Barack is now stating that he himself clings to his religion. Does that mean that he's a bitter, anti-Immigration, anti-trade racist?
After all, he is the candidate that told us 'words mean things'. Thus, when he says things and then, in trying to save his campaign from an idiotic statement that reveals who he really is, his backpedalling should mean something, too, shouldn't it?
Either way, the damage may already be done.
The Washington Times writes:
The San Francisco slip not only hurt Mr. Obama in Pennsylvania but possibly revealed a fatal campaign flaw, said political science professor G. Terry Madonna of Franklin and Marshall College and pollster Michael Young.Long story short: Barack Obama went to a bunch of rich, snobby, elitist San Francisco liberals and called middle-America a bunch of racist, gun-totin', Bible-thumpin', embittered hicks.
"Some will believe Obama's remarks raise serious questions about his authenticity," they wrote Sunday in their bimonthly Politically Uncorrected column.
"[The remarks] call into question whether his appeals to working-class voters have been mere contrivances, mere vote-getting activities. And even more profoundly Obama's remarks reinforce the belief of those who say there is much more to know about the senator's real values and real attitudes. Some will say Obama has become a candidate with feet of clay."
And then, to defend his comments and display how 'in touch' he thinks they actually were (and, you know, that we're not just taking him out of context), he turns around and explains that religion is only for when things aren't going well and, therefore, when he gets elected, he is going to make our lives better by making government bigger so that we won't have to rely on our 'typical' racist, gun-totin', Bible-thumpin' instincts ... ?
Thanks, but no thanks, Barack. I've already got a Messiah and He's not particularly interested in abdicating His throne to you.
