Posted by
JCE
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Recently, Barack Obama gave a speech in Pennsylvania, which has received national attention for his choice of words to the voters. Here is copy of the text from the Huffington Post (emphasis added):
OBAMA: So, it depends on where you are, but I think it's fair to say that the places where we are going to have to do the most work are the places where people feel most cynical about government. The people are mis-appre...I think they're misunderstanding why the demographics in our, in this contest have broken out as they are. Because everybody just ascribes it to 'white working-class don't wanna work -- don't wanna vote for the black guy.' That's...there were intimations of that in an article in the Sunday New York Times today - kind of implies that it's sort of a race thing.
Here's how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long, and they feel so betrayed by government, and when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn't buy it. And when it's delivered by -- it's true that when it's delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama (laughter), then that adds another layer of skepticism (laughter).
But -- so the questions you're most likely to get about me, 'Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What's the concrete thing?' What they wanna hear is -- so, we'll give you talking points about what we're proposing -- close tax loopholes, roll back, you know, the tax cuts for the top 1 percent. Obama's gonna give tax breaks to middle-class folks and we're gonna provide health care for every American. So we'll go down a series of talking points.
But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of 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.
Um, now these are in some communities, you know. I think what you'll find is, is that people of every background -- there are gonna be a mix of people, you can go in the toughest neighborhoods, you know working-class lunch-pail folks, you'll find Obama enthusiasts. And you can go into places where you think I'd be very strong and people will just be skeptical. The important thing is that you show up and you're doing what you're doing.
This speech is not terribly significant, it isn't the best example of his speeches, it isn't a complete picture of his campaign platform and yet, the Clinton camp has chosen to jump on it and use it against him.
Mrs. Clinton has exhibited over and over again a willingness to sink to new depths in terms of campaign behavior. She isn't the first one to do this, but this tactic turns many people away from a candidate and has lost more than one political race. I, for one, would like to hear what she has to say in comparison to Mr. Obama. I would like to hear where she stands on issues and what her plan is to lead this country. I do not want to hear her take a bit from a speech Obama made and make more of it than necessary. In doing so, she gives more credence to his words than he ever intended.
The thing is, Barack has said several things I vehemently disagree with, most notably his penchant for blathering on about his faith. (In fact, the candidates - all of them - chose to forgo an opportunity to debate about science in order to debate about faith. WTF? Are these politicians or priests?) He has also been a moving force behind the Global Poverty Tax Bill. So, here we are - the dollar is bottoming out, our economy is going straight down the crapper and he wants a special tax to help impoverished countries. (Ummm...who do you think is going to help us when we are impoverished? Yeah. No one.)
Here is what she could have said: "I agree with Mr. Obama that middle-class Amercians are disgusted with their treatment by our current government. Mr. Obama made an excellent point regarding their frustration with the status quo. Change is needed and here is how I plan to change things if elected......"
But she didn't say that. Instead she chose to use this as an opportunity to degrade him. The problem with doing this is that it focuses attention on your opponent and since people, in general, do not like nasty insinuations they tend to look to the other person and evaluate their words for themselves. Very often they find that the person making the insinuations is making too much of it and will become sympathetic of the opponent.
So, Mrs. Clinton, with a few months left in the race, do you have anything to say that shows me you can stand up and think for yourself? That you are capable of understanding? That you actually have an original idea or thought? That you, like others before you, won't use fear and sensationalism to run your administration? Now is the time to prove yourself and while I was so hoping you would be the one to make a difference, based on your latest reaction to Mr. Obama's comment, I suspect you will bring more of the same to the White House and that is not acceptable to me.
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Back in 1992, a beautiful feral kitty came to live with me. She was terrified of everything and it took a year, working with her every night at least once an hour, for her to trust me enough to let me touch her without being bitten. It took another year to be able to pick her up without her going into a complete frenzy.
