Obama Expands on 'Bitter' Pennsylvanians Comment
By Shailagh Murray
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- Sen. Barack Obama didn't back down from "Bittergate." At a town hall meeting here tonight, he repeated the offending word three times.
The tough times of small-town America have been a running theme throughout his campaign, and Obama seemed genuinely alarmed that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain had both seized on a comment he made Sunday to a group of San Francisco donors. Asked why he was lagging behind Clinton in Pennsylvania, the Illinois senator launched into a lengthy discourse on empty promises and political disenfranchisement. Although no reporters were present, his comments were taped and posted today on the Huffington Post, a liberal online media company.
"Our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives," Obama told the group. "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. And 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."
Obama has pursued related themes in a variety of different public forums, including embedded in a speech on race relations that he delivered last month in Philadelphia. He often reminds crowds in his stump speech that he started out as a community organizer, helping Chicago residents to recover when a local steel plant closed. And his pledge to crack down on special interests is part of his pitch to bolster the little guy. "You don't have a lobbyist," he told the Terre Haute crowd.
Then Obama turned to the San Francisco imbroglio, quoting more or less directly and even expanding on his original remarks.
"That's what people understand about politics these days: the game is fixed. It's not working for ordinary Americans. When I go around and talk to people, there is frustration, and there is anger, and there is bitterness. And what's worse is when people are expressing their anger, and politicians try to say, what are you angry about?"
When a donor asked him why he was having trouble converting voters in Pennsylvania, Obama said he responded, "Well look, they're frustrated. And for good reason. Because for the last 25 years, they've seen jobs shipped overseas. They've seen their economies collapse. They have lost their jobs, they have lost their pensions, they have lost their health care. And for 25, 30 years, Democrats and Republicans have come before them and said, we're going to make your community better. We're going to make it right. And nothing ever happens.
"And of course they're bitter. Of course they're frustrated. You would be too -- in fact many of you are. Because the same thing has happened here in Indiana, the same thing has happened across the boarder in Decatur, the same thing has happened all across the country. Nobody is looking out for you. Nobody is thinking about you."
He even hit the same social hot-buttons that Clinton and McCain pointed to, as evidence of Obama's elitism. "And so people don't vote on economic issues, because they don't expect anybody's going to help them. People are voting on issues like guns, are they going to have the right to bear arms. They vote on issues like gay marriage. They take refuge in their faith and their community and their families and the things they can count on. But they don't believe they can count on Washington."
And he returned fire on both his critics. "Here's what's rich. Sen. Clinton says, I don't think people are bitter in Pennsylvania. I think Barack's being condescending. John McCain says, he's obviously out of touch with people. Out of touch? John McCain, it took him three tries to figure out the home foreclosure crisis was a problem and to come up with a plan for it, and he's saying I'm out of touch? Sen. Clinton voted for a credit card sponsored bankruptcy bill that made it harder for people to get out of debt, after taking money from the financial services companies, and she says I'm out of touch?:
The crowd listened silently when Obama started his explanation, but now people were on their feet, stomping and clapping.
"No, I'm in touch. I know exactly what's going on. I know what's going on in Pennsylvania, I know what's going in Indiana, I know what's going in Illinois. People are fed up. They're angry and they're frustrated and they're bitter, and they want to see a change in Washington, and that's why I'm running for president of the United States of America."
The Clinton campaign jumped on Obama's explanation, blast e-mailing it out to reporters.
"Instead of apologizing for offending small town America, Senator Obama chose to repeat and embrace the comments he made earlier this week," said Clinton spokesman Phil Singer. "It's unfortunate that Senator Obama didn't say he was sorry for what he said. Americans are tired of a President who looks down on them -- they want a President who will stand up for them for a change. The Americans who live in small towns are optimistic, hardworking and resilient. They deserve a president who will respect them."
No comments:
Post a Comment