● Obama Gets Honest About Small Town America's Decay, Elitists Lash out. When Barack Obama tells the truth about conditions as we know them Hillary takes the low road.
● Remember when CNN relentlessly showed the Rev Wright clip, you all know the one, ad infinitum, like there was nothing else happening in the entire world? It was aired minute after minute, hour after hour, week in and week out. "Enough already" shouted a weary nation.
Now they've got hold of, and seem to be twisting, a comment made by Barack Obama several days ago, which surfaced out of the mire today on the Huff Post. CNN is referring to his remark as "Obama's Small Town Slam" and a couple of CNN contributors (read: gasbags) are interpreting the Senator's remarks, or at least the excerpts of his remarks that CNN is reporting on, as the end of Obama in Pennsylvania.
Transcript of Obama’s Remarks at San Francisco Fundraiser Sunday; 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 are most cynical about government. The people are mis-appre…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. They feel so betrayed by government that 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, then that adds another layer of skepticism.
But — so the questions you’re most likely to get about me, ‘Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What is the concrete thing?’ What they wanna hear is so we’ll give you talking points about what we’re proposing — to close tax loopholes, uh you know uh roll back the tax cuts for the top 1%, Obama’s gonna give tax breaks to uh middle-class folks and we’re gonna provide healthcare for every American.
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. 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.
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.
● Politico's Martin asserted as "fact" that Gore and Kerry "were elitists and were out of touch with average Americans"
Summary: The Politico's Jonathan Martin asserted as "fact" that Al Gore and John Kerry "were elitists and were out of touch with average Americans." But to the extent the public perceived them in that manner, the media played a dominant role in creating and promoting that perception while largely avoiding discussion of whether President Bush was an "elitist."Death"
● The Media's "Haircut Siren Song" about Edwards: The media and rightwingers play a big part in portraying Democrats as "Elitists": "It is some kind of commentary on the state of American politics that as Edwards has campaigned for president, vice president and now president again, his hair seems to have attracted as much attention as, say, his position on health care."
● Several news reports this week about Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards illustrate the flawed ways in which media too often treat the champions of progressive economic policies; among them:
Media often give short shrift to the actual substance of progressive proposals, focusing instead on their cost.
Media portray wealthy candidates who advocate progressive economic proposals as out-of-touch hypocrites. Bizarrely, wealthy candidates who advocate conservative economic policies that would actually enrich themselves often escape similar scrutiny of their personal finances.
● Republicans claim Al Gore said he invented the Internet? Well, who cares if it's a lie? It's "out there," so reporters have no choice but to repeat it and repeat it until it becomes the essence of the public's view of the man, a vivid distillation of what all reporters dislike about him. Republicans say John Kerry "looks French"? Ha ha, what a witty barb! We'll make sure to mention it in story after story. John Edwards got an expensive haircut?
● From "Eloise at the Plaza" to Obama at the madrassa
● Yes, the fixers at the Post, Times and Globe struggled to avoid saying “hometown” that day. But the Washington Times clowned most heroically. “Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, bask in support yesterday in his adopted hometown,” the caption on the paper’s photo said. Serious, large-scale assaults on Gore’s character were being invented all over the press. But even down to this small level, the Village’s fixers were working hard to get their ideas in your heads. Below, you’ll see them doing the very same thing with John Edwards—in this morning’s Post.
● SPINNING KERRY (PART 2)! Gail Collins, it’s 11 o’clock. Do you know where your newspaper’s written?
● Nevermind: Bill Clinton Flashback "All These Economically Insecure White People...Are Scared To Death"
● Clinton Firm's Deal Left Pennsylvania Churches in Shambles. Questions arise about a scheme-gone-bad involving buying Catholic churches struggling in the wake of sex-abuse scandals for redevelopment.
● Does the Conservative Movement's Crack-Up Spell Doom for McCain? The conservative noise machine is coming around to support him -- if it can keep its stories straight.
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Other News:
● HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson is resigning this week amidst scandals; while ignoring housing crisis, solicited ‘emergency bid’ for oil portrait of himself.
● This morning on ABC’s This Week, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley repeatedly confused Tibet and Nepal while discussing President Bush’s decision to attend the Olympics. At least 8 different times, Hadley said “Nepal” when talking about the human rights abuses that have taken place in Tibet.
● Petraeus and Crocker Testimony Off the Radar of Most in Baghdad. “I don’t even know who Petraeus and Crocker are,” said 31-year old shop owner Yasser Kadhoum al-Khafaji. “I think these sorts of things are more important for Americans than they are for Iraqis.” Most Iraqis interviewed “were more concerned about a day-long curfew” that shut down much of Baghdad. Among other grievances cited: “blocked sewage drains, militias attacking residents in the street, a dysfunctional government and frequent electricity outages.”
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Let's revisit how the so-called "liberal media" treats Democrats vs. Republicans, in particular how so-called "liberal" Hardball's Chris Matthew treats Rudy Giuliani vs. Al Gore:
(video mashup by the king o' mashed potato's Alan Breslauer's HotPotatoMash )
