CNN Thinks Obama's Words Are More Important Than Bush's Torturing
By Nicole Belle Friday Apr 11, 2008 8:40pm
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Download | play (h/t Heather)
Maybe because I'm a "San Francisco elite," when I heard what Barack Obama said at a Marin County fundraiser about the difficulties inherent in reaching out to small town voters, I said, "And...?" Obviously, context is everything, and perhaps it was not as artfully phrased as it might have been. Are voters so fragile that having someone point out that there is antipathy and bitterness in many economically impoverished areas that makes it hard to connect to voters and encourage them to vote for you is somehow an elitist attitude? Are we so immature that we need candidates to pat us on our heads and say, "It's okay, little voter, there, there...don't let me bother your pretty little head with reality"? Really, which is more condescending?
But you wouldn't have known that by CNN's coverage on Lou Dobbs Tonight. Guest host Kitty Pilgrim spent the whole hour talking about how this could potentially devastate Obama's campaign, bringing on concerned analysts and reporters alike to discuss how this shows Obama's elitist attitude (my God, he declined a cup of coffee for a glass of orange juice...and he can't bowl! That snob!). And while they acknowledged Obama's response, they saw fit to focus on Clinton and McCain's pouncing on this opportunity to go after Obama. At first, I was incredulous over the whole thing and figured that the media just needed something to talk about. But then I looked at the calendar.
Friday afternoon data dump. What came out of the White House this Friday? Bush sanctioned torture.
That's right. While Kitty Pilgrim clutched her pearls for a full hour at the thought of poor voters in rural Pennsylvania being thought of as being bitter and distrustful of others because of their disaffection, she (and all the other talking heads and news shows) IGNORED the fact that our president has admitted that he committed a war crime. A crime for which other heads of state have found themselves in front of a war crimes tribunal in The Hague, but merited not even a yawn out of our media. Read what is less important to CNN than Barack Obama's characterization (NSFW).
Talk about disaffection. At this point, I am of the belief that we need to put the heads of these media companies on trial as well for their complicity. Take the AOL Hot Seat below the fold:
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Oh yeah, "Kitty Pilgrim" and her pearls are a voice of the Yuengling drinking working class PA folks indeed!
Senator Obama spoke the truth and the truth hurts to those who have been dancing around it. Come here to Southeastern Michigan - 'bitter' is not a bad word, it is a reality.
People need inspiration and new ideas - to keep promising them jobs and other benefits that are never going to return in the same force is the lie, not Obama's stating it like it is. Heck, even McCain said that when he was here for the primary (and Romney clobbered him by promising a return to the la-la land, by the way). Let's talk about retraining, regrouping and moving forward instead.
Infrastructure, environment, superior healthcare - all of these can put countless people back to work if they are shown the way and the incentives are properly in place.
So tired of the feeding of illusions here in Motown (slowtown, for now) and elsewhere. We need progressive solutions.
Of course CNN sux. Why would anyone listen to them or take seriously anything they say.
Unless you just don't know any better. So here it is folks.
Don't listen to the TV. Not now not ever. Got it?
Somewhere, Jack Cafferty is getting hammered.
Spin in it anyway you want but disrespecting voters to a crowd of large donors in San Francisco is a huge mistake.
It changed the game.
"Axelrod: Obama Regrets But Won't Apologize For His Remarks."
Another huge mistake and this story will continue. Probably why they were screaming for Clinton drop out, voters seeing the real Obama.
It will be Obama that drops out.
Torturegate is just starting and it will get media attention with hearings.
...and what kind of name is Kitty Pilgrim?
I read that as 'sexually non-threatening female, that came over on the Mayflower.'
Is she a daughter of the DAR?
A double D - AR.
And as far as the torture sanctioning and possible (and looking more likely by the minute) crimes by this administration go, yes, the MSM has caved, but the Dem-run Congress is the entity who must NOT.
Otherwise, there is no justice here. The average American just does not have the legal tools or wherewithal to make the deserved hay of this crucial issue.
She spent an hour on Friday on it too. What was interesting to me is they just had 3 talking heads on the situation room say it was not a big deal, and then she came on and said it was the worst thing ever to come out of a politicians mouth.
Why not started put up the producers of each show that put such crap on. They are the ones deciding to put such bs on everynight.
God save us all, we've done the very crimes we hanged the Nazis and Japanese for at Nuremberg and Tokyo. What's happened to America?
That's why I'm so completely disgusted with all the major news networks. They've developed quite a talent for focusing on the inane and sensational. They're not even worthy of calling themselves news networks. In fact, it's no longer even infotainment. It's just entertainment and trash. You'd think there wouldn't be anything more important than talking about why it's okay for the Bush administration to sanction torture and break the law.
Why do so many Americans find it difficult to deal with obvious truths. Why do they accept lies and incompetence but not accept that many Americans have every cause to be bitter.
Yes, I watched this with absolute fury. Could there be a bigger story that Bush sanctioned torture??? Oh, no....we have to instead twist the words of Obama and try to end his possible bid for the Presidency. This sickened me. I just want to throw my TV out the window.
The msm for the most part are owned by the same great companies that bring us war.... the president acts on behalf of these fat cats(the have mores) so of course they are staying away from news that implicates about a dozen 'principles' including dubya. Btw, most americans don't want to believe it but they will be charged for war crimes at the Hague, as one important criteria for prosecution is that they, by a bill or law, will not (can't) be charged in their own nation. I can't wait!
"getalife" - the 'disrespect' (and actual 'elitism', i might add) is not in telling voters like it is, but rather in telling them they are supposedly happy and hopeful, when that is clearly not the case, and they need new circumstances and approaches.
come to SE Michigan, i'll give you a tour of the shiny happy people!
c'mon - wake the f--- up and stop with these platitudes and catch phrases.
Why is it so difficult for Obama supporters to hear that perhaps he did something someone else didn't like? We constantly hear every faux pas of Hillary Clinton and her molehills are made into mountains. Is is so hard for some people to admit that perhaps all people are NOT perfect?
Miatch @ 6:
sounds like the marching orders are coming in loud and clear (through the ear piece)
Those Obama was talkling about (the economically disenfranchised that are manipulated into voting against their own best interest based upon wedge isssues (like religion in schools and gun control)) were going to vote for McCain anyway. Oh no Obama said something bad about being a gun-crazy christian!
I'm so sick of this shit I can't stand it anymore. Our country is falling apart and all these people (I'm trying real hard to be civil) can talk about is equivalent to talking about someone with a pimple on his ass? The corporate media feels cornered and damn it if they are not going out without a fight. What's going to happen after Obama wins this thing? Are these talking heads going to do a 360 and expect us to buy it? The fourth estate is dead, where in the hell do we go from here?
the munz @ 10:
yours is the clearest comment on here. right on. it's amazing that with all of the BS that Bush and cheney and their ilk have thrown at this county that the enabling MSM would focus on this. or maybe it's actually not so surprising. people are so complacent now about iraq and high gas prices, it's a wonder what will actually make the folks really get angry. what will, we should wonder? apparently nothing this adminstration does, or any republican politician, will ever enrage the 'bitter' voters to get active or interested to change things. informed voters such as those who read this site should be more plentiful for then we could enact change with no problem. blasted complicit press.
Hey C&Lers. My latest video chronicles the top 10 reasons that I'm supporting Barack Obama, in response to some troll's harrassment. I'd appreciate if you would take a look. Thanks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEFOJwiadmw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPJ_rWfOjj8
This the speech of Small town Blue Collar workering people! This is what Obama Meant to say in his speech. He was not talking about Bringing guns to church.
Obama said, "Cling to their Guns..."
Stick= Cling
stick to your guns (British, American & Australian, informal, American, informal)
to refuse to change your ideas although other people try to make you change them. David’s family were against him becoming an actor but he stuck to his guns. Stand by your guns and don’t let them talk you into working full time if you don’t want to.
See also: gun, stick
Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms © Cambridge University Press 1998
stick to your guns
to refuse to change your beliefs or actions. My parents want me to study accounting, but I’m sticking to my guns and majoring in philosophy.
Etymology: based on the military meaning of stick to your guns (= to continue shooting at an enemy although it puts you in great danger)
Blue Collar workers know just exactly what Obama meant in his speech; They live it every day.
“Workers won on this fight because they stuck to their guns.”
Snobs like Hillery Clinton and John McCain are idiots claiming to know how Blue Collar workers feel or talk; They don’t know shit from Shinola.
Not only are Blue Collar workers Bitter about Corporate America in Control of our government. They are also optimistic a change for the better will arrive soon. Most know they can’t get it from MORE OF THE SAME Clinton or McCain.
Chris Loss @ 11:
What can we do? We are slaves to our corporate overlords, there must be a revolution.
What I don't get is all the "conservatives" wishing we were back in 1950 with the Beaver and yet denying that very lifestyle by the refusal to get wages back on track so that mom can stay home and go slowly insane while dad does his 9 to 5, comes home and demands supper and sex. Yeah, those were the days.
Seriously, bitter and disenfranchised, poor, homeless, hopless is the lot of the U.S. wage earner and the sooner people start realizing this the better we can fight it. Nobody talks about thrift or saving for a better life 'cause people are living hand to mouth while slowly going deeper into debt. And there ain't no better life coming. It's all down hill from here.
This isn't the country I grew up in. Thank God my folks are dead and don't have to see this.
I feel shellshocked at how far we have sunk. And the young ones, the kids are told to get a college education. For what? Better to be a plumber than an over educated bum.
Rant over.
"Pay no attention to the chimp and the robot behind the screen..."
"Well, we started to connect the dots, in order to protect the American people." Bush told ABC New s White House correspondent Martha Raddatz. "And, yes, I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved."...
Bush said the ABC report about the Principals' involvement was not so "startling."
He is claiming self defense.
Connecting the dots would be interviewing the ACLU that produced the documents, the destroyed torture tape and see if there are more torture tapes, and getting the participants under oath to testify.
wijg @ 17:
No, they're not going to do a 360. They're going to attack Obama daily, death by a thousand cuts, to try to wreck his administration so that he has no chance for a second term. The Clintons will willingly help out. Or, impeachment will be in the air. I said "try" though because if Obama gets in, we are going to rally round him. The corporate media will become even more ignored than it is today, and I predict that once the Clintons no longer are a power in the Democratic Party, that's where you'll see the 360. Are you sure you don't mean a 180?
I grew up around rednecks and poor, uneducated whites. Many suffer from anti-intellectualism and dislike educated liberals for the following reason. A sizeable portion have the feeling that they aren't as smart or as 'good' as these people. They also suspect that these people feel the same way about them. They therefore attempt to revel in not being like this, pointing out its excesses and narcissisms, and putting a premium on 'common sense' (often illogical) and what others they respect have told them. It's pretty unfortunate.
For the life of me, I can't figure out what's wrong with saying that many Americans feel bitter. Hillary claimed that by saying that, Obama was talking down to them. Huh,how so?? I don't see the big deal. She's sounding more like a Republican every day, with the way she spins and distorts. You're damn straight I'm bitter, I'm really bitter about what the Rethugs have done to this country. I'm bitter about the fact that we have an administration that has engaged in all sorts of unethical and illegal behavior with impunity. I'm bitter that the MSM refuses to do it's job and defend this democracy. Seriously, why are they so afraid to confront this administration? What a bunch of greedy cowards. I'm truly beginning to wonder. Does Bush have the "goods" on everyone from all the illegal spying? Are they afraid of retribution? Are they afraid they'll be targeted for assassination, renditioned, or maybe tortured? It's sickening and astonishing. Why do the Democrats act so damn powerless? YOU BETTER BELIEVE I'M BITTER. WE AMERICANS HAVE PLENTY TO BE BITTER ABOUT. No offense, but go screw yourself Senator Clinton, and stop helping the enemy.
81
81% believe we are headed the wrong direction
28% Approve of the Decider
26% Approve of the Do nothing Congress and the divisivness of the lock step morons of the GOP
I would say there may be some pissed off people in PA just like this pissed off CA resident.
the munz @ 10:
Patriotic "we're number 1" mentality is the reason. Americans despise criticism of any kind that does not flatter and hold them in highest regards. Other nations do not as a rule have this problem, but Americans have a copyright on it. It's downright scary.
Fox news spent the whole f*%#ing day talking about this.
CNN just proved to me why they're worse than Fox News -- they're more subtle and manipulative, and put enough fluff in to run the most successful pillow factory in the world.
Some interpretation of Obama's words trumps confirmation of Bush's treason and war crimes. If we don't fix these problems, the rest of the world will fix them for us.
As a woman who lives in Pa. this is a load of crap. Yeah, I'm pretty bitter. But it is aimed at the true culprits. The MSM, Bush and his cronies and big business. Kitty, Kiss My Ass!
JoeMarasmus @ 19:
A great nutshell, Joe, especially the Obama resume parts. I wish you could link your videos every time someone accuses Obama of being an empty suit. Mondo important?
General_Rennenkampf @ 8:
A silent coup happened in the year 2000 because we never thought it could happen here. The question is ...what are we going to do about it? A good place to start would be by taking back control of the media. The internet is a great, but television is still the main source of information for most people. Not everybody has the time or inclination to read. We were all brought up believing that you could pretty much trust what you heard on the evening news. Times have changed and those days are gone. We need to take back the airwaves from the propagandists.
Pilgrim is not the only one who made more of this than is there today. Malveaux was all over this morning endlessly along with the geek following Hillary. Of course Hillary is using this like it was manna from heaven, proving to anyone who doesn't know it already what a real b***h she is. Obama is not saying anything that he has not been saying all throughout the campaign. But Hillary, thanks to the idiot Bill and his rantings bringing up her Bosnia bungle again, is desperate to change the subject and continue her attempt to destroy Obama by any means possible, even getting McCain elected so she can try again in 2012. She is so desperate that she is willing to do or say anything. Hopefully the people in the remaining primary states will see this for what it is, and soundly defeat this Republicrate.
I'm in rural PA and I"m pissed - I have been since 1994
Obama spoke the truth. Those who would like to take his words and perpetuate the small town stereotype, go ahead. This is one smalltowner who isn't taking the bait.
... sorry about the 'bait' comment - trout season opened today...
@27 "Seth", @28 "Spicegal" - read Thomas Frank's "What's the Matter With Kansas?" You'll find it elaborates on your thoughts quite well...
We already KNOW that Bush sanctioned torture. That is NOT news and we already know that the Dem leaders in congress refuse to put accountability on the table.
Mr. Obama made his remarks to a group of very wealthy people where the press was not allowed. His disconnect is the issue. Hillary gets it right on this one, and his own words will be part of the attacks he will face relentlessly if he is the nominee.
Note that his dig at the Clinton Administration as part of the problem has been scrubbed from his rebuttal.
Motown @ 38:
Thanks for the suggestion. I already have, probably stole some of my thoughts from him :)
This nation is soooooo screwed!
@37 Bud, about where in PA?
I want to know who the POOR BASTARD is who has to watch these ass hats on cable and post them here? I got rid of my cable TV 3 years ago and it was the best thing I ever did.
There is a very interesting discussion on this subject at http://www.skewz.com/link/link_details/5942
I've pasted some of the comment here:
Let’s go through a few points here:
1. The reaction to this whole affair proves the point…again. The “Obama is an elitist” mantra is predictable. Politicians are pulling together a few classic mantras: San Francisco, Elite, Liberal, Obama, Religion-Hating, Anti-Christian, Anti-Rural, Anti-Gun…etc. What do these mantras mean? They are essentially divisive politics. The reaction to Obama’s comments proves his very point, but our media is unable to parse the obvious. Obama’s points are that when people get frustrated they cling to things they can control and they are more susceptible to us-versus-them politics. The them in this case are “San Francisco elitist liberals.” Just as in other parts of the world the United States is pitched as the source of all a third-world country’s woes, in our own country the populations on the coasts are portrayed in the same way. Obama’s point was that unless you have some concrete benefits to communicate to people, these other forces become tempting…like they have for a very long time and in many places. Isn’t economic frustration one of the reasons we gave for why people turn to Islamic terrorism? Now, nothing like that level of emotional weirdness is going on in the heartland, but people look to find answers to their frustrations and they look for the easiest things to blame. That’s not rocket science. Obama was cautioning that the canvassers should be focused on delivering real messages that cut through this temptation. If you listen to the whole speech you can get this. Again, the reaction to his speech essentially makes this argument. The very people who are telling him he’s out of touch with rural PA are the ones that are essentially telling rural PA that they have nothing in common with San Francisco and that “those freaks” are the source of your problems. That’s the subtext. I think it’s fair to question whether people any where would understand how they are being pitted against one another by politicians. Obama’s point is that you guys are the beneficiaries of globalization (the SF freaks that is) and that they should give two sh!ts about what happens in rural PA.
2. The reaction to Obama’s speech on race proved his point in that case as well. “Bitter whites” on the right reacted the way he essentially predicted. “This guy is pandering and making things about race and wants a break for everything that has to do with race. He’s using race as an excuse for making crazy statements. He’s using living during segregation as an excuse for crazy talk.” That was the mantra. Now, if you listen to his speech he essentially says this is where a segment of the population (the one most offended by his speech) would come from. He predicted their reaction quite well. They on the other hand focused on the part of his speech that provided the hint of a “victim” mantra they were so desperately looking for. Ironically, they failed to look in the mirror when it came to him sizing them up pretty darn well.
Based on his statements, I think he understands America quite well.
Didn't Kitty Pilgrim date Rush Limbaugh for a while?
Keith O. needs a special comment Monday night about McCain and McHillary piling on Obama for telling the truth about the "Washington Bubble People" lying to the American worker for years.
Thinking Person @ 39:
Yes, the destroyed torture tape was very damning. The spineless dems want to investigate steroids but the ACLU put them in a position where they have to have hearings on this issue.
I think the American people are tired of people treating us like children at best and “boo-boo the fool” at worst. Barack knows that people who have lived with this administration can certainly handle the truth. He doesn’t want to be your typical authoritarian Republican daddy (or grandpa) or your typical condescending Democratic “nanny” (I am female, and they called John Kerry feminine too so don’t start) He wants to be a leader, and leaders understand that you need people following you who are excited, involved, willing to pitch in & self aware. He has jumped in front of that parade Thom Hartman often talks about.
I happened upon the Lou Dobbs show last night completely by accident. I was channel surfing and saw something like Obama’s small town swipe or something like that on the bottom of the screen and stopped to watch. The fill in lady was going after Barack and the opinion poll question they asked was about whether what he said showed he was elitist. If you ask me telling people that you know they are hurting when they are hurting and saying we will fix it together isn’t elitist, it’s compassionate and truthful. Being elitist is patting people on the head and saying it’s okay I’ll fix it for you don’t you worry, knowing full well that you have no skin in the game if you don’t create the movement needed to change this country because let’s face it you are a MULT- millionaire. By the way 54% of the people voted no it didn’t show him to be elitist, America isn’t stupid. What struck me most was when, some fool, who undoubtedly makes in the six figures at some think tank to have stupid ideas that he tries to make sound smart, said that Barack doesn’t understand the small town people who just want to hunt, go to church and go to work. I just yelled at the TV “that’s the point you idiot there ISN”T any WORK”! Thank you Barack for standing up WITH us when we need you most and please stay safe!
Obama's words are important because he is running for president and we want to know what he thinks and what he will do. His words were wrong. He insulted the working class and even worse, he stereotyped them. But don't worry, this story will be buried just like the story of Pastor Wright, the "typical white people" remark, etc. etc. because Obama can do no wrong...
{{{8 General_Rennenkampf Says}}}: God save us all, we’ve done the very crimes we hanged the Nazis and Japanese for at Nuremberg and Tokyo. What’s happened to America?
==================================
The General said it all. I have nothing further to add.
If you really want to feel disgust, read the autopsy report on the tortured Iraqi prisoner that is the last link in the main post. Link re-posted here:
"Died Hanging From Wrists And Gagged, With Over 25 Rib Fractures"
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/12/151937/351/893/494404
This is what comes of it. This is what comes of making everything about Bosnia and Reverend Wright and bowling scores and Randi Rhodes and Don Imus and BillO's stupidity and the latest phony-baloney "outrage" of the week.
Ahem.
200 people did in combat today. 200. Civilians, mostly. There are no ambulances in Sadr city. There are no medical supplies.
But, okay, yeah, lets talk about guns and Jesus because fuck, what difference does it make anymore?
I fully expected Kitty to flick a foot-long tongue at a passing fly at any given second.
I think Rush Limbaugh was dating Daryn Kagan...but who knows, he may have boffed all the CNN whores. Fox has blonde bimbos, CNN has brunette ones...otherwise, no difference. The Fox News Ken dolls are bit more plastic than the males at CNN....but they'll be soon to fall as well. You don't really see good reporters like Christiane Amanpour on CNN too often anymore.
The news will be eating their words in a week, Clinton and McCain are grabbing at straws and the media is looking for a story that isn't there to tell.
Damn it all. Truth does have a liberal bias and look at those heads exploding. Kewl. All they’ve done is drive another nail in their own coffins. Let them eat ink.
27 seth Says: I grew up around rednecks and poor, uneducated whites. Many suffer from anti-intellectualism and dislike educated liberals for the following reason. A sizeable portion have the feeling that they aren’t as smart or as ‘good’ as these people. They also suspect that these people feel the same way about them. They therefore attempt to revel in not being like this, pointing out its excesses and narcissisms, and putting a premium on ‘common sense’ (often illogical) and what others they respect have told them. It’s pretty unfortunate.
============================
My ex-"mother-in-law" (from Michigan-- for those of you that know I am not American, but my first lover... ) was one of these people. She often accosted me for my high falutin' (sp?) talk. Like the time I said "pasta", and she thought, as she had always called it "macaroni", I was a snob. Like that, you mean?
@49 "Tina" - so reactionary and so unthinking. Thanks for perpetuating unfounded fears and myths and not taking the time to read further and understand nuances. We Americans really appreciate it.
Holy fuck...
This is the most pathetic broadcast I've ever seen. How presumptuous is CNN?!! (Thanks for the insight, Ed Rollins.)
B
Kitty Pilgrim et al are little more than the junior high school popularity club. "Oh, isn't it terrible that hairstyle Sandra wore? She's finished!" "Imagine Mary insulting us as elites! We'll show her, by calling her elite!"
How childish. And pathetic.
Time to update the universal MSM Obama story:
The inexperienced, "dainty" and "prissy," flag pin scorning, national anthem despising, sicko pastor embracing, high-horse sitting, avant-garde Harvard graduate and smarty pants Muslim Barack Hussein Obama, who only bowls a 37, is an orange juice-swilling elitist.
Amen Nicole!
Disinformation Age
For anyone like Schneider, who needs to see more of an explanation of Obama's words, here ya go.
Again, Corporate News Nonsense must die. Why didn't they fucking ask Obama what he meant rather than have a bunch of people sit around and yammer (just like we do on blogs, but the way, what makes them so special they get to be on tv?) about what he might have meant?
Tina @ 49:
You're right. This story(?) will be and should be buried because most intelligent people understand that although Obama didn't articulate his feelings exactly correct, there are many bitter groups in the nation especially after eight years of Bush's sad ass. Sorry Ms. TMZ, not only was Obama right about the bitterness remark, he deserves credit for at least bringing it up. Next bullshit non-story please.
Tina @ 49:
If you take a look at the working class sitting behind Obama in his response to this b.s., you'll find they don't agree.
Obama has the sand to talk truth to a nation not accustom to hearing truth. There was no disrespect in his comments...they showed that he has good insight into working class folks who feel passed-over and left behind. He's opening up a true conversation and these MSM asshats and Clinton want to pile on as if he were disrespecting the troops and were unpatriotic. Well, telling the truth and being honest is about as patriotic and respectful as one can be.
Gee, electing a folksy, "comfortably dim" president worked out so well last time, didn't it?
@61 - that's exactly the narrative! The reaction to Obama's comments PROVE his comments to be true. If you want to distract people...make 'em HATE something...it's easy and seems to always do the trick. Please, please, please rural PA...all your problems start and end in San Francisco...repeat after me..."it has nothing to do with the war, it has nothing to do with mismanaging the government...no, no, no...you're feeling sleepy now...no, no, no rural PA...all your problems start and end in San Francisco...all your problems start and end in San Francisco...blame them, blame them...everything would be better if they weren't around...no, don't you feel better...hating is always so much easier than thinking."
Y'know, I can't help thinking... it's only mid-April. Over seven months to go before we even get to vote for the next President (assuming, of course, Diebold will allow it).
Then it's not till January we actually get a new President.
Seven plus more months of this shit. What he said, what she didn't say, what he really meant, on and on and on. I'm so sick of this election now, how I'm going to fight off election fatigue for the next seven odd months I can't imagine. Seven more months of this crap... *shudder*.
Does this lump me into the general population of embittered working-class white folk who simply have given up on giving a shit anymore?
C&S: "... Are we so immature that we need candidates to pat us on our heads and say, “It’s okay, little voter, there, there…don’t let me bother your pretty little head with reality”?"
SG: That's a deeply flawed mischaracterization!
We are so inebriated on the swill we've been consuming down at the local co(R)po(R)ate MSM outlet, that we want ta sit down and drink with a non-drinking, Ivy League, dry-drunk elitist, who couldn't even muster the patriotism to show up to collect his cheque in the champagne unit. When the brain is that soused, you've passed even the possibility for immaturity thousands of dead brain cells ago ...
Snerd
Yeah, this politician spews about hope and unity then insults the PA voters.
Where is the hope in those insults?
Where is the unity?
It was bound to happen when people blindly trust a politician.
Lets get real, this was a self inflicting wound and he is to blame not the media.
It's the kids of little towns with no opportunity who are signing up to fight in Iraq. Their parents are praying to God they're doing the right thing and they won't get hurt. They're being duped. I'd like to see Hillary Clinton and John McCain apologize for that.
Tina @ 49:
His words were right. Take it from someone who lives in the middle of that "working class" he was speaking about.
Wake up! Listen to all of his words IN CONTEXT, not just the sound bytes taken for the purpose of slamming him. He had the guts to speak the truth to a group of people who needed to be educated about that truth.
I haven't decided who I'm voting for yet (its hard for me to find someone who measures up to Edwards), but I'm leaning towards Obama more with each new attempt to discredit him.
"..I am of the belief that we need to put the heads of these media companies on trial as well for their complicity".
If nothing else, that sentiment well deserves echo.
But it also begs the question: are congressional democrats in thrall to the heads of media companies? Need they permission to speak, to shout? What say Obama, or Clinton, or Pelosi, or Reid? Or my congressman, Mike Thompson (D-Ca.)?
What is wrong with those people? What is wrong with the democratic party?
nanderson @ 4:
getalife @ 72:
I'm not picking on you, getalife, but I'm curious, why do you think he was insulting the PA voters? Is it because the media said he was?
I heard the thing in its entirety--not an easy thing to do, since Fowler's tape is horribly distorted--and what I heard is empathy, not insults. He recognizes the antipathy and disaffection that many voters are feeling...the promises not fulfilled by other politicians and the anger that manifests itself in distrust of others.
Certainly, you are not accusing him of saying ALL voters feel this way, because that's a ridiculous over-generalization and a rather immature strawman. But can you not acknowledge the truth of what he said?
the munz @ 10:
i guess you don't watch reality tv (and good for you it you don't).
most Americans watching reality tv are dumber than a first grader.
Hi Hillary,
I was thinking about voting for you. I have no health insurance, my real income has declined over the Clinton/Bush administrations, my job has been off-shored to China India Indonesia....It is just wonderful paying $4.00/gallon for gas and the price of food keeps going through the roof. But, I'm not bitter because I have my gun and my bible even though my teeth hurt and I can't get them fixed because I can't afford to. So you double talking phoney I'm voting for Obama because he does something you are incapable of doing--he tells the truth.
Wake up! I'm bitter, they're bitter, the whole f'ing country is bitter!
getalife @ 72:
So used to being bullshitted to, huh. Hey [deleted], sometimes honesty hurts. Especially when you've been spoon fed ignorant dog shit for so long. [deleted] judge Obama's comments by its merits. If you aren't "insulted" by the last eight years, you're just a [deleted].
[Try it again, and this time leave out the gratuitous insults to another poster, please. - sitemonitor]
I agree with regards to the MSM being complicit in this corporate assault on democracy. I have been saying for year