Letters to the Editor
JackSparx
Published Letters: 403 Editor's Choice: 16
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Penn, Pennsylvania : How the new and old media are missing the story
[Read the article: Barack Obama in suspended animation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Clinton gave Penn the boot with the message that the firing was about the Columbia trade deal. But why the lag from the "revelation" to the firing?
I think Penn's number has been up for awhile. Among other reasons, some Clinton supporters (including Walsh here at Salon) have been open about seeking a male scapegoat for Clinton's troubles, and I think there is a sense of evening up the score with Solis Doyle's departure. That's dumb politics if true, though I think there are also excellent reasons to get rid of Penn.
But, the message the Clintons want to send was on trade deals. I think there is a slow burn going on among working class Americans regarding the tax returns. Despite claims by Glenn Greenwald and others that the tax returns would be covered extensively by the media, the exact opposite has happened: A virtual blackout on news and commentary. That's not just MSM, but also the established new media on the web. SNL, the "comedy" mouthpiece of the Clinton campaign, pooh-poohed the notion that the Clinton's money mattered, and focused on the book deals, not the corporate-whore speeches.
I don't think there's been a bigger disconnect between news media and what people are actually talking about, at least not since the web offered an alternative set of news outlets. Clintons tax returns are making working people second-guess their support for her. Unlike say, the Kennedys, the Clintons do not have an iconic history of service to the working class, despite their wealth. Well, except in the minds of the Clintons themselves. The Clintons wealth and service, at best, reminds people of a guy who wins the lottery, gives some money to his church, and flies his buddies to the Super Bowl. There are no policy initiatives or themes that help the Clintons with the working class, nothing really Kennedy at all.
The fallout from the taxes is a slow burn, but a long burn. It can easily extend through the next six weeks into the Pennsylvania elections. The smugness of new media outlets like Salon, or old outlets like SNL, works against Clinton in the long run. People are sensing the refusal of the winners of the Clinton-Bush years to engage the needs of the losers, which is most of us. The political and economic elites are building a gated community for themselves behind irony gates.
But people outside the gates pay their taxes in a week, another reminder of what the Clintons have, and they have not. And then it's the long wait for the rebate check. There's a long time to think while doing the bills at the kitchen table. Unemployment is up in Pennsylvania, fairly dramatically in the past month. People know others who have gotten a pink slip. Maybe the black guy who is on the TV all the time is right, time for a change. Hope sounds good. Hillary isn't on as much. She looks like she might be spending too much of the family fortune at her local bar. Does she even go to bars though? Probably too rich to go to bars. The black guy is rich, too. Not as rich though. Not even close, just lawyer rich. Not Arab speech rich. And gas is up, way up. The war drags on, expensive, why. Your friend's son got killed there, a year back. Clinton voted for that one, the black guy didn't.
Maybe it is time for a change.
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Elitism
[Read the article: Why Hillary Clinton should be winning]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The elitists in the party are using every means to enthrone Clinton. Specious arguments like Wilentz offers are the least of it.
It's not going to help Clinton win the remaining races when voters hear she's trying to cheat. And that's what they are hearing from people like Wilentz.
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She can boot out one elitist, but she can't boot out elitism
[Read the article: Penn out as Clinton's chief strategist]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Clinton's efforts to wrest her campaign from its pervasive elitist message isn't helped much by booting Penn, though he was responsible for much of the tone. It's way too little too late, and joining a bowling league wouldn't help.
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"You owe me" is not a winning campaign strategy
[Read the article: Why Hillary Clinton should be winning]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Especially from the 109 Million Dollar Woman.
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@kstone We'll know by 4/22, eh?
[Read the article: Barack Obama in suspended animation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You may be right, and it is certainly the case that the elite media has swung solidly behind Clinton. That will help, just in turns of suppressing the story. The Clintons can no longer complain about the media being unfair to them. The media is fawning over Hillary like she was Paris Hilton.
But, there is still a difference between the celebrity OMG treatment that Salon is giving Clinton, which everyone enjoys let's face it, and the way people vote their pocket book. The uncritical stance the media has taken toward the Clintons following the news of their immense wealth is fishy.
One of the positive aspects for Obama is that he doesn't have to retool his message very much. It would be helpful to see some ads generally about taxes, spending, the cost of the war.
I think Obama may win the Keystone outright, kstone, but let's call coming within 5% good enough to call a victory. The Clintons have been predicting a double-digit victory, and I simply doubt that will play out.
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Good luck, Alex.
[Read the article: Vacation, all I ever wanted]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Don't be tempted by the posting for Chief Strategist at the Clinton campaign.
That is definitely not longterm, more like LTE.
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How about "lifesis"?
[Read the article: OMG, I'm totally having a thrisis!]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One catchall term for the realization that life sucks and then you die.
"Post-lifesis SM seeks pre-lifesis SF for mindless good times."
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Does it matter if departure was staged?
[Read the article: Penn out as Clinton's chief strategist]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think J. Angel may be right, and I could even believe that Penn attended the meeting to create a storyline. But even if the Clintons are fighting at the level of complexity, I don't think it helps their cause. Rather it just draws attention to how wrong they've gone in pursuing elite wealth at the cost of workers.