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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
..."Does it strike anyone else besides me as odd that a black man from Chicago raised by a single mother is being called elitist?"
Not at all. The perception of Elitism is more often connected to educational levels than money. First Obama did not exactly grow up in working class family. Both is mother and his father (who was not present) were educated. Obama always had the best education. He is smart and articulate.
Many,not all, white working class resent people who are educated. Many uneducated white males resent black educated men even more. Yes Hillary is educated, but she can speak "down Home", and is good at "pretending" when it works to her advantage. Obama is more honest, straight forward, eloquent, articulate and sometimes that can be put off to the less educated.
Besides Hillary really emphasized "San Francisco" which many already have been made to think elitist.
MCE007 - and yours too, KStone. in a week, after being proved
wrong i have hopes you'll slink off and i'll not have to read your
opinions again.
to a more likely scenario, obama gets nominated. chimpygo and Tone
in DC want to see Obama in a debate with McCain. THAT you will
never see. why? imagine the entrance. Obama pushing McCain's
wheelchair, Mac dressed in back-laced gown, Obama in orderly
greens. then Obama playing the slick snooty lawyer gets McCain to
bust a blood vessel in a rage - and people start to think, "do we
need PTSD on the trigger?". NO this will never happen. his handlers
won't allow him to get within 50 feet of Obama. after all, McCain
doesn't worry for name recognition - everyone's heard of Cain. he
too had a problem with violence. maybe a maverick but definitely
too old for East of Eden.
I voted for Obama and hope that he wins the nomination and the general election because of the three candidates, he appears to me to be the least synthetic. His statement about Pennsylvania is true and is true in many parts of the country. It is interesting that if a candidate says something outside the political establishment's play book of correct things to say, he gets jumped upon by the crazed media and, sadly, the GOP mimic Hillary Clinton. It is refreshing when I hear a candidate say something off the cuff, as opposed to an answer handcrafted by ten political consultants and speech writers.
This is how it is. This is the "truth" for all "bitter" working-class whites who have lost their jobs:
Whoever wins -- Democrat or Republican -- your jobs are not coming back. Your prosperity is not coming back. You will be lucky if you ever have another full-time job again in this lifetime. Your children will be lucky if they ever reach even half the prosperity their grandparents had. And since you cannot afford to give them a college education they will be even less qualified to compete in the new globalized economy.
The largest share of production cost for practically all manufactured products nowadays is labor. For the USA to generate manufacturing jobs again the US Dollar will have to fall in value against the chinese Renminbi and the Indian Rupee to a point where a company here can compete against the labor costs of those countries. US companies have an advantage in technology, which allows those companies with operations here to still pay a higher wage in comparison -- for the present. But that advantage makes up for only so much. And technology is very easy to transfer.
Can the fall in the relative value of the US Dollar happen? Will it even be allowed to happen? It is already happening, which is why a barrel of oil is now $114. Yet, if it were to fall to the point where general manufacturing in this country is once again competitive in the global economy the corresponding fall in the quality of life for the country as a whole will be immense. I do not think americans are prepared for that. The social fabric would be in real danger of tearing apart.
Not to mention the fact that -- unless the whole free-market, individualistic system in this country is upended (which will not happen) -- the rich will still remain very rich and the rest (middle-class and poor) will bear the brunt of the economic suffering.
Withdrawal from Iraq is a distraction. NAFTA is a distraction. "Elitist" arguments are a distraction. The truth is that the USA has frittered away the economic advantages it inherited from the Second World War -- when the rest of the world's industries were in ruins. Everyone else has caught up -- and some have surpassed us. But we refuse to acknowledge it.
This is the truth that Obama -- if he really were the "agent of change" he wants people to believe he is -- should tell. Yet he does not. Because he knows that it will not get him elected. And probably also because he knows that he cannot do anything about it.
This country has been mortgaging its future since the 70's. It's time to pay the piper. Obama will not save you -- because he cannot. Yet he will not admit to it. He is just another politician.
Iraq_vet, from your obvious love of country and war without end, I suggest you openly support Senator McBomb for president. He will make sure you have plenty of opportunities to demonstrate your heroism.
from the Huffington Post:
In January 1995, as the Clintons were licking their wounds from the 1994 congressional elections, a debate emerged at a retreat at Camp David. Should the administration make overtures to working class white southerners who had all but forsaken the Democratic Party? The then-first lady took a less than inclusive approach.
"Screw 'em," she told her husband. "You don't owe them a thing, Bill. They're doing nothing for you; you don't have to do anything for them."
yes McCain is considered a hero - for what? bombing and burning civilians - and getting caught. now there's a chance he'll get to do it again. a vote for McCain is a vote for napalm.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
