Letters posted here are associated with the following article:

481
Letters
Friday, September 12, 2008 12:00 AM

What small-town America is saying about Obama

In diners and mobile homes from New Mexico to North Carolina, I listened to working-class people try to make sense of a black president named Barack.

The letters thread is now closed.

View:
Friday, September 12, 2008 11:53 PM

@MCE007

We're seein' those unpolled cells ringin' loud and clear, as election day grows ever so much nearer and nearer...

Saturday, September 13, 2008 12:07 AM

@Eucalyptus

We have an expression originating from American baseball: "Three strikes and your out." So in this case, we struck out twice, and this is our last chance to get it right. If we fail, then we deserve all of the pain we get, and I encourage you and everyone in the civilized world to boycott all American products. Like I said before we need to bleed the stupid and the crazy out of our society, they are the biggest threat on the planet right now.

Saturday, September 13, 2008 12:58 AM

SMALL TOWN AMERICA IS INDEED GETTING TO KNOW OBAMA

They're getting to know him, getting to know all about him...

I have to take issue with this headline: http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2008/09/12/obama-ad-ridicules-mccain-over-war-injuries/. In all fairness, I refuse to believe that Obama was making fun of McCain’s war injuries when he said McCain can’t even send emails.

Just as he confused the number of states in the Union when Senator Obama said he campaigned in all 57 of them, with one to go, not counting Alaska and Hawaii, and just as Senator Biden wasn’t being cruel when he told a paraplegic in Missouri to stand up, the much vaunted brilliance of Obama simply failed him again.

It turns out Senator McCain cannot type emails because he cannot type, not because he lacks secretarial skills but because of the consequences of his war injuries.

It’s sort of like Obama being unable to recall his close ties with Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko, Reverend Wright or Reverend Pflieger, or his inability to remember specifics about his years at Columbia University, or what precisely he did as a “community organizer/activist” in the Belly of the Chicago Beast, or his Muslim roomies in college.

Truth be told, Barack Hussein Obama, despite all the hype conjured up by the mainstream media, is just plain stupid.

More proof of that stupidity: He married Michelle, didn’t he?

For a great graphic of OBAMA/BIDEN THE MOVIE please see http://genelalor.com/.

Saturday, September 13, 2008 02:10 AM

@berlet98

I look at your frenzied rant, and all it says to me is that you're really freakin' out bad on sayin' to your sad self - yes - we - can't.

Well that's little 'ol you with your naggin' uncertainty and uneasy pain, that republican legacy inherited by you from Mr. John McCain.

See, me, I'm with the Barack Obama plan, the one which positively affirms the words - yes we can.

Saturday, September 13, 2008 04:17 AM

@berlet

"It turns out Senator McCain cannot type emails because he cannot type, not because he lacks secretarial skills but because of the consequences of his war injuries."

If I thought for one nano-second that was true, I would not laugh and scoff. But it's just not true! Ever hear of "hunt and peck"? That's typing one letter or symbol at a time. Many people do it. McCain obviously has use of his hands and control of his fingers. He could do it. Yes he could!

Saturday, September 13, 2008 05:04 AM

Class warfare?

The only people that Palin/McCain can depend on voting for them in large numbers are the 'rich'...

Those making over $200,000 will 'earn' more money for their investment than any other demographic if Palin/McCain are successful.

I've sen some of these neuvo-rich people in my area and they definitely don't deserve the money from our treasury. Hummers, Ferrari's and expensive 'cottages' that look like mansions.

Cheney/Bush and Palin/McCain are all about class warfare and not so much about 'country first', except for the amount of money they can extort from it for their own personal gains.

We aren't 'all in this together', it's very much like aristocratic England and France before the guillotine got its workout and proved that the rich die just like all of us...

The problem witht he 'rich' is that they are fickle and are going to grow tired of propping up the messes that Cheney/Bush and Palin/McCain have and will create. Most of the rest of the world has already tired of propping up the robber barons of Wall Street and as well they should. Cheney/Bush will not stop propping up 'their base' at the expense of the rest of us... It's all been about shifting the economy to the upper echelons and dumping the rest of us. A government by the rich, for the rich and all with the help of the devoid of common sense and a sense of their own stupidity: value voters...

Saturday, September 13, 2008 05:32 AM

No It Is Not Race

I am a Democrat and I will not vote for Obama. It is not his race. It comes down to his incompetence, inexperience, lack of judgement, Pastor Wright, Father Pfleger, Tony Rezko, Bill Ayres, a wife that is proud for the first time in her life of this country, his sexism, his racism, ACORN, his lies, his giving the finger to Hillary Clinton in North Carolina, etc.

Saturday, September 13, 2008 06:54 AM

Taken down by the least of us

Why would the fate of a great country on the brink of total ruin come down to the stupidest people on earth? These people aren´t just bigots, they are without a grain of common sense to fall for the very same neo-conjob which has cost them their jobs, raises, pay equity, house, health care, etc. The rest of the country has not wanted to face this, but we are truly doomed as a nation by possibly the stupidest people on the planet. As was featured on the front page of the Berlin daily recently, for the first time in history there are people - 30% in red state America - who have eaten themselves to death, something not even a pig will do. So the world watches in horror as people who are dumber than pigs, waddle to the polls to complete the ruin they brought on us.

Saturday, September 13, 2008 07:33 AM

The complex truth about my kind ...

I am a typical educated American 'wishy-washy' voter. I'll admit I have NEVER voted republican...the only time I came close to voting R was for GHW Bush. Bill won in the end...largely b/c of Hillary. At the beginning of the primary, I was a staunch Hillary supporter...she is a professional and a woman ho CAN relate to me...(a professional woman who feels vilified if I show any amount of real strength and decision making). THEN I heard an NPR 'on the candidate road show' about Hillary's group eating in a diner and not tipping, then started paying attn to Obama. As shallow as it seems to change allegiance because of a simple tip...what it did was start me thinking about privilege and elitism. BUT...the 'stardom' that surrounded Obama kept turning me off. THEN the venom that began spewing from Obama supporters against Hillary turned me off even more. So much more that I stopped listening to Obama at all. Even considering McCain because of his 'maverick' mentality in the face of Republicans who really scare me...anyone who wants to decide what I should think and believe scares me (that includes VEHEMENT cursing, spewing liberals who try to speak so loudly that they are the smartest and everyone should believe them because their beliefs are so ultimately superior). I, a historically VERY liberal democratic voter had become a McCain supporter..not for a disdain of Obama or a misunderstanding of his platform..but because of his 'crazy-ass' supporters. I work at a University...I work (and was) a very young under forty crowd who believes very strongly in a woman's right to choose but I also see a mob mentality from the left that scares me now as well...an inability to reason when discussing politics. So McCain ALMOST had my vote..until the Palin pick. At first I saw that as a smart move until I heard about how conservative her beliefs are...and something about having conservative beliefs and coming from a small town scares me more that hate spewing liberals (call it what you like, but if you say it with an angry hate-filled attitude...I call it hateful). So in the end, I believe in your ability to reason and definitely in Obama's ability to reason more than hers (or McCain's now that he has picked her). I probably represent 30 percent of the voting population. PLEASE for the sake of Obama winning now...help bring him back to the middle and stop the elitism!

Most Active Letters Threads

437

The Washington establishment suffers a serious defeat

Approval of the Paul/Grayson bill to audit the Fed is both rare and important in several ways
415

The administration guts its own argument for 9/11 trials

If some detainees get military commissions or indefinite detention, how can 9/11 trials be justified?
226

A letter to readers

On my current condition: Definitely treatable, definitely uncertain
214

Rule-of-law extremism engulfs primitive Eastern Europe

Why would the new President of Lithuania demand investigations of CIA black sites in her country?
179

More GOP lies about healthcare reform

Republicans who know better falsely claim that the panel recommending fewer mammograms is a Dem plan for rationing

View all »

Letters Help

Currently in Salon