Letters to the Editor
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From Joan Walsh
Nice letter, chicadow. As I've said before, Obama deserves better supporters. And yes, dataguyx, the Klinton Kult Krap is beneath you. Thanks to those who read the post and tried to understand.
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"Ivy League sense of self-righteousness and entitlement" ?
This is code for 'your candidate is too smart.'
George Bush also has an Ivy league education and unlike Obama, who is the son of a single white female, grew up in one of the richest and most powerful political families in our country. Does anyone ever say Bush is an "elitist." No, because he's incapable of reflection, introspection, meditation.
"Elitist" is code for "too intelligent, too measured and thoughtful." And we all know how skeptical Americans are of a brain and of people who have it and use it.
This is just another manifestation of the kitchen sink strategy. Can't find any dirt to throw at the guy, use his strengths against him.
The best indication that a president will care about working class Americans is his/her ability to identify with such Americans.
If you want to know who will care the most about working class issues, ask yourself "Who is closest to the experience of working class Americans?"
Obama was, like the rest of us, a regular American, with a regular salary (or the closest thing to it) until he wrote his best-selling books. Therefore, of the three candidates for president, he is closest to the experience of regular America. Clinton and McCain are richer and have been richer for a lot longer and therefore the furthest from the experience of regular Americans.
Don't listen to this hype, especially coming from fellow Democrats. It only serves to hamstring our inevitable nominee and make the case against the Democratic party for the hapless McCain campaign, who otherwise can't tell its ass from its nose.
Hillary is a fighter for sure. But who is she fighting for? Who are you fighting for Joan Walsh?
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Obama intended to lie his way out of "bitter" remarks
Anyone who thinks Obama's comments were a benign observation about "issues" is way too tired to be covering this campaign.
BO was speaking to an audience in SF and he thought no one recorded the remarks. The first story that came out of the campaign was that they didn't confirm or deny the comments were made.
They would have liked to leave it at that, except someone in attendance had recorded the comments.
Obama hoped to lie about the comments just like he lied about the NAFTA remarks by his economic adviser before names were named.
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You earned your gold star, lady!
I want to give a little shout-out to "episcomom" for getting to the heart of the two most important points of this post.
One, (despite lots of typical knee-jerk hysteria from Obamiacs) it was a complimentary--if grudgingly so--take on what Obama said and did (even with her obtuse warning to Obama that he "doesn't ever again seem to disrespect the disadvantaged working class while he's flattering the overadvantaged class that attends his fundraisers." To make sure he doesn't SEEM to do that again, Joan, he would have to become chief spokesman for the Clinton campaign, executive producer of MSNBC news, and--alas--the editor of Salon).
Two, episcomom accurately assesses how Obama differs from Kerry (and too many other Dems in this regard) by not running for the microphones to issue an apology every time one of these bogus issues pops up. We have just never ever seen a politician with such a sense for teachable moments as this guy.
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@ Michelle1971: Support The Candidate Who'll Do Something
I'm guessing most Salon readers don't live in the parts of our country that have been slowly eroded from comfortable middle class to paycheck-to-paycheck panic. I'm also guessing most of the media who are criticizing his statements don't live in the big chunks of the midwest and the rust belt where the working class has been marginalized.
According to the USDOL, job losses have hit almost all sectors, particularly bad in March. And while NE, Midwest states have been hit the hardest, it's not a piece of cake in most parts of the country. Most states are now facing emergency shortfalls due to the mortgage/foreclosure crisis eating away tax revenues.
I spent six years in Colorado's San Luis Valley, which has two of the poorest counties in the country: Conejos and Costilla. These people barely have homes, much less jobs, much less middle class lives. They are the poorest of the poor, probably equal to many inner city families. Yet, nobody ever reads about these people and their plight.
For what has happened in the NE (Rust Belt) and the Midwest, look to Ronald Reagan. That is where it started, with automation, plants being closed and jobs shipped overseas, tax breaks for companies to do just that, deregulation.
And it is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., his sister Kathleen Kennedy-Townsend, and their children who have endorsed Hillary Clinton. RFK knew a little something about povery and hopelessness; RFK, Jr. and Kathleen Kennedy-Townsend know a little something about poverty and hopelessness. They have walked the talk. Seems to me they know something about the person best-suited to deal with the problem.
Dolores Huerta, too, knows a little something about poverty and hopelessness. She has also endorsed Clinton.
By the way: poverty rates declined under Bill Clinton; wages increased under Bill Clinton; education opportunities were opened up to a wider audience under Bill Clinton. And Hillary Clinton worked quietly and tirelessly during his term to make it possible for the poor (particularly poor women) to have job and education opportunities.
Seems to me that Hillary Clinton knows a little something about the problems. She wasn't raised in an upper-income household. Neither was Bill.
What Barack Obama knows about poverty and hopelessness and living paycheck-to-paycheck would fit on the head of a pin. He's arrogant and condescending. Slice it, dice it, parse it any way you want. It's excuses and justifications.
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baloo
Absolutely right on. She might as well be Hillary Wallace, sneering at "pointy headed intellectuals", which means, translated, anyone who's smarter than you are and has the nerve to show it. Bush is far more Ivy League than Obama; he's just a few echelons dumber. If Joan and Hillary and American want stupid, they can have it. They've got it now, with a choice on the near horizon.