Letters to the Editor
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Shame on you Joan for suggesting that Obama should reach out to white, working class voters
Don't you realize it's up to them to reach out to Obama to prove their not racist?
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Not writing your headlines anymore?
I wonder how many of those "thoughts" will include musings on Rev Wright or talking points from Clinton's campaign?
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Come on Joan. What more can obama do?
you know this has nothing to do with him. there are three issues at work here. nothing more. you know it, I know it.
1. The gop and their sabotuers. Clinton has become their candidate and is pushing her to SABOTAGE the "opposition" party.
2. old style politics. The old emocrats that clinton took care of during their time in office. Like with richardson they demand everyone they helped or got dirt on to support them. They also pay well.
3. Racists who will never support a black man.
three issues that have zero to do with obama. so I ask again. joan walsh as a clinton supporter, what more can obama do? why the hatred? his supporters, who have been fighting the gop and have residue anger from battling the devil? Sometimes when you look in the eye's of the devil, the devil looks back. Don;'t hold obama responsbile for us. He is his own man. you do not hold clinton responsible for her surrogates. Why the double standard for obama
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Joan, you're right, and you're wrong
Appalachia is full of racists and homophobes, it's true. It's not elitist to state this simple fact. It doesn't always have to be this way, either. It's not city liberals who keep these people down by pointing out the level of bigotry that infests these areas. Elitism is George Bush and the Republicans who take away their jobs, cut their education subsidies, and ship their boys overseas to die in a war so that oil companies and their cronies can control the region for decades to come. Elitism is "Fuck you, you white trash scum!" as elitism does, and it's the Republicans who have screwed them over, not us in the Democratic Party.
Obama DOES need to campaign in these areas, driving home the fact that it's the Republicans who have screwed these people over. Obama needs to link the war, with the economy, and link both with McCain. That's all he needs to say to these voters.
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More selective outrage from Walsh.
Hey, it's kept you in business this long. Why quit now?
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It really doesn't matter either way
I just hope the Oblamatrons have something better than "You Suck, nanny nanny poo poo" AFTER he gets the nomination and has to run against the GOP. Because as we found out in 2000 and 2002 and 2004, that's not a winning strategy.
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Hmm, so decrying racism is elitist?
Today's Washington Post has an article about the racism that Obama workers experienced in central Pennsylvania and West Virginia. I grew up in Altoona, Pennsylvania, have continually returned to visit for thirty years, in fact visited there two weeks ago, and unscientifically will attest to the fact that a majority of white folk there are racist. Not as many of them use the "N" word as they did when I was growing up -- instead, they talk about how Obama is a Muslim, or how he is elitist (a code word for uppity). No one needs to write off Pennsylvania or West Virginia, but you can't pretend that there isn't serious ignorance and bigotry among the poorly educated, provincial, and yes, bitter and resentful working class white people of those states who have been left behind in the contemporary economy. The question is what to do about it. I wish Obama would have gone after Clinton for her race baiting, and challenged the voters of West Virginia to overcome their prejudice -- much as JFK did in 1960, except that that isn't exactly the parallel. But to claim that there is an elitism among Obama supporters, as Joan Walsh claims, because they are frustrated by this hate, is simply blaming the victims of bigotry. Of course people voted for Hillary for good reasons, but she herself encouraged people to vote for her for bad reasons too, which is shameful, and hopefully will keep her off of the Democratic ticket come the end of this.
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Why he stayed away from west va
From what I read obama was threatened. his campaign staffers were threatened and had bomb threats.
After seeing the results I'm gald he stayed away. BEtter to fight another day.
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Joan is right
You can't win without these voters. Just look at 2000 and 2004. We can't write off people in places like West Virginia in the same way we wrote off the "red state, ignorant, religious wackos" in 2000 and 2004.
Sadly, we seem to be falling into this overconfident zone that thinks there is "no way" we can lose in November against McCain, just as we did in 2000 and 2004. How did that turn out? We need a fundamental shift in our party attitude towards all voters.
Lets stop living in the liberal blog bubble and get out and talk to people. Try to find common ground to encourage them to support Obama. From my experience, you will be surprised that people are actually reasonable and more human than some of you are describing them.
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Brian-Seattle
Amen.
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Obama and blue-collar whites
I read the other day that Obama's unfavorable support among blue-collar whites had risen by 5%--but so had his favorable support, so it was a wash. So I think it was unwise of the Obama campaign to ignore West Virginia as they did because it feeds the perception that he doesn't care about blue-collar workers, something the Clinton camp is all too eager to seize upon as a truth about Obama.
I find it reprehensible that the Clintons have insinuated that Obama is elitist and unconcerned with the problems that afflict poor whites in this country. Of all the disappointments I have felt in both Clintons (whom I admired deeply before all this began), that is the keenest because it is such naked exploitation for self-gain and because it is obviously hurting the party's chances of success in November.
I think Hillary has every right to stay in the race, and I know her doing so is encouraging to many women of all ages. But that she is using race to bolster her own standings strikes me as so beyond the pale that I can't quite get my mind around it. I keep wondering if those who claim she really is doing everything she can to ensure that Obama can't win in November are right. The more she lets what she KNOWS to be lies and distortions perpetuate themselves at Obama's expense and her gain--and these are vicious, destructive lies and distortions--the more I'm inclined to think the people claiming that are right--she really is maneuvering to be able to run in 2012.
I hope those people and I are wrong. I hope the Clintons aren't that craven. But add to her "hard-working white American" comments her sanctimonious comments at the "Compassion Forum" (where she got San Francisco and elitism into one quick blow), her disingenuous comment on Sixty Minutes about Obama's not being a Muslim as far as she knew, her outrageous claim that the gas tax would save (more) hard-working Americans "billions" but Obama apparently didn't think that meant much, and what is one to think? Craven is as craven does.