Unless you have been hiding in a cave in Pakistan over the last four days, you have heard the remarks Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said in a “closed” or “private” meeting with billionaires in San Francisco. An attendee who planned to visit Pennsylvania and volunteer for the Obama campaign asked Obama what to expect and how to convince people there to vote for hope and change.

Obama referred the person to his advisors who would provide him with talking points, and then the candidate engaged in a little bit too much of pop psychology. Explaining why voters in Pennsylvania were not joining in lock-step march with team Obama, Obama said:

You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.

And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

There are several problems with this analysis:

1. Legally: Obama needs to obtain a licenses from the estates of Karl Marx and Joseph Lenin. Calling working people ignorant for having religion is nothing new. The Soviet Union was founded on that principle. Guess where Obama wants to take us.
2. Logically: It assumes that people who do not vote for Obama are irrational. Of course people can be bitter about their condition (economic, political, environmental), but not voting for someone who claims to represent hope doesn’t mean you’re hopeless. It could, and in my case certainly does, mean that you think he’s full of crap and his plan for America will bankrupt America. This is a fundamental problem with Democrats that goes back to Adelaide Stevenson, who, when told he had convinced all thinking people to vote for him, he quipped, “That’s not good enough, I need a majority.” Funny line, but not exactly a pro-American stance. This is no different than the constant argument by Democrats that Republicans use scare tactics (i.e. remind voters that there are, in fact, people trying to kill us and leadership matters) or play to ignorant social conservatives (i.e. remind voters that abortion and gay marriage are differences between the parties) to win votes. This, of course, discounts the possibility that voters, in full control of their senses, vote Republican because they believe in the principles that the party represents, chiefly, limited government and lower taxes. This, in all honesty, is beyond the scope of the Democratic imagination. We’re all just bitter, delusional, bible thumping, gun totting, racist, anti-immigration boobs.
3. Honestly: Because these statements were made in a “closed, private” meeting (campaign speak for “You weren’t supposed to hear that”), and Obama was responding to a question (these were not prepared remarks vetted for political message) we can reasonably assume Obama was being honest and unguarded. In other words, whatever he says from here on out to clarify or rephrase, this is the closest to what he truly believes.
4. Politically: Tuzla hurt Hillary Clinton because it was a microcosm of what people despise about Hillary Clinton. She flat out lied about sniper fire. Sniper fire is not something you forget, but with no shame or remorse (except at being caught), she told a patently false, easily disprovable lie. What’s worse, she did so for no real gain. Does anyone think that landing in a war zone makes you Commander-in-Chief material? Maybe Sinbad should run for president. The point is, this was a crystallizing event for Democrats. It reminded them, without bringing up partisan scars, of the stained blue dress, Whitewater, travelgate, troopergate, and the hundreds of scandals and bullship the Clintons created in eight years in Washington. It was Hillary in a nutshell. Obama’s comments, similarly, crystallized the hidden fears nonbelievers have about Obama: he’s a dyed in the wool liberal. It removed his mask of “post-partisanship” and revealed (or, in deference to those not there yet, appeared to reveal) what he truly is: a Marxist, anti-American charlatan who thinks working men and women are suckers who are good for nothing if they don’t support the revolution.
5. Finally: As Rich Lowry points out, it finally resolved the paradox of the “uniter” who has never reached across the aisle for anything. It is clear that Obama intends to bring the mountain to the ignorant masses. Meaning, his idea of uniting us, is to pry our bibles, guns and racist sentiments from our mystified little paws and show us the true path to enlightenment: an ever expanding socialist government for all.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 1:15 pm and is filed under Politics & Policy, Liberals, Op Ed, Edukashun. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.