By now you've probably heard about Barack Obama's comments regarding working class people in small towns. If not, here's what he said, and since my two minutes of googling isn't yielding anything, I'll just quote directly from the Time article that got me thinking here:
"...'Bitter' small-town voters 'cling' to their faith, along with their guns and their 'antipathy to people who aren't like them.'"
Well fuckin' A, what an elitist, right? A liberal elitist at that. Harvard ass Chicago suburbs ass liberal elitist, right? Oh hell no! The media is over covering this comment. It's been a week or two, and they're still running with it. They're over-analyzing it, talking about the significance of the fact that he said it in San Francisco (liberal headquarterz fool), and just generally not posing all the questions regarding his statement.
Is his statement at least slightly on point? Are these people, non-withstanding the religion and guns and xenophobia bitter? The resounding answer is yes. I need to look no further than that same old Time article for proof, one example, on top of a ton of others that I've heard and read:
"I think them remarks is the absolute truth," said Bill Williams, 60, a bearded disabled veteran from Waynesburg who attended an Obama town-hall meeting near Pittsburgh. "We like our faith and our guns. I went to church when things were bad, and I went out and I hunted for my family food, where I didn't know whether to put the gun in my mouth or to shoot an animal. So, yeah, he was right on the money. And was I bitter, and am I bitter? Hell, yes, I am."
All the coverage of the story seems to contain a similar quote, and all the while, people gloss over the fact that maybe they (my first and not last condescension) really are bitter.
So, point A covered. Moving on, I'll get my own real talk going and just say that I agree with Mr. Obama. I'm sure that the vast majority of the press agrees with him too. I'm sure that the vast majority of the readers of this blog agree with him, and almost everyone in this hater conglomerate agrees with him too. There's massive intellectual dishonesty going on here, and it just dawned on me that this may be a backlash to SNL and there real talk concerning the media and how they took part in Obamamania. That actually happened, I don't disagree.
What I do disagree with is the continuation of this story, and while it may not be an effort to save face on the MSM's part (can it really be the liberal mainstream media in this regard?), it is definitely blown out of proportion, and it has definitely been poorly reported.
3 comments:
I think when we can look back on this election with clearer hindsight, it will be abundantly clear (while now it's only fairly clear) that the media, both liberal and conservative, is nitpicking Obama in a way dissimilar to the attention given to Clinton and McCain. He's been forced to fire advisors, denounce his pastor, and take on the role as a Black candidate, when the last thing he wanted to do was make this election about race. The good Senator from Illinois has had to swallow a whole lot of humble pie on the campaign trail, much of which, I feel, was undeserved. It's not surprising that he would finally come out and say something truly inflammatory. Everyone's got a breaking point. On another note, is it just me, or is Hillary the new poster girl for sore winners? When she's behind in the poles, she makes bitchy, passive-aggressive comments. And when she wins, she's still making bitchy, passive-aggressive comments. Props to Obama for at least trying to give a message of hope. He doesn't always manage to deliver, but the intent is there.
I agree with both Gerbik & everything's comments.
1) I'm from a small town. Hell yeah we're bitter. Small town people are constantly told how they're the marginal demographic - "big city slick talk" is still something the average farmer or factory worker wants nothing to do with. Obama has lead his campaign through some rough patches; but one of the things I admire the most about him is his willingness to exert Real Talk. People seem to forget that media is a form of commerce - they are there to make money. A story like this sells issues/copy and makes the scrills. So until it doesn't - the media will beat us over the head with it, they'll dumb it down, and they'll try to make the "small town folk" feel like there's a battle to be fought. Get real. We don't have time for that shit. We actually have jobs, families, and yes...church functions to worry about.
2) Hillary is a boring cog in the political machine that scares me. When Bill Clinton was running for his second term in office I read an amazing article about the fact that his hair color seemd to be changing frequently. It turns out his advisors realized that if he had darker hair when speaking to younger audiences and a more greying coif when speaking to the senior citizen crowd they would feel like they related to him more. Entire point of my tangent being the Clinton team has always freaked me out. So I know it's wrong to hate on the Democrat's Darlings...but I'm an obama girl.
"the media" wants an exciting story to narrate with many twists and turns. barack crushing hillary early was not going to fly.
p.s. hillary fights to censor video games.
p.s. 2 barack takes us seriously
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