newsobserver.com projects - Obama regrets remarks on guns, religion - Comments

Re: Obama speaks the truth (and is punished accordingly)

ivanhoe — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:55:31 -0400

Clarification:

I do not mean to suggest that resistance to immigration or trade are necessarily desirable values. I am only calling them traditional; and any serious study of prevailing American attitudes over the past two centuries will make my case.

Re: Obama speaks the truth (and is punished accordingly)

ivanhoe — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:37:14 -0400

It is certainly right to expect an answer to how Obama plans to bring about economic change, and I expect that you will soon hear answers. Ihe issue here is whether the remark was ofensive in nature.

The context was that the people referred to have been neglected by several administrations from both parties. They are frustrated and perhaps bitter; and rightly so.

The statement: (I paraphrase) People who are justifiably frustrated turn to things that are reliable: i.e. faith, guns, and traditional values.

I submit that only people who lack faith, guns, and traditional values will find a suggestion that they are reliable offensive

Re: Obama regrets remarks on guns, religion

JoseyJ — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:58:01 -0400

You'd think a former governor's wife and former First Lady - but NO! - it's Obama who's been labeled the Elitist since last summer.
Throughout the campaign, exit polls have shown - the working class supports Hillary - wealthy voters support Obama.

Re: Obama regrets remarks on guns, religion

JoseyJ — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:54:18 -0400

Obama "regrets" getting caught - but didn't apologize for his remarks.
Cause see - "those people" are just too ignorant to understand why they're not voting for him.

Pics of Obama on Billionaire Row event where he made his toxic comments to his billionaire donors about "those people."

http://209.157.64.201/focus/f-news/1998779/posts

We're supporting Hillary now.
Obama is toxic for the Dem Party and downticket races.

Re: Obama speaks the truth (and is punished accordingly)

FFC1304 — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 07:29:32 -0400

havent heard Obakarama say much about gettin the folks OFF the plantation, have you? Its his big chance! HOW will he do it?

Obama speaks the truth (and is punished accordingly)

Isaac136 — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:16:46 -0400

Well, speaking as an all-knowing liberal elitist (it's not easy being omniscient, but isn't feigned humility even worse?), I see that Obama's remarks actually did NOT reflect elitism so much as they did a recognition of a socio-political reaction that does, in fact, exist. Lots of folks want to shoot the messenger, especially if he's ahead in the polls.

Tangoz, please spell your insults correctly. The word you are looking for is "narcissistic." I don't see narcissism in Barak Obama (and I doubt you could explain your own use of the term). While Narcissus was famous for being unable to look away from his own image, Obama is looking all around -- and he is perceiving, correctly, that there is a lot of anger out there among people who feel marginalized by the Bush administration.

Senator Clinton has astutely latched onto his use of the word "bitter" and is beating him over the head with it to imply her own identification with a group with whom she really has little in common. And she'll get a lot of mileage out of this. So will McCain.

Hey, Tangoz, what's this about Obama being a pansy? That's two flowers you've cited thus far, Tangoz. Do you work in a flower shop, perchance?

Re: Obama regrets remarks on guns, religion

tangoz — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:45:05 -0400

Obama has the most liberal voting record in the US Senate! yes of course he is a pansy left wing liberal as you put it. Obama makes Kennedy and Byrd look moderate. Obama makes Hillary look Republican!

Obama is a liberal elitist with a omniprescient complex. They call people like Obama Narcistic.

Re: Obama regrets remarks on guns, religion

ltpcvs — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:51:10 -0400

We must start thinking! This latest round of latching on to edited pieces of presentations shows more signs of desperation! People do place more comfort in the things that they believe in when times are tight. So, what's wrong with saying we latch on? This is not elitist or condescending. The Obama team made little effort to further pounce on Bill Clinton's incorrect comments about Hillary's lapse in memory concerning sniper fire. Obama actually declined further comment. However, the Clinton team desperately tries to continue to rephase parts of speeches to fit a response intended to discredit Obama. People, think!

Re: Obama regrets remarks on guns, religion

mickiep — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:18:53 -0400

Most ultra-liberals are elitist, so why is anyone surprised at such a statement from the all-knowing Obama.

Re: Obama regrets remarks on guns, religion

FFC1304 — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:05:32 -0400

He and Hitlery are both pretty good at diggin their holes deeper...LOL...

Re: Obama regrets remarks on guns, religion

Didi48 — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:02:29 -0400

The PROBLEM was and is, Obama condescendingly proclaiming that people channeled their bitterness and frustration and became God-clinging, Gun-toting racists looking for fellow Americans to turn their antipathy on.

He Surely Will Be...

Senate — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 19:27:10 -0400

...sorry when this is all said and done.

Re: Obama regrets remarks on guns, religion

liam — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:57:15 -0400

That statement could be construed as elitist, true. But Obama's actions and words before the statement and after give no indication as to an elitist egghead holier-than-though attitude. He seems, to me and most others who know the man, to be a very down-to-earth guy who doesn't put himself above anyone.

What you're witnessing with this story is step one in the GOP's plan to label our third Democratic candidate for president in a row as an out-of-touch egghead pansy liberal. And Hillary Clinton is using this to her advantage. Shameful.

Hopefully Obama - unlike Dukakis, Gore, Mondale or Kerry - will be agile enough to weather this attack. He will, after all, be our nominee.

Obama regrets remarks on guns, religion

ryanteaguebeckwith — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:33:12 -0400

Barack Obama says he regrets remarks he made last week about small-town residents.

The Democratic presidential candidate talked with James Romoser of the Winston-Salem Journal, who reports on his blog that Obama defended the core of what he was trying to say.

At a fundraiser in San Francisco, Obama had said that people suffering economically in small towns "get bitter" and "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment" to explain their frustration.

He told Romoser that wording was unfortunate.

"Well look, if there — obviously, if I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that," he said. "But the underlying truth of what I said remains, which is simply that people who have seen their way of life upended because of economic distress are frustrated and rightfully so."