Candidates Scramble to Hammer ‘Elitist’ Obama
Barack Obama had a pretty good week — until his comments about "bitter" people "clinging to guns and religion." But did either Clinton or McCain capitalize?
And last week had gone so well for Barack Obama. Until Friday afternoon. This week in presidential politics, the spotlight will shine brightly on the Democratic frontrunner, with a suddenly critical debate Wednesday in Philadelphia against Hillary Clinton. This week’s debate comes six days before the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, a must-win-big affair for Clinton in her struggle to retain relevance in the race. Pennsylvania is a perfect state for Clinton — older, whiter, with established political machines and a closed primary in which independents can’t vote — but Obama has been coming on strong there. He closed what was once a 25-point gap in the Keystone State into single digits.
But that was before Friday afternoon’s report in, of all places, the vehemently pro-O Huffington Post, about his remarks at a private fundraiser on April 6 in San Francisco. The event was closed to the press and off the record, but an Obama supporter, an activist blogger who has given the maximum allowable contribution to Obama, was allowed in and proceeded to record the freshman Illinois senator’s lengthy (45 minutes off-the-cuff) remarks. She blogged about them.
Very late in her piece, with Obama talking about the plight of some in small town Pennsylvania, came some magic words. About “bitter” people, “clinging to guns and religion.” Whoops! That was all it took for the John McCain campaign, with senior advisor Steve Schmidt, former head of the Bush/Cheney campaign war room, leading the way, to rapidly mobilize every media organ of the Republican Party. The Clinton campaign was slower to get its act together, but, with options closing down, jumped on even harder.
Jumped on a little too hard, probably, with “I’m not bitter” stickers reportedly going mostly unused at Clinton rallies and the candidate herself pretending to be an avid gun-lover and church-goer. Which, as it happens, she is certainly not, since she won’t say the last time she fired a gun or went to church. But the Clintons are happy to change the subject from Bill Clinton’s stunning “explanation” for Hillary Clinton’s lies about her purported Bosnia “landing under sniper fire.” The former president came up with a stunner, a multi-faceted fabrication to rationalize his wife’s multi-faceted fabrication.
While the Democrats engage in their fresh round of follies, McCain will continue to raise money and organize for the general election.
Before the report of Obama’s private fundraiser remarks emerged, McCain’s week had gone only fairly well. The final three candidates each had their “presidential” moments last Tuesday questioning General David Petraeus when he appeared before the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees to report on the situation in Iraq, where things had been going quite well before the recent factional fighting, uncomfortably settled by Iran. Obama and Clinton both did fine, as did McCain. Except for when he confused the Shia with the Sunni. Whoops.
But we know that he knows the difference, so the verbal gaffe hasn’t hurt him. Yet.
It could, however, in a different way. When Silvestre Reyes, a Texas Democratic congressman, became chairman of the House Intelligence Committee in one of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s worst moves, it emerged that he actually did not know the difference between Shia and Sunni. McCain quite obviously does. But there is an emerging narrative about him being pushed by his partisan enemies.
Just as Obama is being pushed by his partisan enemies as an elitist who is not a real American, and Clinton is being pushed as a liar who is dangerously ruthless, McCain is being pushed as a doddering warmonger.
While he continues to back the military surge in Iraq that he championed, McCain’s campaign will continue to look for ways to appeal to all-important independent voters by showing that he is a different kind of Republican, appealing to Latinos and blacks and young voters. He’ll also be campaigning in Pennsylvania this week while the Democrats duke it out there. It’s a state the McCain campaign would love to take in the general election.
Bill Bradley is a Pajamas Media correspondent. His PajamasXpress blog is New West Notes.
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30 Comments
1. Ed Wallis:Mr. Bradley, you, like too many others, focus on IMHO the wrong part (i.e. “bitter”) of his speech.
Bitter is debatable. Not so marxist arrogance.
Obama: “So 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.”
In this revealing sentence, he included :
* guns
* religion
* antipathy to those who are different
* anti-immigrant sentiment
* anti-trade sentiment
in his DREAM-LIBERAL’s grab-basket of “evils.”
And THAT, good sir, is why American voters are rejecting Obama on this matter.
Apr 14, 2008 - 10:51 am 2. Ciscokid:Our choices- An elitist ( bittergate) Harvard law school graduate & still member of a church (20yrs on going) who’s pastor (his mentor) gave a man of the year award to Louis Farrakhan. His mentor also referred to Condoleezza Rice as “Condoskeeza” Rice ( look up Skeeza – rev Al ). We need to elect Obama because he’s the democratic party candidate who understands what we’re going through & he’s so smart he can unite us.
Team Clinton has told so many lies and gotten away with them, they can’t comprehend what the fuss is all about. Former President Clinton defends Hilary by explaining his wife gets tired because she’s 60yrs old & shouldn’t be held liable for getting the facts confused. Lets not forget, Hilary is great decision maker at 3 in the morning though. President Clinton puts the United states 2nd when it comes to making money from speaking engagements. We need to elect Hilary Clinton because she has more experience (lying?) than the other democratic party candidate.
McCain misspoke (way different than lying) who the Iranians are sending to cause instability in Iraq & needed Joe Lieberman ( former democratic party vice presidential candidate & friend ) to correct him on scene. He fought in Nam & lived through torture (faith In God) as a prisoner of war. Has reached across the isle ( McCain- Feingold ) many times. Prides & has proven himself as a maverick by telling (Michigan primary) the truth. Lets not forget he’s old & doing fine ( Mom is in her 90’s) which only contributes to his experience. We need to elect McCain because……… the other two choices are completely insane if not dangerous.
Apr 14, 2008 - 11:36 am 3. Paul M Hupf:The carefully chosen remarks of Senator Obama: “they cling to guns or religion, or antipathy to people who are not like them,” strongly suggest that the Senator is a Marxist in reality and a possibly dangerous one, because his solutions are those which will be created and enforced by the state. This must be the subject of great concern to every voter.
Apr 14, 2008 - 11:47 am 4. AJ:Obama is an absolute joke of a candidate. He has no business even being in this race and ZERO positives.
Apr 14, 2008 - 12:41 pm 5. huxley:Bill — If you’ve got the inside on who Obama is, I for one would really like to know. Any presidential candidate who can sit in the pews of a black power church for twenty years and who is on a first name basis with Weather Underground bombers may conceivably be a real American, but he is certainly a strange one.
Who is Obama? I listen to his speeches, I read his memoir, and I follow his campaign, but I can’t figure this guy out.
Apr 14, 2008 - 12:48 pm 6. willis:It would appear that we are not ready to become an Obama-nation.
Apr 14, 2008 - 1:05 pm 7. markH:Nice to see that Kristol’s “marxist” talking points are being put to good use.
Apr 14, 2008 - 2:46 pm 8. Bugs:Our candidates: Pots & Kettles, Inc.
Apr 14, 2008 - 3:44 pm 9. Ed Wallis:…can’t quite say when or where he said it, but Obama made his hold just a tad bit deeper when he later said something to the effect of:
I’ve misspoken in the past, and I’ll misspeak in the future.
Yah. Uh huh. A quality trait we really look for in a President.
Apr 14, 2008 - 5:06 pm 10. Believer:Okay – the Rezko trial has finally brought up the Auchi connection. This week could prove even more troubling for Obama…
Apr 14, 2008 - 6:36 pm 11. Hillary:This is the end for Obama! Woo-hoo! I know we hear this every 10 days but this time it’s the end for real!
Like, totally!
San Francisco marxist! Non-bowling elitist!
This proves McCain is gonna win!
Apr 14, 2008 - 6:43 pm 12. misses minka:- am already assembing drum beaters here for Obamarama.
Apr 14, 2008 - 10:47 pm 13. Jean:I very much hope this man is sent to the place in the
sky when they fail to win, joining Big AL with the
weather is a good place to fall. Make many bucks!
He is someone who believes he is the answer for the
world, which his ego which I see as large as the world.
Please, America Keep after him, there has to be more,
Apr 14, 2008 - 11:41 pm 14. Bun Nakayama:much more hidden in his life, George Soros is running
him I think. It has been mentioned many times and
I wonder if George is going to finally give up when
McCain wins? All that lovely money gone for nothing,
AGAIN.
The received wisdom is that McCain would prefer to run against Hillary rather than Obama.
This seems bizarre given that Obama is – predictably – beginning to unravel.
Is it too conspiratorial to suspect a secret deal between the Clintons and McCain?
Apr 15, 2008 - 12:35 am 15. Edmund Jenks (MAXINE):Verbal Gaffe!?!?!?
I recently saw an investigative report that showed Barack Obama in an interview with Charlie Rose (2004?) where Barack Obama stated virtually the same belief or view of the “working class”. A purly Marxist (TUCC/Wright) template.
When is the MSM going to place an audit trail focus on Mr. Obama so that people begin to understand what HE really believes? … THEN question him on it!
Britt Hume, on Fox News, recently mused about the nature and focus of the sentiments uttered as being based in Marxist belief but this is only a musing and it is about time for reporters to actually ASK Barack Obama questions that flesh out what the man truly believes.
Apr 15, 2008 - 6:49 am 16. The press and Benedict | The Anchoress:[...] Bill Bradley lhas two piece ups, both on “Bittergate”, with the second looking at how Obama’s stunning elitism will be used against him, Mohammed Fadhil says the Iraqi government has a golden opportunity if they’ll take it, and [...]
Apr 15, 2008 - 8:31 am 17. Believer:Edmund Jenks:
In Obama’s first autobiography, he refers to “Frank” as a family friend. He was. A sort of father figure to Barack when he was living in Hawaii with his grandparents during his teenage years.
His full name is Frank Marshall Davis. Now dead, but a Communist Party Member and a poet. And black – I mention this because I’m sure his race was important to Obama, especially at that time.
I am sure his influence on him was tremendous. He probably saw Mr. Davis as a very special man and having an elegance of expression. It may explain Obmam’s own eloquence.
How much Mr. Davis planted seeds in him for public office, etc. I don’t know. It was from Chicago that he came to Hawaii, and was given the “heads up” that Barack and family were people he might want to look up.
It doesn’t surprise me in the least that Obama sees the redistribution of wealth as the solution to our nation’s (read: healing his community’s) problems.
Apr 15, 2008 - 10:23 am 18. Lranders:I am bitter, bitter about how this idiot is allowed to be in the position he is in. Money, big money, from crooked people have put him in this position. His people are so crooked that even the crooked Clintons can’t keep up. It smells of Soros (sp).
Yes, I am extremely bitter, Barry Hussein Obama is a loud mouth puppet who is just dumb enough to think he is someone. He is a cheap loud mouth and I am bitter about that.
I am not bitter about guns, I am absolutely certain NO ONE will take those.
I am not bitter about life, I am absolutely certain I can make a living, government and especially Clinton or Obama would never GIVE me anything – I won’t take it.
I have integrity, they’ll never have that.
Apr 15, 2008 - 11:54 am 19. Hotpatch 6:I would almost feel sorry for Obama (and his unlovely spouse)if they were not so insufferably liberal. But, hey, they are the end result of all that Affirnmative Action and Equal Opportunity we have been force-fed for decades. Now that they have attended the finest schools, become wealthy, and are permitted to hob-nob with the liberal elites, they can both take delight in denigrating the country that put them both where they are. But that is what liberal do. No surprises there!
Apr 15, 2008 - 12:05 pm 20. Don Jaksa:The problem with LIBERALS is that they will embrace guns while campaigning, then try to take them from law abiding citizen when they achieve power, but without careful training they end up shooting themselves in the foot time after time.
Can we get a video clip of Obama driving a tank?
Apr 15, 2008 - 12:49 pm 21. LCSusan:The Dems are done for – only the SDs can derail the Obama train and that ain’t going to happen – the party would be ripped apart and Senator McCain’s election would be assured the day after the Dem convention. Come to think of it, that happens no matter what.
http://strictlyanecdotal.com/2008/04/14/elitism-doesnt-have-anything-to-do-with-money.aspx
Apr 15, 2008 - 8:17 pm 22. Bill Bradley:You don’t live in Las Vegas, fortunately.
Apr 15, 2008 - 9:15 pm 23. Bill Bradley:Fact-based criticism is always the best.
The fact is that Obama is in this position because he has the biggest grassroots fundraising operation — with well over a million contributors over the Internet — in the history of American politics.
Obama has more contributors than the entire Republican presidential field combined.
>Lranders:
Apr 15, 2008 - 9:18 pm 24. Bill Bradley:I am bitter, bitter about how this idiot is allowed to be in the position he is in. Money, big money, from crooked people have put him in this position. His people are so crooked that even the crooked Clintons can’t keep up. It smells of Soros (sp).
Sorry. Not happening.
>Hillary:
This is the end for Obama! Woo-hoo! I know we hear this every 10 days but this time it’s the end for real!
Like, totally!
San Francisco marxist! Non-bowling elitist!
This proves McCain is gonna win!
Apr 14, 2008 – 6:43 pm
Apr 15, 2008 - 9:19 pm 25. Bill Bradley:It’s not just received wisdom. Most conspiracy theories are bunk.
>Bun Nakayama:
The received wisdom is that McCain would prefer to run against Hillary rather than Obama.
This seems bizarre given that Obama is – predictably – beginning to unravel.
Is it too conspiratorial to suspect a secret deal between the Clintons and McCain?
Apr 15, 2008 – 12:35 am
Apr 15, 2008 - 9:20 pm 26. Bill Bradley:Actually, Obama is not the beneficiary of affirmative action.
>Hotpatch 6:
I would almost feel sorry for Obama (and his unlovely spouse)if they were not so insufferably liberal. But, hey, they are the end result of all that Affirnmative Action and Equal Opportunity we have been force-fed for decades. Now that they have attended the finest schools, become wealthy, and are permitted to hob-nob with the liberal elites, they can both take delight in denigrating the country that put them both where they are. But that is what liberal do. No surprises there!
Apr 15, 2008 – 12:05 pm
Apr 15, 2008 - 9:21 pm 27. Bill Bradley:Actually, I wrote a 2000-word piece on this controversy.
“Marxist arrogance.” That would certainly be debatable, wouldn’t it?
>Ed Wallis:
Mr. Bradley, you, like too many others, focus on IMHO the wrong part (i.e. “bitter”) of his speech.
Bitter is debatable. Not so marxist arrogance.
Apr 15, 2008 - 9:25 pm 28. Bill Bradley:I have a pretty good idea what this guy is. He’s fairly exotic. Not the conservative stereotype, however. Nor the liberal one. That church, btw, is known in Chicago as a buppie church. Do you know what buppies are?
Kind of complicated to get into in a comment.
Fortunately, we have plenty of time to get into the question of Barack Obama, because he is going to be around for a long time.
>huxley:
Just as Obama is being pushed by his partisan enemies as an elitist who is not a real American….
Bill — If you’ve got the inside on who Obama is, I for one would really like to know. Any presidential candidate who can sit in the pews of a black power church for twenty years and who is on a first name basis with Weather Underground bombers may conceivably be a real American, but he is certainly a strange one.
Who is Obama? I listen to his speeches, I read his memoir, and I follow his campaign, but I can’t figure this guy out.
Apr 14, 2008 – 12:48 pm
Apr 15, 2008 - 9:28 pm 29. Believer:Who is Obama? I’m not sure even he knows. And I am sorry for him.
I think he’s a lost soul – one who didn’t get the nurturing he needed in his early years; if ever. And this has skewed his judgment and led to his making some very poor choices throughout his life.
He is not the man who should be leading our country. Not now, or perhaps ever.
I wish he’d remove himself from the campaign. Go home, and with his wife and children begin to consider just how fortunate they are to live in this wonderful country. To learn to be grateful. To see the good in who we are as a nation and people. And that instead of trying to change us, be reminded of our noble founding. And how we need to stay true to that.
And then I wish he’d go to his church. I wish he’d stand up and tell the congregation that it’s wrong what they’ve been taught. That together they have to get beyond the pain of the past. To put their faith in God to change their hearts. That just as God has forgiven us our sins, we’re to also forgive those who’ve sinned against us.
If Obama were to return to political life after doing those things, I believe we’d see a different Michelle. A different Barack. And a different congregation at Trinity United Church of Christ.
Mr. Obama would have something concrete he could show us that would prove his worthiness to lead. He wouldn’t have to worry about saying the wrong thing. He’d have a different political agenda, I’m sure.
And he’d probably get my vote.
Apr 16, 2008 - 1:18 am 30. Dennis:I can’t imagine why in the World that Barak refuses or can’t bring himself, to wear even a lapel pin flag…even after knowing how much the flag means to a lot of people in this country. Exactly what kind of Statement is he making? Is it that he’s ashamed of the Flag of the US? Is it that he wants to be CIC but will not honor the very Flag that he intends to send Troops into War with? Is he just another Hippie Yuppie who cares for nothing except himself..or is he just plain Stubborn & Ignorant?
Apr 17, 2008 - 4:27 pm