I am usually not one to pay much attention to the news media manufactured controversies over a remark made by a politician and exploited by opponents. But I feel compelled to comment on the latest episode because the issue at the center of the controversial remarks can be construed, in some ways, as the most important issue in the entire campaign (as unbelievable as that sounds.)
Last week when Barack Obama said that people who have come up against hard times in their communities "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." Hillary Clinton, still pursuing the Democratic nomination against Obama, pounced on this remark to claim that Obama is elitist, out-of-touch and unelectable in small town America. In response, Obama delivered a terrific rebuttal explaining what he meant. (Click here to read a concise summary of the entire affair.)
Elitist, condescending, out of touch - who cares? That's all the dumb rhetorical part of the controversy. Much more importantly, Obama is RIGHT. In 2004 many Americans voted to continue a senseless war in Iraq that is killing people for no reason and draining our country of resources. They voted for policies that have brought America to the brink of economic and fiscal crisis. They voted to allow unsafe mines to operate and lead-contaminated children's' toys to reach market. The voted to torture innocent people, to spy on Americans, and to ignore environmental destruction. Why did Americans vote for these policies? Three reasons: 1) because "the other guy was godless, 2) so that no Democrat would take away their guns, and 3) to insure that gay people could not get married.
We need to get people to direct their focus away from the wedge issues that do not affect our health, happiness and well-being and get the voters to consider the important, substantive issues of the day. And not just the voters of course, the major news outlets also need to emphasize important issues and get away from the red meat. Obama may have been a little off target by seeming to put the blame entirely on the people rather than on the politicians who exploit them (what I really mean is the Republican campaign apparatus), but on the core of the issue, he's right. And as important as the economy, Iraq, health care, education and the environment are, the US will not move forward in addressing these problems until more voters make their choices based on them instead of God, guns and gays.
Watch The Young Turks tackle the important issues here.
Mo Rocca has appeared on a bunch of shows, including 'The Daily Show,' 'I Love the 80s,'...
Mo's Blog Roll
Resources
Putting the Controversy Aside, Obama was Right
Posted Apr 13th 2008 10:37AM by David Koller
Filed under: Politics, Young Turks, Barack Obama, Controversy
Mo's Video
The Sound of a Smoke-Free Barack...Almost two years ago we speculated on how Barack Obama's voice would change if he stopped smoking. ...
Most Popular Stories
- Don't Like Goodbyes...
- Pittsburgh Steelers: Is it Time to get some Cheerleaders?
- How NOT to give an Oscar Acceptance Speech
- Could Jim Belushi Win the Nobel Peace Prize?
- Spring Break Sexy T-Shirt Removal Training!
- Quest for the Crown 5: Plastic Wrap to Make you Less Fat!
- Quest for the Crown 4: Work Those Heels!
Most Commented On
-
Coming Soon
Recent Comments
- Saint Brian the Godless on Obama and the Reagan Doctrine
- Saint Brian the Godless on Obama and the Reagan Doctrine
- Saint Brian the Godless on Obama and the Reagan Doctrine
- not-pboyfloyd on Obama and the Reagan Doctrine
- Ryan Anderson on Obama and the Reagan Doctrine
- Saint Brian the Godless on Obama and the Reagan Doctrine
- Saint Brian the Godless on Obama and the Reagan Doctrine
Mo's Bio
Mo Rocca appears on a bunch of shows, including CBS News Sunday Morning (with the indescribably wonderful Charles Osgood), The Tonight Show on NBC, and NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! He's a sometime judge on Iron Chef and was featured on Telemundo's Amore Descarado. Last year he starred on Broadway in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. His expose "All the President's Pets" was published by Crown in 2004.
Top News Headlines
Political Machine Blog
- Federal Panel Says Bailouts Worked, Problems Remain
- Dodd Falls Below 40 Percent Mark in Match-Ups Against GOP Contenders
- In a Political Popularity Contest, Hillary Clinton Wins
- Public Rates the Economy Over Health Reform as Top Issue by More than 2-to-1
- Obama Gets Support on Afghanistan, but Not Health Care Reform
- College Senior Embarks on a Dream: Peace-Building in Rwanda
- Obama Approval Rating Slips in Another Poll, as Does Support for Health Reform
Reader Comments ( Page 6 of 6)
76. gunless #1
Aside from all the other flaws within your post, Cory Booker? And who would you choose as his running mate? How about "Chocolate City" Naquin. Maybe "Dollar Bill" Jefferson. Or how about Kwame Kilpatrick.
As I always say: Colorfication over Qualification!!!
Paul Sparcello at 8:22AM on Apr 15th 2008
77. Could I run for President as a Republican if it were known that I published the following Bombastic Racist Rant?
["I ceased to advertise my mother's race when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to BLACKS."
"It was my father's image, the WHITE MAN, Conqueror of Africa, that I'd package all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Hitler, Attila, Mussolini and Caesar."
"To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. David Duke, the more politically active WHITE students, the EUROPEAN BLUE BLOOD students. The Vanderbilt's, Carnegie's and Astor's. The ANGLO-SAXON Professors, PATRIOTIC CONFEDERATE Feminists and SOUTHERN REBEL Poets."
"There were enough of us on campus to constitute a PHYLE, and when it came to hanging out, many of us chose to function like a CLAN, staying close together, traveling in packs."
"(I)t remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the PURE masses, to strike out and name names."
I wrote frankly about how to blame "BLACK people – the criminals, the ignorant, the faceless image of a Wealth Transfer System claiming power over our FINANCES."]
Paul Sparcello at 8:24AM on Apr 15th 2008
78. The only IMPORTANT thing that has been overlooked by all the analysts and candidates regarding Senator Obama's comment is . . . HIS WORDS CLEARLY DISPLAY A BIGOTED MIND. All he did was leave out the word, "redneck."
Fascinating. Geraldine Ferraro was just ATTACKED and called a RACIST for suggesting Barack Obama's popularity is race-based. An honest, truthful comment.
A white radio DJ lost his job for JOKINGLY referring to a female basketball team as "nappy headed 'ho's."
A white woman had the sh*t beat out of her by a gang of black students on a public city bus. NOBODY has used the word racist or suggested this ought be considered a hate crime.
Why is it acceptable for people who are not white to be bigots and racists? Do you want a President who clearly thinks working-class white people are angry idiots? Well, if you vote for him, idiot does apply.
Time for the double standard to end and perhaps more importantly, for all this focus on race and sensitivity to vanish back into the ether of unimportance from wence it was born.
Delic at 1:52PM on Apr 15th 2008
79. Bob Johnson, the billionaire founder of Black Entertainment Television says Barack Obama would not be a leading presidential candidate if he were white and that the Illinois senator's campaign has "a hair-trigger on anything racial."
Does this sound familiar to you liberal bobble headed lemmings?
http://www.kentucky.com/727/story/376512.html
Paul Sparcello at 12:23PM on Apr 15th 2008
80. Paul, are any of your rants *not* racist and bombastic? Please do run for President. In these hard times, we could all use a good laugh.
Captain Negative at 1:49PM on Apr 15th 2008
81. My dearest Paul S.
If you see so many other "flaws" in my post, please enlighten.
Also, I'll take it you approve of post #74. Thanks! I wrote it just for you!
If you actually read before ranting, you may have noticed that I made it clear I DON'T vote based on identity politics, but rather on issues. This also means that I would not NOT vote for someone based on race or gender. (I'll also take it you approve of Stephanie Tubbs Jones. Or perhaps her flaws as determined by you will be forthcoming.)
As for Cory Booker, what I know of him is that he went up against gangs to the point where he has required FBI protection, that he CHOSE to live in the slums to understand the plight of the poor, rather than to curry favor with corruption, and that he went up against an entrenched system of race demagoguery in NJ and, after a long hard fight, won.
So, again, from my info, the guy's an exemplar. Rather than courting those who peddle race division and hatred, he seems to have made a point of running on merit.
Of course, I have no doubt there are many things I don't know. Again, rather than casting your own racist aspersions, a la Obama and PA, you could give details and facts.
The VAST majority of my posts were about outsourcing, illegal immigration, and the falling dollar.
Maybe you're living in the "other" America, the one that is rich, and so have barely noticed, or maybe you just hate Hillary.
Either way, specificity and substance are appreciated over smarmy, racially-charged, incomprehensible insults.
gunless at 9:40PM on Apr 15th 2008
82. gunless: Would that be the Jones that has taken 60+ Lobbyists sponsored trips? And what great accomplishments has she under her Lobbyists supplied Prada belt? It would be nice if she got the Delay treatment from the leftist now would it!!!
As for Booker, I abhor his policy of providing a sanctuary city for scum bags like child rapist Jose Carranza that led to the execution-style slayings of three young college students.
Paul Sparcello at 2:32AM on Apr 16th 2008
83. I vote for Paul S for prez!
He knows everything!
Except he addresses none of the issues that make up the bulk of my posts. And those "choices " were obviously hypothetical, so why is that HIS focus? It wasn't mine.
But thanks for the update on Tubbs-Jones.
gunless vs. pointless at 7:33AM on Apr 16th 2008
84. gunless #82
Your post pander to the Big Government reliant whiners. You use a mix of Marxist/Fascist philosophy.
I prefer the self reliant winners and a free market/capitalist philosophy.
Paul Sparcello at 11:15AM on Apr 16th 2008
85. Paul, You're full of crap, and like George Bush, you don't appear to "do nuance."
You think if you use labels you can avoid debate. You really SHOULD be a politician!
"I know big words! I took a course in Political Science! I listen to talk radio! I know how to call people names! I know how to avoid debate and blame others while calling THEM whiners!"
There's nothing further from Marxism or Fascism in my "philosophy " or my posts (unless fair trade and border security are fascist or marxist). Again, you're long on bombast, devoid of insight or substance.
Where you're concerned, I'm outie.
Go Hillary! Stay on message. Good Luck in PA.
was gunless, now packin' at 11:07PM on Apr 16th 2008
86. #84: You regurgitate class warfare (two Americas/economic fairness) and your candidate, Hillary Clinton, advocated 'taking those profits' from business. Now explain how those "philosophies" are not to be considered Marxist/Fascist/Communist/Socialist?
Paul Sparcello at 1:56AM on Apr 17th 2008
87. Explain how bailing out mortgage companies-- which is currently happening under Bush-- and enabling ongoing corporate welfare-- rather than helping home-owners who are about to lose their homes due to usurious rates and ILLEGAL fees--makes sense.
Even a self-reliant guy like you can figure out that more homeless people means more welfare. And surely such a huge free-marketer can figure out that if the government bails out, or helps to bail out, a corporation, that's welfare.
Explain how allowing big business to employ people under the table is not another form of corporate welfare, when U.S. citizens have to foot the bill for those "undocumented' workers' healthcare. Not to mention education, the costs of ESL, etc.
All the big-business apologists like yourselves are largely responsible for the illegal immigration crisis that exists, since it went on for years under the guise of helping business. I won't burden you with supply and demand and wage theories.
To pretend there's such a thing as unfettered capitalism, or unregulated civilization of any kind, is absurd and sophomoric.
There isn't. You can't sell poison as cough medicine and say caveat emptor (well, you couldn't before Bush's version of trade with China).
There are basic laws, rules, regulations, not to mention the thing the right claims to LOVE: personal responsibility! It applies to CEOs too!
I said EDWARDS talked about two Americas, and in fact ALL economic experts agree that the U.S. middle class is endangered, that the U.S. economy itself is in crisis due to Bush's ridiculous laissez faire "management",and that the middle class is what distinguishes a non-third-world nation from the "third-world," The two classes left are-- well, the "low" and the "high." I'm sure you're not so politically correct that you mind the terms 'haves" and have-nots."
Here's a way to prove what a great Independent Industrious American you are:
Spend more time blogging your OWN original "thoughts" and less time critiquing the ideas of others. Because you're still just name-calling. You bring nothing substantive to the table.
YOU regurgitate (indeed, i know you are...). Unnecessarily snide and argumentative (this started as an analysis of Obama's remarks... remember? We supposedly AGREE they were odious)
posts like yours make the blogosphere, well,icky.
Or maybe you just get on here to argue and irritate, with no real political or human raison d'etre. Or MAYBE you work for the Turks and irritate with the purpose of profit!
And now, Paul's genius last word... I hope it's an "ist" or an "ism!!":
``````
packin' on down the road at 2:52AM on Apr 17th 2008
88. Cenk,
I heard Barack and Hillary's comments in the debate about the "bitter" line. Hillary is right. Barack is a city kid who has no clue what rural America is all about.
Take it from me. I do. I may have grown up in the
Chicago suburbs, but I've spent plenty of vacations in rural Kansas visiting relatives. The views of the average Kansasan on God and guns doesn't change, whether it's a bumper crop or drought, high crop prices or low ones, or a Democrat or Republican in the White House.
Remember that Obama was talking about the prices at Whole Foods while campaigning in Iowa. The problem is that there is no Whole Foods store in Iowa, and no Trader Joe's. Iowa just has the standard megamarts that one finds all across America.
Kent at 11:18PM on Apr 17th 2008
89. Obama has this nomination, and the Hilaricans have done all they can to hurt him... Hilary will never live this down. She's broken the democratic party, all because she was the presumptive Queen. All those corporations lost their money on her and she didn't deliver the nomination, her name is mud in all circles.
pictman at 5:47PM on Apr 19th 2008