Patterico's Pontifications

4/13/2008

Deconstructing Obama’s Statements about Small-Town Americans

Filed under: 2008 Election — DRJ @ 3:00 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

From Victor Davis Hanson posted at the Corner:

“Here is what Sen. Obama said:

“You go into 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.”

Here is what Sen. Obama now says he said:

“So I said, ‘Well, you know, when you’re bitter you turn to what you can count on,’ ” he continued. “So people they vote about guns, or they take comfort from their faith and their family and their community. And they get mad about illegal immigrants who are coming over to this country or they get frustrated about, you know, how things are changing. That’s a natural response.”

VDH’s analysis of Obama’s statements piece-by-piece, with Hanson’s comments in bold:

Then: “And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them …”

Now: ‘Well, you know, when you’re bitter you turn to what you can count on,’ he continued. “So people they vote about guns, or they take comfort from their faith and their family and their community.”

“1. Note how version #1’s “cling” becomes version #2’s “vote about” and “take comfort from”—as the condescending dismissal becomes empathetic understanding.

2. Note how version #1’s “religion” and “antipathy to people who aren’t like them” becomes version #2’s “faith” and “their family and community” —as fundamentalist xenophobes now become beleaguered folks who band together against the unfairness.”

Then: “And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to … anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Now: “And they get mad about illegal immigrants who are coming over to this country or they get frustrated about, you know, how things are changing. That’s a natural response.”

“3. Note how version #1’s “anti-immigrant” becomes version #2’s “mad about illegal immigrants” —as the nativist who opposes all immigrants, legal and illegal, now becomes understandably angry only about those coming here illegally.

4. Note how version #1’s “as a way to explain their frustrations” becomes version #2’s “they get frustrated about” as the misguided scape-goaters become those who react understandably to adversity.

5. Note no explanation in version #2 for version #1’s “anti-trade sentiment”—and no wonder since Obama himself is embarrassed that so far he’s voiced far more “anti-trade sentiment” than those he caricatured.”

6. Note how version #1’s “And it’s not surprising then they get bitter” becomes version #2’s “your’e” and “you” and “Thats a natural response”, as the condescending use of the embittered and distant “they” now morphs into a kindred “you” and the quip “not surprising” becomes the sympathetic “natural.”

Finally, VDH notes that what Obama didn’t say tells us more than what he did:

Then: “You go into 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.”

Now: “_______”

“7. Note how version #1’s idiotic logic that Middle-America has only become religious or pro-gun in the last 25 years as a result of job loss is simply omitted [in the second version].

8. Note how there is sudddenly no “context” for the landscape of version #1: an elite Bay-area audience that is told stories about those Pennsylvanian gun-toting zealots.”

I have thought for some time that Obama is trying to adopt John Edwards’ “Two Americas” strategy but Obama’s version isn’t as refined as Edwards’. Some have speculated that may be why Edwards hasn’t endorsed Obama. Ultimately, Obama will have to come up with something more than change for his platform so I expect that, in the future, he will refine his message to sound more like John Edwards’.

— DRJ

48 Responses to “Deconstructing Obama’s Statements about Small-Town Americans”

  1. I suspect Obama would like to get his hands on the person who recorded his comments in a “closed to the press” fund raiser. He thought he was among friends and his friends don’t include working class whites.

    Mike K (86bddb)

  2. In related news from flyover country (Orange County) Skyy Vodka was almost sold out at my grocery store.

    Off topic: does anyone else have a problem with this page loading in fully, or is it my computer?

    Patricia (f56a97)

  3. There is some slow references to sitemeter bogging the site down for awhile now.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  4. Okay, so what Obama said in the first place wasn’t bad enough, now he’s lying about what he said.

    I know Levi’s still supporting Obama, but are there any rational people who would support him after yet another foot-in-mouth incident like this?

    Steverino (6772c8)

  5. ^ Yes. Obama is the enemy-of-my-enemy candidate.

    Vermont Neighbor (629f2e)

  6. Well, Obama is also the candidate of the “lesser of two evils” people who have a rational allergic reaction to the Clinton family’s lack of ethics. The koolaid is just their way of numbing their own guilty conscience.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  7. Well he does seem to enjoy the taste of expensive Italian leather–based on the number of times he puts his left foot in his mouth.

    I had believed that Obama was a truly gifted speaker. I read his “race speech” from Philadelphia and thought it was a fine piece of writing–strictly from a technical point. Because he so carefully chose his words (if statements were “controversial” he was agin ’em–but he never ever told you just what it was he disagreed with where Reverend Wright was concerned) you knew the speech had to be read from a teleprompter. You did not want to slip up and either add or subtract a word from the carefully crafted text.

    And as a technical matter, I thought Obama was able to parse his words with even more ability than Bill Clinton. Now you could say that all of this was slippery, shifty, weasely and lawyer like (sorry there Patterico and Beldar and some of my fellow lawyers on the blog) but you had to admire the ability to step through the rhetorical minefield. Sad to say, when you got down to the bottom of the speech where Obama prescribed solutions for all of this, he was just another late 60’s radical Democrat. He may well have the ability to blind people with his brilliance, without having to baffle them with the usual bullshit.

    But the man does have a problem when he gets off a scripted speech. He just instinctively shoves that Gucci loafer in his mouth again. That, I hope, will cost him in the general election. After all with his promise to go out and talk to all of the world’s leaders “without preconditions”, it’s dangerous to have a fellow who sometimes opens his mouth without fully engaging his brain.

    Mike Myers (31af82)

  8. Get your page loading test results right here

    Test Loading Details

    Looks like the traffic counter is causing a major loading hit based on the data

    SlimGuy (ea6549)

  9. My browser is enabled with a bunch of web developer add ons that can look at all aspects of what a page does and all the source code including java scripts and php and CSS that is used beyond just the normal viewing of the page source code.

    I just did five refreshes of this very page and ended up with an average refresh time of over 25 seconds with my browser doing a big stall on the sitemeter loading

    SlimGuy (ea6549)

  10. onStatusChange – 1469ms: status Waiting for patterico.com…
    Transferring data from patterico.com…
    onStatusChange – 1562ms: status Transferring data from patterico.com…
    http://rpc.blogrolling.com/display.php?r=7157837ea0474f1d10412dcd9a2702ea
    onStateChange – 1328ms: start, 3359ms: transferring, 3500ms: stop
    Waiting for rpc.blogrolling.com…
    onStatusChange – 1406ms: status Waiting for rpc.blogrolling.com…
    Transferring data from rpc.blogrolling.com…
    onStatusChange – 3359ms: status Transferring data from rpc.blogrolling.com…
    2501 bytes (79488 bytes total)
    onProgressChange – 3359ms: progress 2501 bytes (79488 bytes total)

    =====================

    onStateChange – 4265ms: start, 25234ms: stop
    Connecting to http://www.qoona.com...
    onStatusChange – 4297ms: status Connecting to http://www.qoona.com...
    http://t1.extreme-dm.com/i.gif
    onStateChange – 25172ms: start, 25500ms: stop
    Connecting to t1.extreme-dm.com…
    onStatusChange – 25250ms: status Connecting to t1.extreme-dm.com..

    ==================

    SlimGuy (ea6549)

  11. 1 antipathy to people!!!!
    2 “frustrated about, you know, how things are changing” !!!!

    In version one Obama is obviously using big words to show how he’s a better, more elite person than anybody! In version two he tries to cozen all the smart, hard working people out there by telling them “they know” as if he really thinks that anyone except himself knows anything!

    See??!! See??!!! Even if he’s not a secret terrorist Hussein agent or crypto commie racist who will make us all give our jobs up “minorities” he’ll obviously botch up every foreign policy negotiation he gets into and allow terrorists to just fly planes all over the place! We KNOW coz of this Single paragraph in this SINGLE SPEECH! We knew it all along of course only now we have the proof!

    Haw haw haw. Parsing is so silly when you have one speech to parse. It all depends on what the meaning of the word “is” is.

    EdWood (c99408)

  12. Look close at those two line from the log graph cut that are labeled on state change…they tell the story.

    onStateChange – 1328ms: start, 3359ms: transferring, 3500ms: stop

    onStateChange – 4265ms: start, 25234ms: stop

    SlimGuy (ea6549)

  13. Thanks for the comments and information about the website performance. I’ve emailed Patterico about it. There were problems yesterday, too, but as yet he’s not sure why. It seems to come and go.

    DRJ (a431ca)

  14. http://www.qoona.com seems to be causing the problem. I can’t get that page to load either–maybe that’s a good thing.

    Patricia (f56a97)

  15. Ed, you sound bitter. Matbe you should cling to a gun or something.

    daleyrocks (906622)

  16. Decent looking, good speaker when he has a script, taste for hanging with utter loons…wish he’d gone Hollywood instead.

    Foxfier (74f1c8)

  17. ^ Yes. He has star quality. Maybe a remake… a political thriller. All The President’s Typical White Men. Or something.

    Vermont Neighbor (629f2e)

  18. I have thought for some time that Obama is trying to adopt John Edwards’ “Two Americas” strategy but Obama’s version isn’t as refined as Edwards’. Some have speculated that may be why Edwards hasn’t endorsed Obama. Ultimately, Obama will have to come up with something more than change for his platform so I expect that, in the future, he will refine his message to sound more like John Edwards’.

    My guess would be that Obama is very conflicted about whether to follow this strategy. He knows that it is catnip to a certain segment of the Democrat coalition, but on the other hand I think he is smart enough to notice the amount of flack Edwards took for flying the class warfare flag while being a wealthy trial lawyer living in a huge house. Michelle Obama has dipped her toe (or, more accurately, has waded waist deep) into those waters with her “Oh, it was so hard for us to pay back our law school loans” and her “Gee, it is so difficult paying for our kids’ Esperanto tutor and harp lessons” speeches, but no doubt the Obamas have noted how she was pilloried for that string of fatuousness.

    Obama is no doubt still searching for a way to connect with people who are feeling economic anxiety, without coming off as a condescending millionaire who is using middle class voters as props (did someone say John Kerry?). I think he’ll have a hard time of it, even for someone with his oratorical skills.

    JVW (835f28)

  19. You are welcome

    I might email Pat later with the specifics on the plugins I am using for Firefox that show all this stuff…don’t know how up he is on the site or if some tech type does it for him.

    But just by using the website I linked earlier anyone can test load the site and graphically see where the bogs are if there are any.

    SlimGuy (ea6549)

  20. If when trying to access this page or any your browser still allows you to scroll to the bottom of the page you will see that it hangs loading just before the last two icons at the bottom of the page load up just below the sitemeter icon.

    The one hanging is the extreme-dm.com gif image which if you click that when it finally loads takes you to their statistics page for this site.

    In any event that seems to be the one causing the issue.

    Haven’t looked at the code to see if it is being loaded by the main page code the CSS or java script since there are so many to sort through and I stay a bit busy some days.

    There are 7 java scripts 1 php and 2 CSS descriptors loaded so will maybe check and see where the issue is later.

    SlimGuy (ea6549)

  21. All The President’s Typical White Men. Or something.

    LMAO!

    Or “Throw My Grandma Off the Train.”

    Patricia (f56a97)

  22. Ok I believe I found the problem here.

    On the main html for the site to load (not any of the scripts) there is the code for setting up and loading a php script for the qoona trafficcounter and it is in the source code right after the part that loads up the sitemeter stuff.

    It is trying to access a script sdata.php which refuses to load..even my software monitoring the process gets a load failure while trying to access that script.

    SlimGuy (ea6549)

  23. I’ll pass that on, SlimGuy, and thank you.

    DRJ (a431ca)

  24. Just a wild guess here from looking at the code but if you load up the source for this page and scroll all the way to the bottom it will be about in the middle of the page on your screen.

    It tries to execute a java script, but what it seems to be doing wrong is it is leaving out a qualifier statement as to which version of java script is the code set.

    see other nearby examples that have the words language javascript1.2 for example so the call to load up the php file does not know which for of java it is supposed to invoke the code with.

    SlimGuy (ea6549)

  25. Daleyrocks #16,
    “you sound bitter”
    Haw haw- was it the ranting style or the ALL CAPS letters that tipped you off?

    EdWood (b623a9)

  26. “Throw My Grandma Off the Train.”

    Patricia, that role fits him to a T. Especially since he already did the run through.

    Vermont Neighbor (629f2e)

  27. Blabbering liberal demacratic biggot showing what a scoundrel he is and proving he dont deserve the whitehouse

    krazy kagu (43a7ee)

  28. Connecting with the “little people”…
    I’d suggest standing on a corner, handing out dimes; but, that didn’t really work all that well when it was tried before – that family’s reputation is still a bit tarnished.

    Another Drew (f9dd2c)

  29. Rasmussen reports that:

    56% Disagree with Obama’s Comments on Small Town America

    http://rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/56_disagree_with_obama_s_comments_on_small_town_america

    Ohnoes!!!!!

    daleyrocks (906622)

  30. “Ed, you sound bitter. Matbe you should cling to a gun or something.”

    -daleyrocks

    Heh heh heh… awesome.

    “I know Levi’s still supporting Obama, but are there any rational people who would support him after yet another foot-in-mouth incident like this?”

    – Steverino

    Yes (that is, I’m still supporting Obama).

    I don’t care if he’s an elitist. I care if he executes the will of the congress and proposes sound policy (both foreign and domestic) in line with my ideological beliefs. It’s not like Clinton is any less elitist (although she may pretend otherwise, slamming boilermakers with the townies and all… which is pure, transparent condescension in my eyes), and neither of them can be any worse than John “I’ve Got Eight Homes” McCain.

    Besides, I’d rather Obama said what he meant than pretend to be a faux-folksy Man of the People (who coincidently went to Andover and Yale on his daddy’s dime/coattails)… if you get my drift.

    Leviticus (b987b0)

  31. Besides, I’d rather Obama said what he meant

    The problem isn’t so much him saying what he meant: it was bad enough that he has so much contempt for a wide swath of America. The problem is he turned around and lied about what he said.

    This is just one of several recent attempts by Obama to spin a misstep. From the outset, we were all told to be in awe of his speaking ability. But he’s no better thinking on his feet than any of his opponents, and it shows. Given his failure to distinguish himself on this attribute and his utter lack of experience, I just don’t see any reason to support him.

    Steverino (e00589)

  32. Obama is a lying bigot. I am seeing his supporters are either glassy eyed kool-aid drinkers or far left lunatics who have such a warped version of reality that they are not to be considered when discussing national policies.

    Obama is just more poop from the Daley machine.

    PCD (5ebd0e)

  33. This is just one of several recent attempts by Obama to spin a misstep. From the outset, we were all told to be in awe of his speaking ability. But he’s no better thinking on his feet than any of his opponents,

    You can’t be serious. McCain is confusing the sects in Iraq, Hillary’s having imaginary sniper flashbacks, and Obama’s no better than them for this? What’s even wrong about it? It’s not a lie that there are people that cling to religion and guns, he’s expounded further on his point, he’s clarified himself, do you care about any of that? How does this show he’s worse on his feet than John McCain, who needs Joe Lieberman to follow his old ass around and whisper answers in his ear?

    Levi (76ef55)

  34. Levi, if you ever become a political professional, here’s some handy advice: It’s bad politics to call the voters racists, to call them gun nuts, or to demean their religion. It’s double-bad to follow it up by saying “Everybody knows this is true.”

    Of course you’ll object that Obama never said or never meant any such thing. Which brings us to lesson two: All that matters is the message the voter gets.

    As Jack Lemmon said in Glengarry Glenross, “If you’re going to make something up, be sure that it helps.”

    Glen Wishard (02562c)

  35. “Given his failure to distinguish himself on this attribute and his utter lack of experience, I just don’t see any reason to support him.”

    Oh c’mon steverino did you see any reason to support him before? (real question). Shall we hunt down every speech to every interest group that prez’s and prez candidates have made and tally all the weird bobbles are mis-spoke myselfs and “condescending” remarks for the last four elections and then decide who was actually “worthy” to be president based on that?

    I agree with Leviticus, but the whole point of all the parsing of Obamas speech is to try and prove that O is NOT saying what he really means and that he IS pretending to be a Man of the People (Maybe not folksy).

    Still clinging to my gun and I still think a single speech isn’t sufficient to prove that “the mask has slipped” or that a candidate cant “think in the moment” about anyone.

    EdWood (c2268a)

  36. Obama is a classic Marxist. He thinks everything relates to the economic situation of the citizens and that government has the answers to all of our problems if we just vote for the right people to help us. He just does not understand what freedom is all about. He would enslave us all to the state.

    Zelsdorf Ragshaft III (e18128)

  37. The main significance is not that Obama’s mask exists, everyone except Levi knows he’s a fraud. The main significance is that he is showing that he is amateur hour. Democrats are so desparate to escape the Clinton dysfunctional family, that they’ve pinned their hopes on an amateur who is not ready for national exposure.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  38. Levi, live evil and vile.

    cfbleachers (4040c7)

  39. It is hilarious how Levi sneers about Lieberman, the only adult in the Democratic party … so he had to be purged.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  40. Hey, I don’t think Levi’s evil.

    You’re welcome!

    Another Drew (f9dd2c)

  41. Besides, I’d rather Obama said what he meant than pretend to be a faux-folksy Man of the People (who coincidently went to Andover and Yale on his daddy’s dime/coattails)… if you get my drift.

    Why do we have to bring Howard Dean into this?

    JVW (835f28)

  42. I found this hilarious bit in a WSJ article linked by a commentor on Tim Blair’s site:

    Sen. Obama has encountered other problems in trying to connect with rural whites. At a campaign stop in Adel, Iowa, he drew cringes when he asked a crowd of farmers: “Anybody gone into a Whole Foods lately and seen what they charge for arugula?” The upscale, organics supermarket chain doesn’t have a single store in Iowa.

    That’s hilarious. What an amateur clown.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  43. Pennsylvania voters seem to not be happy that Obama is “saying what he meant”.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  44. There are people in small town PA are having rough times, no doubt.

    Obama makes a statement about what people turn to in rough times and he is instantly branded as “elitist.”

    “There are no atheists in foxholes” is what we have heard from the right for decades. As it turns out, that statement is elitist sociology, by God!

    Well, we can’t expect those uneducated, small-town folks to comprehend Obama’s high-minded proclamations, now can we?

    Psyberian (d18acc)

  45. SPQR #44,

    Obama’s response to his drop in the polls in PA is here. (Mild language warning.)

    nk (6b7d4f)

  46. Pysberian, I think small town folks comprehend Obama just fine.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  47. Obama makes a statement about what people turn to in rough times and he is instantly branded as “elitist.”

    Context. Remember? It was a fundraiser. He was there picking pockets. He knew his audience, he was flattering his audience and he wouldn’t talk to anyone like that thisclose to a ballot box.

    Context.

    Vermont Neighbor (629f2e)


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