Caren Bohan
Reuters
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama came under fire on Friday for saying small-town Pennsylvania residents were "bitter" and "cling to guns...
Caren Bohan Reuters Saturday, April 12, 2008
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama came under fire on Friday for saying small-town Pennsylvania residents were "bitter" and "cling to guns or religion," in comments his rivals said showed an elitist view of the middle class.
Obama's Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain both pounced on the comments Obama made last weekend at a fundraiser in San Francisco.
Video of the fundraiser, which was closed to the press, surfaced as Obama was campaigning in Indiana, trying to highlight issues of concern to working-class voters, such as job losses and rising mortgage foreclosures.
"You go into some of 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," Obama, an Illinois senator, said.
"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," he said.
Clinton, a New York senator who is battling Obama for the Democratic nomination and the right to face McCain in the November presidential election, said in Philadelphia the comments showed Obama "looks down" on voters in Pennsylvania, which holds a closely watched nominating contest on April 22.
"Pennsylvania doesn't need a president who looks down on them," she said told a rally. "They need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, your families."
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I'd like to hear the fallout if a WHITE presidential candidate went up there and stereotyped Muslims, or assumed that ALL Black or Hispanics are drug dealers:
You'd never hear the end of it.
Funny that gun owners get villified, when the people doing the attacks (Hollywood, the Media, and Capitol Hill Lawmakers) all have their OWN guns.
You gonna' tell me that Obama, or Hillary and Bill don't own them? Yeah, and I have beachfront property in Arizona, I'll sell it to you ;-)
Thought police punish you or prevent you from holding a certain opinion. I'm just telling you it's wrong. There's a difference. But it's pretty obvious you're not really interested in an intellectually honest discussion, because your first statement (just because someone doesn't have the same beliefs...) is pure strawman BS. What makes you stupid is having irrational or unsupported ideas.
Do you even know what a strawman is? A strawman would be if I told you that "God exists" because "you called God's believers stupid." I never claimed such a thing. I just pointed out your ad hominem.
And even if I did use a strawman, if you can use an ad hominem in your argument, I don't see why I can't use strawmen. Don't set the rules for other people if you're not planning on following them yourself. This "intellectually honest discussion" ended when you started calling people stupiid.
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You'd never hear the end of it.
Funny that gun owners get villified, when the people doing the attacks (Hollywood, the Media, and Capitol Hill Lawmakers) all have their OWN guns.
You gonna' tell me that Obama, or Hillary and Bill don't own them? Yeah, and I have beachfront property in Arizona, I'll sell it to you ;-)
And even if I did use a strawman, if you can use an ad hominem in your argument, I don't see why I can't use strawmen. Don't set the rules for other people if you're not planning on following them yourself. This "intellectually honest discussion" ended when you started calling people stupiid.