Unelectable
By Bud White on April 14, 2008 at 10:10 AM in Barack Obama, Clinton, Current Affairs, Electoral College, Elitism, Hillary Clinton, Obama, Patriotism, Superdelegates
The message coming out of the Clinton campaign on Sunday is that Obama has rendered himself unelectable.
On Sunday, Obama said Hillary should be ashamed for bringing up Snob-gate.
The Clinton Team fired back with this:
Sen. Clinton does know better — she knows better than to condescend and talk down to voters like Senator Obama did. Senator Obama’s outburst won’t change the fact that he has embraced his characterization of the millions of Americans who live in small towns.[Emphasis Added]
This is a powerful argument for three reasons. First, it reminds Democrats who are hungry for victory that Obama is not fully vetted. Second, it sends a message to the superdelegates that Obama is now fatally wounded against McCain in November. And third, it speaks most immediately to blue collar Democrats in Pennsylvania that Obama is the elites’ choice.
“Democrats have reached out to me to say that we can’t afford for people to believe that the Democratic Party is elitist and out of touch. Because honestly, how do we expect people to listen to us if we don’t hear them and we don’t respect their values and their way of life?…We’re at a point in America where we need to be bringing people together to help solve our problems…People don’t need a president who looks down on them; they need a president who stands up for them.”
The New York Times interviewed the legendary expert on rural politics, Mudcat Saunders. He deserves to be listened to closely: “David Saunders, a Democratic strategist and rural advocate, advised John Edwards’s presidential campaign but is now neutral. He said he believed that Mr. Obama’s comments would offend rural voters…It could mean he’s rendered himself unelectable,” Mr. Saunders said. “This is a perfect example of why Democrats lose elections.”
Rise, Hillary Rise!
Another bit of elitist crap for Barack’s wife Michelle. I just found this on the Taylor Marsh website.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1972093/posts
Michelle Obama is in synch with her man. Too bad they are not in synch with the rest of America.
According to Michelle Obama, my soul is broken.
My eyes, ears, and brain are working and they are telling me that Michelle should stick to matters that she knows about because she surely doesn’t know anything about my soul.
I don’t have a soul to break.
Nuff said…….stick a fork in him he’s done.
Do not count things out so fast, Obama still controls the media and they are spinning it again, there is 8 days to go, and unless the pressure is put on full force things can change!
Clinton needs to keep the pressure going and so does everyone else, this guy is a jerk most thinking people already knew, and Larry has doen a good job with his associates in keeping the reality of Obama in focus, but letting a guard down on a poll isn’t going to win anything!
Keep the fight on Obama going and his defence CANNOT turn into placing Clinton on the defense again!
Demand answers from Obama on everything and everything he has and does say from now on!
I’m interested in the falsification of the eeconomic record. Small town USA did ok during the nineties.
It’s one area that Obama shouldn’t be going after the Clinton record.
IWR vote, Healthcare failure, welfare reform are open season. but heavens above–the economy in the 90s was good.
Salo, YES.
That is the worst thing he said. Why would he want to slam a fellow Democrat who was great for the economy. Dividing his own party, not giving credit to an excellent presidency, the best in over fifty years.
That’s what Clinton campaign should be repeating again and again.
And also, her Green program for the economy. I noticed Obama has copied the concept, talking about it as his own.
every dem has talked about “Green Collar” jobs–to be fair. Gore probably koined it.
i would like for senator annointed to address what the dim leaders in congress were doing while these bad economic times took place this past 25 years. you know senator, the ones currently supporting you. duh!
I really do think some thought needs to be given to how Barry the Ignorant is framed.
Whenever I see him labeled as a Democrat I cringe. He is not a Democrat.
He is a newish species of tool for the Uber-Rich and I really think we should call him what he is:
Liebercrat.
He poses a mortal danger to the progressive movement and calling him what he is would go a long way to defusing this.
Sorry Bud. Your girl is going down.
Sorry Bud. Your boy is going down.
New poll from ARG for Pennsylvania. When they polled on Apr 5-6 it was even 45-45%. The poll done Apr 11-13 shows it 57-37% Hillary.
I think that this says it without oversaying it, except, in your case, Kevin …
SCREW YOU BARACK!
Speaking of going down, did folks see that piece claiming that Obama has been on the down low? Sinclair is the man’s name, I believe.
What man of heterosexual taste would marry that termagent Michelle?
Maybe we should see if their kids look like Rev. Wright.
Or Tony Rezko.
Standard pre-primary drivel. She’ll win PA.
Embarrassingly so.
Oh look. A poll of one. Cool.
ROFLOL!
are you expecting Obama to win Pennsylvannia?
She’s likely to lose the overall nomination because the superdels will want to avoid a riot in Denver but she appears to be “quids in” for Pennsylvannia.
Exactly. We are picking a presidential nomination out of fear of riots. How many things can you find wrong with this picture in November?
That’s my take on it. But it is a real fear.
The hardcore antiwar faction will not spare the rod in 2008.
fear of riots. ???
Bring it on Denver. …’cause democracy ain’t just words.
I don’t not advocate violence in any way, but to make a choice based on fear of any kind is “Stupid is as Stupid does” .
Salo I am not picking on you. But where ever you stand now with that “fear of yours” , next year could be in front of a US tank ala China. Democracy is not easy.
and because of that logic (fear of riots), we may nominate a loser for the gen in November (Barry) and the Repubs will again control the White House.
All those billionaires that Barry met at the Getty’s will be fine. It will be the middle class that withers away.
a riot in Denver? All those disappointed hispanic voters?
If she wins the nomination based on superdelegates breaking for her I predict there will be a riot in Denver–i’ve seen it threatened in a few corners of the blogosphere.
The hardcore antiwar faction will go nuts at the very least. The anarchists are likely to turn up like they did in LA in 2000.
convention frying pans and november fire.
And do dumb white boys, both black and white, riot like they googlebomb, um, all limp and trolled like?
Thanks for the heads up.
Again, the stupidest people on earth, using the threat of violence as blackmail.
Well, by all means, do what you have to…
The press would hype up any thing and turn it into 1968.
If they want to guarantee the White House and Republicans control of Congress for the next couple of decades than by all means riot.
I don’t see the rioters of 1968 as glamorous, the Ayers don’t impress me.
Talk about bratty children…
And I think Kristol is the Republican side of that coin.
Ayers is a psycho.
“I feel we didn’t do enough.”
–Bill Ayers-2001
Didn’t Bush have presidential excutive order that if there is civil unrest he could block the election? Way to go Obama people. I am angry with the democratic party ,that in a year where there should be no question of winning the election, they shove this loser idiot down out throats.
And do dumb white boys, both black and white, riot like they googlebomb, um, all limp and trolled like?
LOL! They won’t riot. They would spill their lattes if they did that. LOL!
Party elites rioting. That should be pretty scary for a bunch of ranchers.
P.S. I’m from Colorado and I have no desire tosee my state trashed, but I am not scared of obamabots.
There will be thousands of peace protestors there this year. The Battle of Seattle.
They won’t riot, Salo.
They just want you to THINK they will.
You and the superdelegates.
Not gonna work.
I would rather have that then Barack Obama in charge of our lives. This man spells Blood.
Then all those bitter people should just bring their guns.
i think we are looking at the threat of riots by the aa community if their candidate doesn’t get the nomination. that is why they are trying to chase hillary out of the race. somebody needs to can brazile’s rear out very soon.
and if these threats are made or enacted on national television this summer, count on the dims losing the presidency and the possibility of a minority (successful)presidential candidate for a generation. heck of job there, barry!
I have thought this all along. Why else would Dean throw FLA and MICH away? He is afraid. We are being blackmailed by the threat of violence. I remember well, Roland Martin slipping on CNN and saying, “Barack Obama had BETTER Get the nomination”.
Well, this gal says Barack better not get the nomination. What an embarrassment he will be. I can just see him talking to world leaders now.
Everyone in the US is 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.
What an impression he will make. He will come home to tell us one thing, only to find out in the morning he said something he hadn’t meant to say. I can’t wait. And Michelle. What a gem she is. She can go to Pakistan and complain about paying her college fees. What a couple. This is a mean blog, but I am so bitter.
the obamanuts don’t seem to understand, or care, that if they riot it will do horrendous harm to future candidacies of african americans who, unlike obama, would actually be good presidents, such as harold ford jr. the rioting might not be aa-led, but it would be blamed on aa’s. that’s just how it is.
of course, the ones making the threats are mostly the kids who don’t think past next week. it’s all about get rid of hillary now, without thinking that the tactics they’re using will destroy their chances in a general election. and it’s all about instant gratification, without thinking about the harm in 2012, 2016, 2020, etc.
i remember the 60s quite well - we did a lot of things that were very good. we also did a lot of stupid things. those stupid things resulted in the nixon presidency.
the obamanuts are costing us a hillary presidency and giving us a mccain presidency. i personally think a mccain presidency is far preferable to an obama presidency. but it is a tragedy when compared to a hillary presidency. the obamanuts will live a lot longer than i will, and the effects of this bad decision will be with them for many years to come.
Hillary’s not going anywhere. Mr. Hope thinks voters in small-town USA are bigots. I don’t think that will sit well with most small-town people in this country. Most don’t like being insulted by elitists like Mr. Hope and you’re going to find that out next Tuesday. Mr. Hope insulted the WRONG people…the working class. OOPS! Talk about IMPLODING.
All the older white women I KNOW, support Hillary and will write in her name if she’s not the nominee, but she WILL BE the nominee because Mr. Hope is now toast.
According to a Survey USA poll this is not true. In fact, white men are moving towrds Clinton and her lead with older white women remains the same. Full resukts below.
You cite no figures and quote just one woman. Therefore this is anecdotal in nature, and as such is mildly interesting but meaningless.
“In a Democratic Primary in Pennsylvania today, 04/08/08, two weeks to the vote, Hillary Clinton defeats Barack Obama 56% to 38%, according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for WCAU-TV Philadelphia, KDKA-TV Pittsburgh, WHP-TV Harrisburg, and WNEP-TV Wilkes-Barre. The results are almost identical to a SurveyUSA poll released one month ago. Then, Clinton led by 19. Today, 18. In between, however, in a SurveyUSA tracking poll released last week, Obama had closed to within 12 points. What happened in the past 7 days?
1st: Some of the men who flirted with Obama at the end of March have returned to Clinton. Other men have moved to the sidelines. Last week, Obama led by 7 among men. Men were 46% of likely voters. Today, Clinton leads among men. Men are 42% of likely voters.
2nd: Obama lost ground among voters age 35 to 49. A week ago, he had caught Clinton in this age group. Today, he’s down 18. By contrast, there is no movement among voters age 50+. Clinton’s lead among voters 50+ is stable across all 3 tracking polls.
3rd: In Southeast PA, which includes Philadelphia and which makes up 42% of likely Democratic voters, Clinton had a good week, Obama a bad week. Clinton is above 50% for the first time and Obama is now down by 9 in a region he must win to carry the state. In Southwest PA, which includes Pittsburgh, Clinton polls at 60% for the first time, 25 points atop Obama. Only in West Central PA, which includes Johnstown, has there been consistent movement toward Obama.
4th: Among moderates, Obama lost key ground while Clinton gained ground. Clinton now leads by 24 points, 60% to 36%. Obama also lost ground among Liberals. And while Obama’s support fell among Conservatives, so did Clinton’s.
5th: Interviewing for SurveyUSA’s 04/01/08 release, one week ago, occurred in the middle of Obama’s 6-day bus tour through Pennsylvania, which began on 03/28/08. Obama may have benefited a week ago from the media spotlight. Summary: The complete absence of movement among whites and among women is striking. Among white voters, Clinton polled at 61% in all 3 tracking polls. Among women, Clinton was at 62% a month ago, 62% last week, and 61% today. These two unwavering core constituencies help make Clinton so formidable in the Keystone state.”
And just to state the obvious, this poll was taken BEFORE the SF comments.
Older white women, OK older women, are just not seen once they hit forty, but they’re still there, very powerful.
This weekend I saw how much political clout they have, and they are ignored at the candidates peril.
Obama would have been far better off courting women, as opposed to denigrating them.
Maybe it’s a soc.man thing, given so many tech people support Obama, but given how weak, and stupid that contingent is, the elite Silicone Valley crowd supporting Obama, their technology losing THREE wars, selling themselves to anyone no matter the greater consequences, real players, man, it’s all viral, it’s no loss.
Better to expose the pus filled wound that is San Francisco, so the democratic party, and the country, can heal.
Why is she up in the polls then? You’re a total fantasy dweller.
In your dreams!! Go back to your OBAMA site.
Well now wait a minute. He IS electable if he can get Ayers to gas all Italians, White Women over 40, Jews, everybody in Florida, everybody in Michigan, and all the folks in Small Town America.
That should do it. Small job for Ayers, really.
And he won’t regret doing it, just regret that he didn’t have enough time to do it was well as he’d hoped.
Ah yes- Ayers- the reason Obama should NEVER get a security clearance- but I guess the rules don’t apply to the media choice of nominee.
Jeez, as a 42 year old Italian-American woman from a working-class blue-collar Philadelphia suburb, I should just give up the ghost here and now, eh?
Barack, my foul-mouthed Italian grandmother had a saying for people like you: Shit in your hat and pull it over your ears.
Oh you had a great talking grandmother!!!
I’m still chuckling — and it is so right on for Obama!!
I think we are past the stage of comparing Clinton and Obama. Since there seems to be so much vocal support for Obama from all quarters, the time has come for these people to examine if he will help them win their election? Unfortunately Hillary’s supporters are taken for granted and held hostage assuming that they will vote democratic no matter what. Putting aside that for a moment, all Obama’s supporters should candidly assess if their candidate will win them this election against the republicans. Envision all the ammunition he has given to republicans that will make him the weaker candidate. While at it, also envision all the things he has done to divide his own party — because many of us will not support him (why? because we were cheated out of our more viable and winnable candidate who is on the right side of all issues including FL and MI).
Electability, anyone? Winning elections, anyone?
zOMG! HALP US BAROK O’BOMBA– WE R STUCK HEAR N ALTOONA!!!!! SAV Uz!!!
LOL!
My problem with Obama isn’t just his contempt for core values of working class America.
It’s his pattern of saying one thing to people’s face, then when he thinks it’s safe, saying what he really thinks.
He rages about NAFTA to Ohio voters, then tells Canada his speech was a lot of BS rhetoric.
He asks PA to vote for him, then tells his fancy, rich friends that those voters are f*ked up backwater slugs.
He is a nice guy, but he is not a straight shooter. You can never trust what he tells you.
linking skepticism about freetrade with economic hardship and THEN suggesting it’s a false consciousness on par with “guns god and gays” should force industrial unions to reject him.
Protectionism for key industries like Steel and Defense is a perfectly respectable economic theory/measure. Simple skepticism of about “laissez faire” economics is even more respectable.Ecomomists are simply accademics with real world influence after all. Their ideas should be vigorously challenged by electorates.
Those two paragraphs are dynamite for a clever opponent–left or right.
but he is not a straight shooter & you can never trust what he tells you
To me those two traits do not equal “a nice guy.”
Obama is slime and he is ruining the Democratic Party…….what was left of it anyway.
I mostly agree with your analysis, but I long ago stopped thinking he was a nice guy.
“It’s his pattern of saying one thing to people’s face, then when he thinks it’s safe, saying what he really thinks.”
Exactly! If he had made his statements to the people of Pennsylvania, he might be able to get away with his “oh, I phrased it badly” defense. But he didn’t — he said it on the opposite side of the country for the entertainment of an elite group of his monied backers, and they apparently paid him magnificently for his performance.
In my neck of the woods, this is called talking about you behind your back and shows a definite lack of character or decency.
And where does he feel safe, among “his own?” Surrounded by the filthy-rich.
Nice guys do not stab you in the back. Barry is not a nice guy, he just plays one on teevee.
Everyone will be watching the bigots aka white votes closely. If Mr hope can’t get 30-35% in PA, IN, NC etc.. he is done OK. If the DNC and Pelosi gang still want to nominate mr hope, then they truely have a death wish.
NC will be interesting, she’s getting pounded in the polls there. Even if Hillary can come up with a tie there Barry’s done.
Ace Smith is in NC so I’ll take the polls with a grain of salt. He’s known to deliver.
I made this comment over at Anglachel’s blog, but it goes here, too:
You know the thing that creeps me out — the filthy-rich assholes who are at the heart of this little power struggle for control of the Democratic party don’t really care if we win in November or not.
They aren’t shooting to defeat McCain. They’re shooting to defeat us. If they lose the general election but shove us hoi polloi back in our place, they will count it as a victory.
Why? They’ll be fine no matter who wins. This is just one cadre of rich fucks struggling against another. The election is just the way they keep score. Their lives aren’t at stake.
I just wonder whether or not these arguments — correct and accurate — of Obama getting his ass handed to him in the GE aren’t like shooting bullets at a science fiction monster that doesn’t exist in this dimension, and so the bullets just slide right through.
Their lives are at stake, they’re just too stupid to understand the greater consequences.
And really, their lives are out stake.
They lose without a healthy middle class, and the Chinese, Russians and EU have no room for them, once they lose their money, and stop presentign the ideas they steal.
They are all really THAT mypoic, that obtuse, unsophisticated.
Geez, you could be in Iran, here, thses people are so THICK.
are, and these, sorry for the typos…
Have you ever been to Hemet?
The Silicone Valley democratic posers are the same as the pretentious of Hemet (pretensious of Hemet, not the regular residents).
They can look it, dress it and pretend it, but they can’t be it, becasue they’re not smart enough.
Is Larry Ellison still on his Ayn Rand kick?
A lot of those idiot posers were, thinking the world revolved around them, and here, those superior men and women lost three wars…
I agree I don’t think they care if McCain wins but I do think they want Congress badly. They might be figuring it would be easier to run things if there’s no dem in the WH telling them what to do.
Knock out Hillary so they can offer up the sacrificial lamb to be wiped out in November. Delinking from Obama will not be a problem. Politicians are masters of it. The gamble is it could destroy your downline ticket but at this juncture it seems dem leadership is willing to take that chance.
Janis, I think this comment is so well put that I’m putting (I hope that’s OK) on my personal blog right now.
McCain was on CNN around 11:00 am today talking about the first amendment and reporters. He wound up his talk with some remarks about O.’s comments on the “bitter” working class-McCain said the working class in small town America are the people who survived the Great Depression and went on to win WW11; they are not bitter, rather they are strong and will make the US strong again.
He appears to believe O. will win the nomination, and he [McCain] has just landed the knock out punch against O. in the GE.
It’s odd to see the first amendment and the second castigated as false consciousness.
It’s all over Dkos and MyDD…We spent years arguing about avoiding the topic of guns. Years arguing about keeping our anticlerical attitudes to ourselves and make sure it’s expressed as respectful seclarism instead.
all ruined by Obama in the blink of an eye.
I bet he can’t wait to use Obamas bullshit comparing the primary against Hillary to a Bataan Death March.
“From the Hanoi Hilton to the Bataan Death March my friends…America suffers, endures and then triumphs. Have faith in Duty and Old Glory even in our darkest hour–and we shall prevail.”
the copy writes itself.
Unelectable
Ohhhhhhhhh this could get uglyyyyyy.
Oh no, it’ll be a quick clean kill for the likes of Peggy Noonan and David Frum.
McCain can add in a series of snearing comments about:
Bataan; Hanoi Hilton; Annie Oakley; Guns, God and Government; Hope; Change; gutterball bowling; duck blinds.
And have you heard the audio book for dreams of My Father?..Miho, Obama doesn’t have a prayer–Wright might blush at some of the things that Obama wrote. Maybe he should call Wright for some guidance…or Meeks or whatever crackpot preacher will listen about the “clingy” people that reject him in November.
But we Democrats, my friends, are stuck with him now.
We aren’t yet stuck with him. The way he’s alienating voters on a regular basis — just in the past week he’s dissed pro-choice voters, gun owners, residents of small towns and rural areas, people of faith, people worried about job security, and probably several other groups I have forgotten or not heard about — I’m not sure exactly who he and his backers in the party organization think would be willing to vote for him come November. His previous ridicule of old people and women have already ruled out those two groups; and if he really believes that BS about the Republicans in Idaho voting for him, I foresee a big disappointment in his future.
Surely at some point party leaders will see the futility of continuing to prop up his candidacy and get on board with Hillary.
Party leaders are shaking in their boots from threats. I can feel it.
The only way Obama can “win” this nomination is by blocking MI and FL. If the DNC insists on being suicidal I wish they’d just by a gun and kill themselves rather than take us all out with them. We all knew he was a joke for the GE before all this. Even before Wright he had huge problems in the GE, especially after TX and OH. Now, it’s all the more glaringly obvious that he’ll be lucky to avoid a total landslide and not damage the Democratic party for a generation.
He’s already achieved that. Much to the peril of the Democratic party, which will once again be marginalized for years to come.
Leave it to the Democrats to snatch defeat from victory.
oh baby, you gotta read William Kristol’s op-ed in the Times. He may be a winger but he nails it shut. Got to get this out to the “little” people, those poor suffering, church going slobs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/opinion/14kristol.html?hp
The end of that article is great
What has Barry done that gives him the right?
Hell what he done period?
William Kristol is nut.
Really, I wouldn’t ask that idiot for the time, and my advice to others would be the same.
Really, republicans, when you wonder, if you do, WHY you lost three wars, and why you can’t implement your political agenda, start with Kristol.
Damn!
But they never do ask, they just keep losing, always pretending men like Kristol, and Freddy Kagan, get it.
They don’t, they are pseudo intellectuals.
Where oh where can I get that poster?! I want to print out about 1000 of em and plaster them all over this area right next to ovomit’s! At his election offices too. Wonder if the dim bulbs will be able to tell the dif?
Me too! Can you put up a link to the atrwork? It’s AWESOME!
Please go vote on his website… http://www.billoreilly.com/site
Bill O’Reilly has a question
Which gaffe was worse?
Hillary on Bosnia
Barack and Rev. Wright
Will Obama Pay for ‘Bitter’ Flap comment?
Post your vote
http://www.youpolls.com/details.asp?pid=2093
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/elections/20080414_Obama_camp_makes_case_for_no-shows_in_Philly_s_black_neighborhoods.html
Obama doesn’t waste his time showing up in African American neighborhoods in PA.
Obama is now swinging away wildly at everything within reach like a raging drunk.
Seriously.
I’ve checked out all of today’s