Scranton, PA.
Time Tribune online
Small-town Pennsylvanians aren’t bitter; they’re optimists, steeped in family and tradition, and upset that Barack Obama would characterize them as gun-toting zealots.
That was the message Mayor Chris Doherty had at a news conference Saturday called to rebut comments recently made by Mr. Obama, D-Ill.
Mr. Doherty and supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., including other mayors and union officials, rallied outside the county courthouse, saying Mr. Obama’s remarks reflect a disconnect.
“For a man who just spent six days crossing this state saying he was listening, obviously he wasn’t listening, because he missed us,” Mr. Doherty said.
At a fundraiser outside San Francisco, Mr. Obama said people in small-town Pennsylvania cling to guns, religion and anti-immigration sentiment because they are bitter about the Rust Belt economy.
Former Scranton Mayor Jim Connors said the remarks demean people here as hicks. Mr. Obama wants to transcend stereotypes, but then he stereotyped others, Mr. Connors said.
Standing in front of the John Mitchell statue, Mr. Doherty called hunting a tradition, borne not out of spite but culture and pride. The area’s churches, he said, were built on hopes of improving life and fostering families, not because the population here is downtrodden.
Mr. Doherty pointed to economic growth and investment. He said it’s necessary to combat that negative image.
“That’s not the truth,” he said.
At Mr. Doherty’s side were Mr. Connors and the mayors from Jessup, Taylor, Freeland and Moosic, along with New Hampshire state Sen. Lou D’Allesandro.
Taylor Mayor Richard Bowen said Mr. Obama’s comments hit home beyond Pennsylvania, and he predicts it will cost the senator voters who are on the fence.
Mr. Connors said what most offends him is that Mr. Obama said these things on the other side of the country behind closed doors. Mr. Connors bet Mr. Obama wouldn’t have made such remarks in Altoona.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Obama’s campaign held its own conference call. Mayor John Fetterman of Braddock said the underlying sentiment is sincere. Small-town Americans, he said, are frustrated and angry.
“Everyone acknowledges Mr. Obama may have slipped in different words if he could do it over again, but it’s not patronizing, it’s not condescending, it’s not elitism,” Mr. Fetterman said.
Efforts by the Times-Tribune to reach U.S. Sen Bob Casey Jr., who supports Mr. Obama, were not immediately successful Saturday.
Rosemary Boland, a Clinton delegate and president of the Scranton Federation of Teachers, said while she isn’t quite offended, she disagrees with Mr. Obama and finds the remarks immature.
“He should be very careful with his words and pick the right words to use,” she said.
Wild Thing’s comment……..
This outrage is growing and I am glad. Obama has been making a habit of saying things that are crossing the line and his wife too.
What Obama said was or should be offensive to every American that loves our country.
Obama is clueless and has no soul when it comes to understanding what made this country great. It sure as hell has not been the whiners and complainers like he is, it sure as hell has not been the racist’s like he and his wife are that scream from pulpits and podiums during elections of wanting to change, Change what???? Change an America that has been just GREAT without the likes of Michelle and B. Hussein Obama that’s what!
People like Obama have a lesson to learn and count on it he will NEVER learn this one.
The President of the United States of America is President of ALL Americans.
When the liberals get their way and make government bigger over it’s citizens it effects all of us. When taxes go up it effects both dems and reps. not just one political party. And when a stupid, small minded, Soros and Muslim controlled freaking plant in our government makes a statement like Obama made and heck his wife too it concerns all of us.
When 9-11 happened there was not body count of how many Democrats there were, NOPE! But if Obama has been around I would make a bet he would be telling us how many there were and how awful it was to happen to the Democrats. Going by the statements and prejudice racist remarks out of the mouths of Michelle Obama and her arrogant race baiting husband they probably would be letting us know the amount of blacks in the Twin Towers that never made it out as well. Both Michelle and B. Hussein, are both a sad excuse of human beings.
It never ceases to amaze me that millionaire Zebra Obama thinks he has the right to speak for and represent the ghetto dwellers on one hand,
while bashing hard working and patriotic Americans with the other? A phony that lives in a mansion that speaks for someone less fortunate that lives in a project? No wonder the French used the … guillotine in 1789, oui?
It does show his immaturity as a leader.
So we’ll be stuck having to pick between a socialist and a rino–great. Just what we need for the next 4 years at least–the whole system fouled up more than it already is.
There go the tax cuts which working families desperately need and more unemployment and foreclosures.
I feel deeply that none of the candidates truly have a grip on what’s real in this Nation and what pain we’re really in. They’re in it for the prestige (I was President!), the money (lifetime salary), book and movie deals. Who cares about America? I just want to live at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. (they seem like Howard Taft’s wife–he only ran so she could be first lady.)
You go into these big cities in Illinois and, like a lot of big cities in the Midwest, the schools have been gone now for 45 years and nothing’s replaced them…And they fell through the NEA administration, and the AFT 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 crime or radical ministers or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-white sentiment or anti-Jewish sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
http://isophorone.blogspot.com/2008/04/lets-turn-obamas-words-around.html
Obama is an Afrocentric. He knows and cares more about Kenya than he knows about Pennsylvania, or Lubbock or Colorado Springs. He paises his Black relatives and degrades his White relatives. His wife is worse. He and his wife do not understand the functionability of White America, even though that is what brought them their success. He thinks everyone should be bitter and demanding in America, like much of the Black community.
Obama is a racist. His wife is a racist. His preacher is a racist. He associates with racists like Farrakhan and AlSharpton. He is a Black David Duke. Obama believes in the socialist tools of affirmative action and racial quotas. He believes in government redistribution of wealth(except for the politically connected).
If Obama is elected president, I think we will have racial unrest in the country like in the mid 60’s. Racism will be just one of a long list of disasters of an Obama administration.
The good news is that Barack Obama may have shot himself in his primary election foot with his billionaire’s row gun remarks and it wasn’t even at 3 AM. The bad news is that this inexperienced, immature, and incompetent utterance could put that equally bad and evil, two-for-one, Hillary and Bill Clinton back in the White House.
Voters should not lull themselves into thinking that Hillary Clinton is any better or less dangerous than Barack Obama. They both have the same Socialist agenda to redistribute the wealth of the country that will be controlled by a large bureaucratic government. Do you really want either one of these leftists appointing the next Supreme Court and federal judges who believe that the Constitution is a living document that they can rewrite to achieve their liberal political and social agenda? Good bye Constitution. Good bye capitalism. Hello welfare state.
Evil Barack Obama = Evil Hillary Clinton = Evil Jimmy Carter-like National Disaster
Look at those two Marxists, Hillary Clinton then at B. Hussein Obama and their role in the current democrat party then look at Congress, Pelosi, Reid and Murtha, there are similarities between them and those of the RSDLP (Democrats).
For a Harvard Graduate, he sure has a way of misspeaking, alot. Or maybe he should have put in such a way us ‘hicks’ wouldn’t have understood it. But then again I don’t think Hussein Obama is that smart. You take away his teleprompter and he is all thumbs, and he has to wing it and come up with something intelligent to say. Then it is all … Uh.. umm… and … or I don’t know. If it isn’t rehersed he stinks as a public speaker. Hell anyone can reherse a bit.
He didn’t mis-speak he said what he meant to say. it was a private ‘Rich’ party for raising money for Obama and what he said was not for publication
but for once somebody in the press did their job.
Now he is doing damage control. Hopefully it will kill his campaign. And a few more strokes of genius like this he will be washed up before the convention and it couldn’t happen a worse biggot.
Darth, yes, he even makes benig a millionaire a bad name. haha He does, I mean there are some awesome super rich in America that have sons serving in the war, are Veterans themselves and love America and oh yes they are also not only Republilcans but conservatives. But we never hear about them much because they are busy giving work to other Americans that also want the American dream.
Lynn, it is horrible I agree.
Bob thank you for the link. That is very true.
I heard on the news the other night that in most schools now only 45 percent graduate from highschool. Some even less then that. The liberals say they need more money for schools. I say NO, we need better parents making sure kids are taught they have to study and make something out of themselves, instead of getting handouts or joining gangs.
Tom, I think your right. With the attitude of Michelle and Barack it won’t just stop if he wins it will get worse. Winning to them will be like a go ahead of all their sick thinking and hate filled agenda.
Les, yes they both are horrible and will make changes to America that we may never recover from.
Jack thanks for those links.
How on earth can we fight these peoople, they are deep in our government?
I wish I knew what there was we could do. We seem to be in the minority and that scares me too. This election proved how in the minority we conservatives are.
Mark, I agree and you right too about the word “mis-speak “. Now we have a new word for outright lie….. mis-speak.