How "Bitter" Are Voters About Obama Comments?
Sen. Barack Obama's comments about rural Pennsylvanians being bitter over their economic situation has touched a nerve. But exactly whose nerve may be the question.
Over the weekend, the blogosphere, political pundits and cable news networks buzzed with talk about the remarks and whether or not they would derail Obama's campaign. But in the rural communities that were the focus of Obama's remarks, there does not seem to be anywhere near the outrage that there was in the media.
In a USAToday story, Ken Dilanian reports that in interviews with over a dozen people in heavily Republican York County Pennsylvania, "even conservative Republicans couldn't muster the sort of outrage over Obama's remarks that Clinton backers were expressing Sunday."
Several McCain supporters here said the comments wouldn't play well among rural Americans. But nearly everyone allowed that, in fact, many small-town residents are indeed bitter."Hell, yeah, they're bitter," said Harold Creager, a retired phone company technician who was sipping coffee in Rutter's, a convenience store. "George Bush has been a disappointment. The economy. Jobs. Immigration -- we're being invaded."
Philly.com columnist Jon Baer, "a native-born, small-town Pennsylvanian, a son of native-born, small-town Pennsylvania parents - one from the coal region, one from Lancaster County," writes that Obama was "basically right on target."
"What's offensive to me is suggesting that small-town, working-class, gun-toting and/or religious Pennsylvanians are somehow injured by a politician's words. Are you kidding me? They're injured all right, but the injury is long-term and from lots more than 'just words.' "
The Indianapolis Star interviewed people in Muncie and found a similar lack of anger from voters, but they did find that many wanted the candidates to stop bickering.
"Senator Obama was a working folk himself, and outside of the realm of campaigning, I think [Clinton's] view would change," said Wayne Davis, 55, a machine operator, who is leaning toward voting for Obama. "I'd like for them to focus more on the issues and less on the other candidate."
NPR's Washington Editor Ron Elving said on Day to Day that it would not be "beyond the realm for Obama to consider something like the speech he gave after the Wright sermons went out to on video. Not to address race, but to address the very issues that he was trying to raise that people are distracted from their economic by social questions and social issues." But Ron does point out that whenever there is a debate of economics versus social interests, Democrats have almost always been on the losing end.
2:10 PM ET | 04-14-2008 | permalink
