"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 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."Obama claims he was expressing empathy for them, not condescending. I'd have to say that the empathy part was a little hard to gather from these comments without taking Obama himself into context. Should he apologize for them? Maybe, but I would wait until he had opportunities to do so face to face rather than with some staged press statement or during an interview with some reporter. And he needs to do it quickly.
Still it's telling about how thin-skinned we are when someone tells the truth about the desperate conditions in small-town America and people automatically assume the guy's being condescending. I would personally rather hear the truth told to me in a brutal way rather than be pandered to.
Now here's Clinton's response:
"Pennsylvania doesn't need a president who looks down on them. They need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, your families."
Ugh. Talk about condescending. Forget about switching pronouns mid-stream, it's just the typical sound-bite political discourse that advances nothing, says nothing, and for thinking people, inspires nothing.
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