Les Jones

Politics > Barack Obama Sticks Foot in Mouth, Pennsylvania Edition

Last summer I was convinced that Obama had no hope of being president because he said too many nutty things. Unless you read blogs you would never hear those things last year. Now that he's the frontrunner for his party the nutty thing are being heard in the major media:

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 they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush 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 guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Dear Smalltown America,

Love,
Barack Obama

Glenn Reynolds has roundups here, here, and here.

Meanwhile, Tom Maguire notes that The New York Times - the nation's "paper of record" - reports on Obama's gaffe while pushing what he actually said to the second page of the online article.

And from Stanley Kurtz:

What's the Matter With Chicago?

Why are Republicans having such a tough time winning over voters in big cities and college towns? Fundamentally, it’s a question of bitterness. You go into some of these university towns in Massachusetts, and like a lot of college towns in New England, the culture’s been gone now for 25 years, and nothing’s replaced it. And they fell through the Bok administration and the Rudenstine administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow the culture in our universities is going to regenerate, but it has not. So it’s not surprising then that as they graduate and move to big cities they get bitter. They cling to regulations, or tax schemes designed to fund government programs and unaffordable entitlements as a substitute for the decent culture they were never able to find at college.

Kurtz is making fun of Thomas Franks's What's the Matter With Kansas?, a book whose thesis is that when Kansas doesn't vote Democrat it's because those people in Kansas are so freakin' stupid, not that the Democrats are out of touch with people in Kansas.

Somebody help me out here. How is Obama any different than Mondale, Dukakis, or Kerry? He's just another Northern egghead liberal who's out of touch with ordinary Americans. Why does anyone think he'd win when those other guys lost?