So, since today seems to be pick apart the TM day on Daily Kos (for good reason), I figured I would pile on as well.
Right now there is a news article out from the AP with the following headline:
Pa. voters divided over Obama remarks
Wha-oh! That doesn't seem like a good thing, right?
But, wait lets actually read the opening paragraph.
SHENANDOAH, Pa. - Yes, some Democrats in Pennsylvania's Rust Belt communities were upset by Barack Obama's suggestion that voters there "cling to guns or religion" because of bitterness about their economic lot. But many more seem to think it was no big deal — and if there's a problem it's with the political slapfest that has followed.
Huh?
I thought PA voters were divided on the comments?
When many more "seem to think it was no big deal" that doesn't sound like much of a division to me.
Let's read on.
"It's so difficult to watch every word," said Mary Ellen Matunis, a Clinton backer from Shenandoah.
"I was not offended," she said. "Poor choice of words, but I think it was just misspoken."
Matunis, 56, is a retired teacher in this central Pennsylvania borough of barely 5,000 residents that was once a boom town of the anthracite coal industry. But that industry has been on the decline for longer than most residents have been alive, and the textile factories that followed are gone too.
Dennis Yezulinas, another Clinton supporter in Shenandoah, said he is more offended by the rhetorical fight that followed Obama's comment than by the remark itself.
"Not just for the good of the Democratic Party, but for the good of the country, they need to make it less contentious," said Yezulinas, a former state prison guard who has been laid off from a plant that manufactures doors in a neighboring town.
Ok, so far much ado about nothing.
The article does go on to talk to a Hillary supporter who feels like "Obama insulted their intelligence." But there are also those that chalk up the quote to the "silly season."
But in my opinion, the most telling quote of the story is buried at the bottom.
Mike Zemacke, 57, said that, while Coatesville has seen better days, he's not bitter. He said he used to work as a press operator before a disability led him to retirement.
"I'm just frustrated," he said. "I used to live a lot better than this."
And that people is what Obama is talking about. People whose standard of living has plummeted. People who are living worst than their parents did.
My father once told me that he wanted me to work hard and have a more financially secure and easier upbringing than he did in Queens, NY. He's not alone, I think every generation wants to leave the country in a better way than they had it.
Unfortunately, if we do not act quickly, we are poised to break that promise to our children.
Sorry about that rant for a moment folks, the real message here is that the AP is framing this "bitter" story the way they want to. They aren't even reading their own material anymore.
Obama is fighting a war on three fronts: against Hillary, against McCain and against the Traditional Media.
Buckle up, it's going to be a bumpy ride.