The Real Obama Emerging, Or Is Someone Feeding Him Lines?

Updated: Sunday, April 13, 2008, 2:55 pm -- More fallout from Sen. Obama's statements, this time from Michael Young at Reason magazine.

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Updated: Sunday, April 13, 2008, 11:40 am -- Sen. Obama's insulting and intellectually dishonest remarks about small town voters in Pennsylvania turning to guns and religion to deal with job stress has opened up a door for Sen. Hillary Clinton march in and use against her rival. While Obama tried to quell the furor Saturday, explaining his remarks while also conceding he had chosen his words poorly, the Clinton campaign fueled the controversy in every place and every way it could, hoping charges that Obama is elitist and arrogant will resonate with the swing voters the candidates are vying for not only in Pennsylvania, but in upcoming primaries in Indiana and North Carolina as well. Of course, Mrs. Clinton is an elitist also, but this problem for Obama is giving her an opportunity to appear the better of the two when it comes to looking down one's nose at "the little people."

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I don't know whether the man is having internal conflicts, whether he is pandering, whether someone is feeding him lines, or what.

He's either totally out of touch, or as syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin describes him, a snob.
But the latest words from the Illinois senator who would be president are not only insulting to firearms owners, people of faith, and people who legitimately and intelligently are debating immigration policy. Plus, it is creating fodder for Barack Obama's opponent, Sen. Hillary Clinton, to say that he should quit talking down at voters.

Of course, she has talked down to voters many times herself. When she was First Lady, and later when she had first been elected to the U.S. Senate, Mrs. Clinton would remark that it wasn't her intrusive, heavy government-handed proposals that were hurting businesses -- it was that small business was under capitalized. Always redirecting the blame. And let's not forget her comments about how government does a better job spending yours and my money than do . . . well, you and I.

But still, Sen. Obama has stuck his foot in his mouth again at a time when he has momentum despite the Clinton democrat machine. If you haven't seen it, here is a portion of what he said at a San Francisco fundraiser:

"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 to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

He was speaking to what I assume was an overly liberal audience of donors, and he told them what they believe. Um . . . there are people in large urban areas who are religious, who are firearms owners, and who intelligently discuss immigration and trade. Sen. Obama would probably not agree with my opinions on these issues, but I'm not talking down at him. I disagree with him. But to characterize anyone in this manner is just insulting and shows how much of an elitist he really is. And how out-of-touch his audience probably is, assuming he was telling them what they wanted to hear in order to get them to write some big checks.

There is a lot of chatter about this in the media and on the Net. I'll just give you some links to what other people are saying. Some of it pointed, some of it hilarious. But all of it critical of this man who just last week was trying to reach out to rural, firearms owners whose votes he desperately needs during the upcoming Pennsylvania primary. Check out the following:

Just One Minute
Ace of Spades HQ
Commentary Magazine
Gateway Pundit
Michelle Malkin

Snob. . . that may be what is emerging here from the Obama camp. Time will tell.