Wednesday, September 01, 2010

President Clings to "Bitter Clinger" Meme

From the PostPartisan blog at The Washington Post:
... I thought President Obama struck the wrong note in answer to a question about the rally from Brian Williams of NBC News.

The president started off okay, acknowledging that “Mr. Beck and the rest of those folks were exercising their rights under our Constitution exactly as they should.”

But then he fell back on an abstract analysis eerily reminiscent of his notorious “cling to guns or religion” riff from campaign 2008:
I -- I do think that it's important for us to recognize that right now, the country's going through a very difficult time, as a consequence of years of neglect in a whole range of areas. Our schools not working the way they need to, so we've slipped in terms of the number of college graduates, you know?

A financial system that was not, you know, operating in a way that maintained integrity and assured that the people who were investing or who were buying a home or were using a credit card weren't getting in some way cheated. We had a health-care system that was broken and that was bankrupting families and businesses. All those issues are big, tough, difficult issues. And those are just our domestic issues. That's before we get to policy issues in two wars. And a continuing battle against terrorists who want to do us harm. So, given all those anxieties -- and given the fact that, you know, in none of these situations are you going to be fix things overnight. It's not surprising that somebody like a Mr. Beck is able to stir up a certain portion of the country. That's been true throughout our history.
That’s a pretty confident analysis from someone who admitted that he did not even watch the rally on TV. I’m not sure exactly how I would feel if the president labeled me an anxious member of a “certain” subculture manipulated -- “stirred up” -- by “somebody like a Mr. Beck.” But I am sure I wouldn’t feel respected.


[...]

This was such a silly political unforced error that I have to assume Obama committed it out of sincere belief...

[More]

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Obama Delegate Admits the Obvious: "Bitter" Was Indeed a Big Deal

What Obama Really Meant Was "They're Nuts"

Obama Disses Blue Collar Voters Again: Says They "Cling to Guns or Religion" Because They Are "Bitter" [UPDATED]

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