Watch For The Bait and Switch
Watch His Every Move...
By Dan McLaughlin Posted in 2008 | Obamafiles | Rube-gate — Comments (15) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
One of the things I have been watching carefully in Barack Obama's pushback at the "Rubegate" controversy over his remarks at that San Francisco fundraiser is his attempt to change the subject of what the controversy is about. With Obama, always watch for the bait-and-switch:
Read On...
Recall that Obama's response to the controversy over his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and Wright's preaching of extremist, hateful and anti-American ideas and - worse yet - outright lies (e.g., HIV being invented by the CIA) was to give a speech widely billed as a conversation about race in America. The speech itself, standing alone, was in some ways a thoughtful effort to deal with that issue, and had Obama given it unprompted it would have been a positive contribution on that issue. But what the speech actually was, was an attempt to switch the subject matter, so Obama could get headlines like "Obama takes on race in America" without actually answering the difficult questions about his "I went to the church but didn't inhale" position: whether he could continue to tout the depths of his Christian religious conviction (exactly as he is doing now) while suggesting that he wasn't really paying attention to the man he credits as his own spiritual mentor; whether he was financially supporting Wright's church and lending his own prestige as a public official to Wright's congregation without ever raising a peep of dissent; why, regardless of his and his wife's ability to shrug off Wright's poisonous rhetoric, he kept bringing his two young daughters to hear this man preach and whether he ever told them that they were being sold a bill of goods in church every Sunday.
That's why I wasn't impressed with the speech. John F. Kennedy's Inaugural ("ask not...") was a great speech; if it had been given by Richard Nixon in July 1974, it would not have been a great speech, it would have been a gigantic red herring. It's like the Lewinsky thing: a lot of people didn't like Bill Clinton cheating on his wife, but very few people wanted to throw him out of office for doing so. So Clinton made the story about whether or not he should be impeached for cheating on his wife, even though the real issue was giving false testimony under oath in a civil lawsuit and offering inducements to others to do the same, and the real issue even about the sex wasn't infidelity but rather a powerful man taking sexual advantage of a young subordinate employee in the workplace. (Hollywood went this one better with the film The American President, which suggested that the issue was exactly the same as whether a widower could date a single woman his own age who didn't work for him). That switch worked like a charm, and Obama has obviously learned to imitate the master.
The switch here (see the video above) is to say that the issue is whether or not people are frustrated over the economy. Um, no, that's not it at all. The issue is Obama's characterization of the reaction of people in small-town Pennsylvania to those circumstances - the fact that he (1) equated religion and guns with bad things people believe in only because they are frustrated, (2) suggested that people in places like central PA are racists, (3) suggesting that people in places like central PA don't know what's good for them and that their beliefs are artifacts of their economic circumstances and (4) implied, by this litany, that he himself doesn't believe in things like religion and, amusingly, anti-trade sentiment, even though he has made both out to be key themes of his campaign and even though he has lately been pretending at outreach to gun owners.
So, next time you hear Obama or one of his surrogates arguing that he's being criticized for saying that people in this country are frustrated or even bitter, just remember: always watch the bait and switch. And don't let him get away with it.
UPDATE: Ace notices the same thing.
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Watch For The Bait and Switch 15 Comments (0 topical, 15 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
seeing what I have seen....I predict everytime he opens his mouth people will not be looking for the racism inherent in his genetic makeup...
Freedom of Religion not Freedom from Religion
I believe that Obama's point was that people do not vote based on a candidate's economic policy, but rather along lifestyle issues, such as defense of gun rights or religion, because neither Democrat nor Republican seems to have been able to help their economic situation - and they feel helpless and embittered about economic policies. Where, he believes, small town people see a difference between candidates is on issues of the 2nd Amendment and religion.
He should have said it better the first time, but this clarification seems reasonable.
If you want to accept that version of it (which is as charitable as you can be based on the original context of what he said), then he is still being horribly offensive and condescending, by basically saying "your religion and your silly guns don't really matter; if you were enlightened enough to see me for the economic messiah I am, you obviously would be voting for me instead of worrying about those meaningless issues." (Don't forget that his original comment was explaining why he thought they weren't voting for him). Sorry Barack, some people actual do care about those issues, as piddling as they may seem to you.
Also, he can 'clarify' all he wants, but there is still no way to get around the fact that he called small town people a bunch of racist xenophobes.
"Also, he can 'clarify' all he wants, but there is still no way to get around the fact that he called small town people a bunch of racist xenophobes."
And that's the lose lose for him. He'll desperately try to change the subject, but no way in heck are we going to let him over that nonsense. But if he addresses it now, he'll look like an even bigger scam artist for blatantly changing the subject and bring more attention to the most insulting parts of his statements which the context only makes more insulting.
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- "Make love not war? Real men can do both!"
"people" are not monolithic and his massive mistake was that he stereotyped. Are there people out there like he described? Of course there are. There are hundreds of millions of Americans. Just about any description can describe someone. His biggest failing is that he painted a broad brush over millions of people all at once. That is what he refuses to see. What he is really wrong about is making a general statement about millions of people which is wrong in and of itself.
Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor
Or disingenuous. Or both. Either way it doesn't matter. The electorate realizes what Obama meant. The next step in this left-wing kabuki act, if it plays out per usual, is for Obama to say, yes, he indeed meant people are bitter hicks and it is the duty of all good liberals to turn out to vote and enlighten their rube centrist neighbors about the savages who linger in the mist.
look down their noses at people. I think that most of Congress thinks that America consists of people who need to be directed, rather than listened to, which isn't necessarily amoral, but is certainly elitist. I don't think that this elitism is divided along Red-Blue lines, but is ubiquitous.
In this case, though, I think the spin is outdoing the message.
Obama can dissemble all he wants, but what he initially said is exactly what he meant. His propensity to change the subject worked for him with the Wright hate videos, his wife's outrageous and unpatriotic vitriol, and as the more sinister aspects of the candidate have surfaced in the past. Unfortunately for Obama this time, the public sees him as the total fraud he is. The Kool-Aid drinkers will circle the wagons, but those in the middle who had given him a benefit of the doubt are gone for good. Left-wing extremists always reveal themselves at the most inopportune times.
This man never will be elected.
He's been a member of the Obama fan club since it was formed and I'm curious as to how a 'typical white' liberal sees Obama now.
Do you think they are getting jaded, or do you think they are still unwilling to accept that he may not really be Obamessiah.
I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful 100 percent.
but that is frankly going to wind up being a miserable failure. You can't defend your own gaffe by changing the subject. Politics isn't that easy. People know what he said. They aren't deaf. If he tries to focus on something else, they will still be left wondering why he said what he said.
The Provocateur