Obama Rejects "Fake Controversies"

The Los Angeles Times reports that Barack Obama's attacking his presidential rivals for manufacturing "fake controversies," the most recent, of course, being his "cling" comments about bitter working class Americans:

Democrat Barack Obama today defended his record of understanding working-class Americans, disparaging the "fake controversies" fanned by his political rivals to suggest that he was an elitist.

Seeking to douse the controversy that has dogged the Obama campaign over remarks he made at a San Francisco fund-raiser, Obama confessed to "poor word choices" in saying that small-town Americans, "bitter" over their economic woes, "cling to guns or religion" as a result. But he said he would "never walk away from the larger point" he was trying to make.

"For the last several decades, people in small towns and cities and rural areas all across this country have seen globalization change the rules of the game on them," he said. He argued that "years and years" of politicians pledging to address what he called "the downside of globalization" and then going back to Washington to fight "over the latest distraction of the week" had left a legacy of cynicism.

"After years and years and years of this, a lot of people in this country have become cynical about what government can do to improve their lives," he said in a speech before the Associated Press' annual meeting. "They are angry and frustrated with their leaders for not listening to them, for not fighting for them, for not always telling them the truth. And yes, they are bitter about that...."

Obama said voters he has met in small towns and big cities "are tired of being distracted by fake controversies. They are fed up with politicians trying to divide us for their own political gain."

Saying "I may have made a mistake last week in the words that I chose," Obama said the Republican Party "has made a much more damaging mistake in the failed policies they've chosen and the bankrupt philosophy they've embraced for the last three decades."

Asked during a question period about the fierceness of the contest between himself and Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama called the New York senator a remarkable candidate who has withstood 11 straight losses and still raised $33 million. He said she is using many of the critiques against him that Republicans will use in the general election campaign. "She toughening me up," he said. "I'm getting run through the paces."

Obama also addressed the controversy earlier in the day, chiding his Democratic and Republican rivals for suggesting he was out of touch with working Americans when they have supported trade policies that have hurt the working class.

"You've heard this kind of rhetoric before," Obama said to cheers from a crowd of union members and business leaders assembled at the Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh. "Around election time, the candidates can't do enough for you. They'll promise you anything. They'll give you a long list of proposals and even come around, with TV crews in tow, and throw back a shot and a beer.

Now that's a fake controversy! Say what you will about Clinton, but she knows how to pound a couple down.

Seriously though, for all the spin among Obama backers, there are fundamental issues of character and judgment surrounding the "bitter" comments.

No, Obama's not a "Godless commie." Yet his comments indeed trash the very people he needs for election:

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 going to 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....

It must be difficult when campaigning, for long stretches of time, in different forums - from candidate debates, to neighborhood breakfasts, to stump speeches for the nightly news - and be able to stay on the public message that you want people to hear: That your campaign's all about transcendance, that you'll break the vicious cycle of political partisanship and recrimintation, that your policies will reduce poverty by half in 10-years (when forty years of social policy handouts have failed to do just that), all the while not deviating from time to time, to peel back the assiduously built outward layers of acceptability and show both a condescension to and ignorance of the very constituencies who've formed the base of the "second-coming" campaign.

So far polls haven't shown a collapse in public support for Obama's primary campaign, although speculation's building that the "bitter"comments could damage his appeal in the general election.

Note how out of touch Obama really is, from Chris Cillizza's perspective:

In the coming Louisiana special election to replace Rep. Richard Baker (R) in the 6th District, the Democratic nominee -- state Rep. Don Cazayoux -- is touting his support for the Second Amendment in a new ad:

The spot features Cazayoux's parents. His mother proclaims that Cazayoux's "father taught him how to hunt" as a picture of Cazayoux and his dad holding up pheasants (we think) appears on the screen.

Thus it should come as little surprise that Barack Obama's comments that small town Americans "cling" to their guns and religion has created such an uproar.

For many Americans, including those in Republican-leaning districts like the one Cazaoux is seeking to represent, a candidate's position on guns serves as a stand in for whether or not he (or she) is one of them.

During the 1990s, Republicans used Democrats' support for gun control to paint the party as out of touch with the average voter. Using these tactics, Republicans transformed themselves into the party of the common man and sought to portray Democrats as the party of elitist liberals on both coasts.

Like it or not, it worked. Republicans used the gun issue -- and other cultural touchstones like abortion -- to consolidate their support in the South and rural areas across the country. It's not by chance that Republicans won two presidential elections and won majorities in the House and Senate during that time as well.

The ground Democrats' gained in 2006 was due in no small part to the party's decision to deemphasize these cultural issues or, at the very least, seek to redefine their beliefs outside of the traditional frame with which Republicans has used to pigeonhole Democratic candidates for much of the last decade.

Do Obama's remarks set back this cause in a significant way?

Hillary Rodham Clinton, not exactly an uninterested observer, thinks so. She argues that Obama's comments will allow Republicans to go back to the playbook (Democratic candidate is an out of touch elitist, beholden to constituencies on the two coasts) that, she argues, led to the defeat of Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004.

"I don't think he really gets it that people are looking for a president who stands up for you and not looks down on you," Clinton said at a forum for the Alliance for American Manufacturing in Pittsburgh today.

It's impossible to know now -- 72 hours after Obama's comments came to light -- just how much of an impact they will have on voters' perceptions about the Democratic candidates in Pennsylvania and beyond into the general election.

Quick -- and not terribly credible -- polling done in Pennsylvania suggests that Obama has been weakened by the hubbub. Take those results cum grano salis until more reliable and detailed information comes out.

But, always remember that perception is every bit as important as reality when it comes to presidential politics. This episode has the potential to alter the way in which many voters in the country perceive Obama. For that reason, it is worth the full-court coverage it is receiving.

See also, "56% Disagree with Obama’s Comments on Small Town America"; as well as Memeorandum.

Plus, see here and here for some blog and media roundup.