tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4318375667051435937.post9100065190036120495..comments2023-08-25T16:13:51.356+01:00Comments on Martin In The Margins: Campaign trail no place for political analysis?Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15608932251584881007noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4318375667051435937.post-66741693008039845622008-04-15T22:59:00.000+01:002008-04-15T22:59:00.000+01:00I have mixed feelings about Obama’s comment. On th...I have mixed feelings about Obama’s comment. On the one hand, I hold many “elitist” positions that are not generally accepted in Middle America. I have no problem telling a blue collar worker from Ohio they are wrong, as I have no issue saying the same to a wealthy San Francisco local. Being working class doesn’t give someone’s ideas a pass. <BR/><BR/>I do think Obama’s comment reinforced people’s pervious assumptions about him: that he belongs to s strain of thought that does hold guns, white churches, and Middle America’s way of life in contempt. Perhaps he didn’t mean to come across this way in that San Fran speech, but I had a hard time believing it was sincere policy misrepresented either. If anything, he was playing to the crowd in the Bay Area, and he told them what they wanted to hear (that if they could just implement their left politics, all those working class folks would give up the church, guns, and love every illegal immigrant coming over). This reminds me of Dean’s scream during the 04 primary. It wasn’t that his scream sunk his campaign, it was that “the scream” gave many a clear representation of what they already feared about him (that he was angry and prone to outbursts without thinking).<BR/><BR/>I thought Obama’s Wright association was worse than this, but I’m also not a blue collar worker in Pennsylvania. So what the hell do I know.Roland Doddshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17819155097718124744noreply@blogger.com