Romney gaffe is just like the Obama gaffe?
I hear some people already bringing up the "clinging to guns and religion" quote and on first thought, that seemed to me to be a fair comparison. But a little more thought shows that it actually shows how different Obama is from Romney.
I think the "clinging" quote is going to be used a lot in Romney's defense, so let's go to the tapes:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama-no-surprise-that-ha_b_96188.html
Here's how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long, and they feel so betrayed by government, and when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn't buy it. And when it's delivered by -- it's true that when it's delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama (laugher), then that adds another layer of skepticism (laughter).
But -- so the questions you're most likely to get about me, 'Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What's the concrete thing?' What they wanna hear is -- so, we'll give you talking points about what we're proposing -- close tax loopholes, roll back, you know, the tax cuts for the top 1 percent. Obama's gonna give tax breaks to middle-class folks and we're gonna provide health care for every American. So we'll go down a series of talking points.
But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in heir daily lives. You go into some of 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. So it's not surprising then that 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.
Um, now these are in some communities, you know. I think what you'll find is, is that people of every background -- there are gonna be a mix of people, you can go in the toughest neighborhoods, you know working-class lunch-pail folks, you'll find Obama enthusiasts. And you can go into places where you think I'd be very strong and people will just be skeptical. The important thing is that you show up and you're doing what you're doing.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/09/secret-video-romney-private-fundraiser
My job is is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
= new reply since forum marked as read
knowing that's what they are thinking when they see Romney's comments today attacked and ridiculed. Plus, I have many family and friends from SW PA, so they remember this statement:
OBAMA (2008): "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 toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
Granted, if the second paragraph is all someone hears, it seems to be a slam against rednecks (similar to Republican consistent slams against "welfare queens"
.
But I get what he was saying (though he could have worded it much better). What he was saying is that people are angry for the reasons he gave in the first paragraph. I personally I believe people are afraid, and that fuels the anger.
When people are afraid, some people focus on protecting themselves and their families; when people are afraid, they turn to their faith; when people are afraid, they fear The Other.
Even during the campaign, Obama was portrayed by opponents as someone who is going to take away their guns, as someone who is a Muslim terrorist sympathize, as someone who is most definitely The Other.
He gets that. He understood it back then. Hence his statement, which I do not believe was meant as an insult whatsoever. It was a statement that he gets why people were wary of him. Many still are, and he still gets it.
