A Bitter Pill

Said Obama: "It's not surprising, then, 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."

Because of the stakes, I think anything is fair to test the character of next president including Obama's misfired words. But I think there is a whisper-in-the-wind quality is this statement and also in the Reverand Wright statements that distort the susbtance of the comments. The implication from Clinton and McCain is that Obama doesn't like the folkways of Main Street America with their belief in guns and God.

As far as the Reverand Wright statements are concerned, there isn't very much that is different from what many evangelicals have said, although using milder language. A common thread in countless sermons is that the 9/11 attack occurred not so much because of who we are-- a multi-religious, multi-racial people who believe in the rule of law and principles of the constitution-- or what we did-- specific policies that have promoted Israeli or oil company interests for example-- but the collective sins of the American people. Thus, the moralizers say, God allowed the towers to fall because of what lesbians in San Francisco and abortionists in Dallas were doing. I think this makes no sense, but I have heard people of faith make that claim.

Finally, I think it is ironic that McCain and Clinton are using statements like that to suggest that Obama is arrogant and aloof. McCain comes from old money and Clinton comes from new money and the wealth of both McCain and Clinton exceeds Obama by many orders of magnitude. I thusly question the pretense that they are in touch with most Americans whereas Obama is not.