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Obama, Bitterness, Meet the Press, and the Old Politics
I was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, 61 years ago. My father sold $1.98 cotton blouses to blue-collar women and women whose husbands worked in factories. Years later, I was secretary of labor of the United States, and I tried the best I could -- which wasn't nearly good enough -- to help reverse one of the most troublesome trends America has faced: The stagnation of middle-class wages and the expansion of poverty. Male hourly wages began to drop in the early 1970s, adjusted for inflation. The average man in his 30s is earning less than his father did thirty years ago. Yet America is far richer. Where did the money go? To the top.
Are Americans who have been left behind frustrated? Of course. And their frustrations, their anger and, yes, sometimes their bitterness, have been used since then -- by demagogues, by nationalists and xenophobes, by radical conservatives, by political nuts and fanatical fruitcakes -- to blame immigrants and foreign traders, to blame blacks and the poor, to blame "liberal elites," to blame anyone and anything.
Rather than counter all this, the American media have wallowed in it. Some, like Fox News and talk radio, have given the haters and blamers their very own megaphones. The rest have merely "reported on" it. Instead of focusing on how to get Americans good jobs again; instead of admitting too many of our schools are failing and our kids are falling behind their contemporaries in Europe, Japan, and even China; instead of showing why we need a more progressive tax system to finance better schools and access to health care, and green technologies that might create new manufacturing jobs, our national discussion has been mired in the old politics.
Listen to this morning's "Meet the Press" if you want an example. Tim Russert, one of the smartest guys on television, interviewed four political consultants -- Carville and Matalin, Bob Schrum, and Michael Murphy. Political consultants are paid huge sums to help politicians spin words and avoid real talk. They're part of the problem. And what do Russert and these four consultants talk about? The potential damage to Barack Obama from saying that lots of people in Pennsylvania are bitter that the economy has left them behind; about HRC's spin on Obama's words (he's an "elitist," she said); and John McCain's similarly puerile attack.
Does Russert really believe he's doing the nation a service for this parade of spin doctors talking about potential spins and the spin-offs from the words Obama used to state what everyone knows is true? Or is Russert merely in the business of selling TV airtime for a network that doesn't give a hoot about its supposed commitment to the public interest but wants to up its ratings by pandering to the nation's ongoing desire for gladiator entertainment instead of real talk about real problems?
We're heading into the worst economic crisis in a half century or more. Many of the Americans who have been getting nowhere for decades are in even deeper trouble. Large numbers of people in Pennsylvania and across the nation are losing their homes and losing their jobs, and the situation is likely to grow worse. Consumers are at the end of their ropes, fuel and food costs are skyrocketing, they can't go deeper into debt, they can't pay their bills. They aren't buying, which means every business from the auto industry to housing to even giant GE is hurting. Which means they'll begin laying off more people, and as they do, we will experience an even more dangerous downward spiral.
Bitter? You ain't seen nothing yet. And as much as people like Russert, Carville, Matalin, Schrum, and Murphy want to divert our attention from what's really happening; as much as HRC and McCain seek to make political hay out of choices of words that can be spun cynically by the mindless spinners of the old politics; as much as demagogues on the right and left continue to try to channel the cumulative frustrations of Americans into a politics of resentment -- all these attempts will, I hope, prove futile. Eighty percent of Americans know the nation is on the wrong track. The old politics, and the old media that feeds it, are irrelevant now.
Robert Reich, one of the nation’s leading experts on work and the economy, is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. Time Magazine has named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including his latest best-seller, Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future; The Work of Nations; Locked in the Cabinet; Supercapitalism; and his newest, Beyond Outrage. His syndicated columns, television appearances, and public radio commentaries reach millions of people each week. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, and Chairman of the citizen’s group Common Cause. His widely-read blog can be found at www.robertreich.org.
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179 Comments so far
Show AllSend an email to Tim Russert, google Tim Russert email address.
The truth as Obama has stated it needs to be repeated over and over and over and over...
I tried sending an email to Russert and it got rejected. I was so disgusted by his 'coverage' of this 'issue'! Let's talk about what really needs to be talked about!
"Eighty percent of Americans know the nation is on the wrong track. The old politics, and the old media that feeds it, are irrelevant now."
This may be overly optimistic. As stomachs empty, minds narrow. The blue collar people of Pennsylvania have been deprived of more than jobs. Like many of the rest of us they have been deprived of education and therefore of the means to think clearly and critically even about the causes of their misery. Of course they jump on the nearest scapegoat and cling to the nearest talisman. Thinking is difficult and the discipline of logic does not mix well with the satisfaction of anger. Their situation is worse than they think. Like the food on their tables, the use of their minds has been taken from them.
Forget the media. It will never address the real issues. CNN and the rest of the gang have lined up behind McCain already anyway, and are not giving any of the Democrats fair coverage, much less Obama (who is right). People are bitter, all right, and angry. I hope they're wise enough to see through the garbage and in November force the changes we desperately need now and are not getting.
Thank Sir
You are right on point. Espeically for pointing out the media's destructive role in this and previous elections. I strongly believe, until we demand a higher standard from corporate television media, absolutely nothing will change. That's where we all should focus our disapproval. And can anyone please explain to me, when does Spin cross the line, to flat out lying?
I can't predict whether the "bitter" comment by Barack will hurt him in the PA primary. I can only hope not. Some say that mostly those who weren't going to vote for him anyway are going to be the ones most "offended". We'll see.
The problem is, what he actually said is precisely true. There are MANY ordinary folks who are feeling prosperity slip away from them as American wealth percolates upward through corporations to concentration among a smaller number of people. And those left behind and left frustrated DO seek to compensate by campaigning and voting for gun rights, for religious talkers, for ending abortion, for border fences, for invading Muslim countries---as though those things will restore their confidence in a personal economic future.
Barack (as usual) is smart enough to see this, can explain it, can help us see past it, and could help us focus on better goals that would actually help--like controlling corporations and their influence on our lives, for instance. BUT (like single-payer health care) THESE WORDS ARE BETTER SPOKEN AFTER YOU ALREADY HAVE WON THE ELECTION, AS OPPOSED TO BEFORE, where backlash is dangerous to the whole agenda.
(Everyone's ganging up on Obama because he said people were bitter because of the bad economy and were turning to guns and God. Memo to Obama: you should have said people are bitter because the damn Democratic Party, just like the Republican Party, is a friend to the rich and hostile to the poor and middle class.)
Sure I'm bitter...bitter about Clinton's millions, McCain's beer heiress trophy wife, Obama's boyish good looks and gift of gab.
Then there's the bitterness I have about the billions CEO's have accumulated and spend on crazy luxuries life Lear jets, and 400 million dollar yachts, and Bush's insane war which will cost 3-5 trillion and, yes, I'm bitter because I can just about afford my cat food diet and now I worry that Purina might be bought out by some hedge fund. But, please,don't mourn for me, organize.
Heck, I'm bitterness incarnate. But, I decided to move on. I started a group supporting Obama for president. It's called "Bitter People for Obama." Bitter as I am, I think he would be the best president ever.
Obama stated the obvious...the truth hurts...and gets distorted by the media.
Cafferty on CNN did state that they got 3000 emails right away on this...and that none thought Obama had mistated anything and they totally understood it.
The sad truth of it as I now see it, at the age of 66 and having lived a pretty good life lately: we have reached that point where the history of this country will be recorded by those who "win" and it won't be the U.S. Unlike in WW2 when we were the last man standing and by default the world's wealthiest power, now we are the world's greatest creditor nation. I may not live to see it and probably that's a good thing but I don't see any way out of the mess we're now in. The powers that be will be those with the big money, like Dubai, China, Russia (think OIL), etcetera. Cry the beloved country, it's been good to know you.
Karl Rove has a knack for pinning blame on the Democrats for problems caused by the neocons. Uneducated people are very vulnerable to such manipulation and Obama's biggest challenge between now and November will be to keep the black hat on the neocons and the white hat on his own head.
Mr.Robert Reich, I love the way you describe paid consultants and commentators like Carville, Matalin ,Bob Schrum, Michael Murphy and Tim Russert as they are." they help politicians spin words and avoid real talk".
" Does Russert really believe he is doing the nation a service?" . " he really doesn't give a hoot about ..... public interests" and is filling up his own pocket. Yet days in and days out we keep watching this nonsense.Thanks for your service.
It was never a war with al Qaida, they were just the excuse.
War is profit...to a select a few. If it hadn't been them, it would have someone else....
I am sure there is always a plan B and C to keep the profits up...at everyone else's expensive.
To the guy who tried to contact Russert...and got rejected...I got through...and read him the riot act...
ie....don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining...
Obama should never have apologized for speaking the truth. It sets a bad precedent. After Hillary called Obama elitist, he should have counter-attacked, not apologized. By pointing out how someone who is worth $100 million, served on the corporate board of Wal Mart (a company that destroyed small town middle class America), is not entitled to call anyone elite.
An apology, is an admittance to the charge, sometimes you shouldn't say sorry.
Ramsay
Mr. Reich, in the interest of disclosure we've met many times... I consider you a friend. My question for you is: your article is incomplete - what can we do to stem this tide of economic disaster NOW?? Will any of these candidates listen? How do we get a better economic policy in place and quickly?? I'm drowning here where I live: food prices are killing me! (I live on disability and it's not enough money to live on to begin with and then food is biting into the little I get way too much. I don't drive a car so I can only imagine how much WORSE it is for others!)
This is yet another example of the scam perpetrated by the right that Thomas Frank described in his book "What's The Matter With Kansas?" They've enlisted the very folks - middle class blue collar types- they abuse economically to their service by repeatedly harping on abortion, gay marriage, immigration, etc., etc., etc. Now it's "liberal elitism." Apparently the media haven't figured out that they're being manipulated in this scam. Or have they, and they just don't care? I smell Karl Rove!
Obama told a fraction of the truth and got crucified in the MSM.
Hillary lied her ass off, and is regarded as the second coming.
Mccain promises a flat tax for the wealthy, proposes a 100 year war in Iraq, and is hailed a a 'war hero' for getting himself shot down, and revealing sensitive information about flight paths t his captors, but all of that is glossed over.
The US deserves the economic and environmental shit-kicking it is about to receive.
Mr.Robert Reich,
Lets hope you still feel the call to public service and will be part of Barack's cabinet 12 months from now.
We need you!
I do believe___ Obama ___should NOT repeat it in the context and with the wording he used when he spoke. It is a FACT, he dropped 20 points in the polls in less than two days. That's HIS blunder and he cannot take the words back, he can only attempt to clarify what he meant and so far he has not been doing well at all in that regard.
If he's the Demo nominee, the Republicans will use that until Obama is a sure loser. What a shame, just an off-hand remark and a poor choice of words and Ka-Boom!
Funny how some little thing can alter a candidate's momentum in a political campaign. Dukaukas was leading until he ran nation wide TV ads riding around in a tank. By the time the silly ad was pulled, he was a loser. A few years later when someone asked him what another presidential candidate should do to help him in the polls, Dukaukus replied,___ "Tell him to stay out of tanks". Some day Obama may offer the advice, ___ "Don't talk too much and be careful of your choice of words."
Actually, if you'll forgive me, I think Obama got it wrong ... people are angry rather than bitter ... they "cling" to their religion because their church is the local relief agency, the provider not just of god and companionship but often HELP ... they cling to their guns, because for many people, after their automobile, their guns are the most valuable thing they own... something that can be hocked or sold or traded ... and in many cases, they got their guns via inheritance or in trade from family and friends ... oh, and about those foreigners ... most places I've lived in this country have people sporting various "native" bumperstickers which ARE particularly aimed at all those OTHER folks who moved HERE and jacked up real estate prices and took the better jobs ... though, doubtless basic xenophobia and racism has a special antipathy for the very idea "illegal aliens" ...
So, I think Obama got it wrong on this ... these people aren't "clinging" to their church, their guns and their community irrationally or obstinately or reflexively ... their guns, church and community are what provides them some security ...
I didn't know any of this before moving to Colorado from Southern California 10 years ago. I hardly knew anyone who went to church (and was amazed when so many of my new coworkers mentioned not only going to church on Sunday but bible study and fund raising and helping and being helped).
Similarly I didn't know anyone who had guns (but after being advised that living alone in a rural area, I should have at least a rifle, I learned from talking to people about their guns ((I still don't own a gun)). Finally, I relocated because I could no longer afford to stay in the town where I grew up which was becoming more and more crowded and "upscale" until I felt like a stranger in my home town. There are no jobs where I live beyond an occasional $7/hour counterhelp job. I work on line in a field that has largely already been outsourced to India.
Just my 2 cents.
Tim Russert isn't "the real media" to me. He's overstayed his welcome into our living room. And as for Carville and his wife? Why they can't look at the American people in the eye by saying the things they do, ( look straight into the camera) with a straight face. These two are bright, but bought!
First it's necessary to acknowledge and face the indisputable fact that the American way of life is the problem and not the solution. Nothing can be done to salvage a system that was corrupt and deeply flawed from the start. No nation that is based on the libertarian concept of complete private ownership and the "every man for himself" paradigm can ever be expected to produce anything beyond the fundamental two class system of masters and slaves. It's a system with an irreversible, self contained autodestruct.
None of the "candidates" who stand any chance of being placed in the White House by the corporate "persons" in control of the pseudo election will do anything to significantly change the status quo. The continued descent into oblivion is assured.
The so called election system in America has been manipulated and controlled by moneyed interests from day one. Our "government" has grown ever more vile and corrupt with each election cycle. It has finally reached the only conclusion possible; complete self destruction. This cycle has been repeated over and over throughout human history. Archeological evidence shows this wheel has been turning since time immemorial. Apparently, as a race, we humans are incapable of learning from our mistakes. We keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Isn't that a definition of insanity?
Sadly, at this point in the story, the implosion of this particular empire could well bring about our extinction.
Here's the little bit of optimism that I can muster under these circumstances. A few small pockets of humanity will survive the extinction event that is currently underway. Through the process of natural selection, which so far has worked well for every species except Homosapiens, the genetic aberration that produces the evil need to enslave and oppress others will finally be weeded out. The resulting new and improved human species will gradually repopulate the Earth with something we have often talked about and always longed for but never achieved; civilization.
Respectfully,
R.W. Posner
coldwarbaby@hotmail.com
Tim Russert is a right wing democrat and now a bigwig in the moronic media that bestows on John Mccain the title of war hero and moderate when in fact he is a dangerous lunatic on foreign policy. Hillary Clinton has forged a coalition of right wing closet neocon democrats together with the elderly and uneducated and this will win Pennsylvania for her but she has almost zero support among progressive democrats who are thourougly disgusted by her lies, smears and pathetic pandering.
I just hope the electorate is savvy enough to see their way thru this bullshit that is being hyped by HRC, McCain and the media. We gotta know that that the Corporate America war machine is working hard for either HRC or McCain.
Actually, the encouraging thing about this incident is that voters aren't buying the claims of McCain, Clinton or the MSM. Maybe I'm being foolishly optimistic here, but I think desperate voters are begining to see this "issue" as irrelevant to their real concerns, which of course is what Obama was speaking to. Check out the newest gallup poll, conducted entirely after the "bitter" comment:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/106537/Gallup-Daily-Obama-51-Clinton-40.aspx
I once visited an economically depressed valley in Central America. A highway that bypassed the valley, and Brazilian coffee competition, destroyed the economic viability of the community.
There were only two businesses that survived in that beautiful valley, evangelical churches, and bars. You had your choice, either listen to messages of hate and ignorance, or drown your bitterness in beer.
Obama let slip the truth, and now he is being battered, even by some progressives on this site. Shame. The country needs more truth.
Ramsay
This issue of Obama's "bitter" has been the biggest non-issue I have seen the media focus on in this campaign. It is a complete reaffirmation of the media's lack of deapth and relevence on some of the most important issues of today.
Reminds me of the Congressional focus on Terri Schivo (sp?) years ago. Completely irrelevant and completely revealing of how the corporate media is useless to productive debate.
Prof. Reich,
Tim Russert is not "one of smartest guys on television." In my estimation, he does not even constitute a real journalist. He is a corporate talking mouthpiece for NBC and GE. Truthfully, I have never been impressed with Russert. He epitomizes the mediocrity into which most journalists have pooled. Few journalists anymore represent what true journalism is. You might start with Bill Moyers and Amy Goodman. Russert also is a guard dog for the corporate media who will distort the truth in a Pavlovian way when the corporate higher-ups give him the command. And the talking heads he regularly invites to his show simply are "rolodex" people, like those who appear on Chris Matthews' shows, or Wolf Blitzer's. Either way, none of those shows are worth watching. I knew there was a reason why I put my television back in the closet.
Mr Reich, whom I respect a lot except for your anti-impeachment stance,
Billary has become a Neo-con Republican in sheep's clothing whose purpose is to destroy the Democratic party and all opposition to corporato-fascism in this country.
Why don't you come out even stronger against the perversity and corruption they've come to represent?
Adriana Huffington said it just right: McCain can take a vacation, raise money, Hillary is doing his job for him.
Write all the media jerkos and tell 'em to "get stuffed". I have, and added I'm not watching you anymore, nor buying any of the products advertised.
Moreover, tell your cable or satellite dish service you're not going to continue to pay for programming that excludes the truth on news forums. As far as I'm concerned the media at large is a threat to our security and democracy!
Very good post escept:
"Tim Russert, one of the smartest guys on television ..."
Or was that sarcasm?
Unfortunantly it is not a "non-issue". Currently for Obama it is THE ISSUE and it will be "the issue" when he's the Demo nominee. He delviered a fantastic speech when his minister issue arose, he did good. He's going to have to do a repeat performance on this issue if he wants to sit in the Oval Office.
The VAST majority of Americans do listen to Tim Russert and the other TV political pundants and millions of voters listen with stars in their eyes to Rush Lim-bow. Teh Vast majorit don't even kow about Common Dreams. Which is a damn shame.
clintons labor secretary reich said that hillary was NOT against the policy of NAFTA but the timing.. she wanted HER fame of getting the health insurance issue first.. she had already put her daughter away in a private school and instead of keeping her daughter with her in the white house like carter did amy which shocked carter and he said so… she could have hired the administration to do that JOB of the health ins .. but NO she weould rather hurt her child just so she could get more personal FAME….
so that issue is a LIE that bob k is spreading.. gergen their other hired gun said only that hillary had reservations BUT their labor secretary Reich EXPLAINED what those reservations was NOT about policy but the timing.. she wanter HER stuff done FIRST!!
bob k should be tarred and feathered in what he is trying to do in forums… why didn't he mention what their labor sec reich said.. not doing so proves bob k is INTENTIONALLY trying to decieve.
Obama got in trouble for intimating that America's fascination with God and Guns (equal status implied) at times dips down into the realm of the pathological when societal pressures become too much. You can't illuminate the people using as example the Republican's pitbull tactic of easy capitalization on the notion of God and Guns. The Republicans win elections year after year because they vehemently stand up for these things hand over heart. In fact, their policies, by taking everything else away from the American people, things like affordable living, food and health care, make them seem extra patriotic by virtue of this G&G duo which is then the only game in town. Everything else has been stolen.
"We'll never begrudge you these two things, by Gab" they say. And they won't. It is the finest natural bulwark against people waking up and realizing what is being done to them and their country. Republicans have it easy. All they have to do is wave the flag, display the cross and bandy about a weapon. It is a technique geared toward the lowest common denomominator that works quite well. Just watch the votes pour in as the food lines grow. Amazing.
look at james carville.. screaming about bill richardson as a judas a traitor most likely to try to scare others who try to go for obama..
but carville himself is the worst democrat traitor and judas.. he was clintons main campaign manager and he married clintons competitor's main campagin manager.. mary matalin... the media being silent on what THAT MEANS.. proves the media does not want people to know the corruption..
I don't like a lot of things about Obama - in this case, it was his lumping of being "anti-trade" (translated: anti-corporate global domination), with xenophobia, and fundamentalist religion.
So yes, Obama is a member of the contemptuous, condescending, rich elites. But so are, with few exceptions, all the rest of the candidates, and politicians in general, and their sycophantic kiss-up/kick down journalist friends. Every single one of them frightened to death of genuine democracy.
But now, out of sheer sympathy for the utter verbal garbage he is facing on this issue, I might now vote for Obama this next Tuesday.
Thank you for writing this. This piece, which could have been written by many of us, needed to be published. This is the genius of someone like Mr. Reich, that HE is the one who took the time to write it. I, for one, most of the time just think these things and do little to get it out there. Good on him.
Finally, I think it is an unfortunate truth that Meet the Press has become nothing more than Sunday morning infotainment for most of us, especially those of us who know the real story in the first place. There are many other places to get much more meaningful and credible information, but in the end if we don't keep bothering people like Russert to do his job at a higher level - in the face of major corporate pressure - he NEVER will, nor will his colleagues.
I hope that Obama has put this latest dust-up behind him and really starts hammering Hillary on NAFTA-He can make a lot of hay there.
We non-cultists tend to forget that total internet penetration in this country isn't 100% - it's more like 72%.
Of that 72%, only a little more than half have regular internet access from their homes. And half of them still use a slow dial up connection.
IOW, we non-cultists tend to forget that not everyone who needs to hear the truth is able to hear the truth. And by "not everyone," we're talking tens of millions who really, really need to hear the truth. Repeatedly.
So the question to RR and others who pretend the answer is "new" media, which it clearly is not, is this: how does one get the truth to those whose only access to "news" is Big Corp Media?
Put another way: how does one get the antidote to the sick if the "terrorists" control the roads, skies and seas?
Robert Reich was my boss for an all-too-brief period when I was most proud of what we at the Dept of Labor could and did accomplish for the American worker; he was the brightest and most insightful Sec'y of Labor I served under in 26½ years. My old friends still there tell me enforcement of worker pay and protection laws has all but come to a halt under Bush.
Obama's comment has been big news, but I saw a poll which had downtrodden Pennsylvanians agreeing in large numbers that they ARE bitter. Maybe we should see more coverage of that. Whether the bitter will continue to fall for Republican propaganda (lower taxes, more God and guns) remains to be seen, but the MSM is not helping. I remember when I moved to PA one of my friends, a sweet, gentle guy, said how much I'd like it there - "You don't have to lock your doors and you can buy your ammo at the deli!" This is the American dream to them - steeped in security, family, and constancy. Anything that can be labelled as a upset threat to their apple cart, from minorities to immigrants to gays to "liberals" to evolution, riles them and causes them to close ranks.
I keep listening to my old protest music, and wonder why it should still be relevant after over 40 years. Bob Dylan described Obama's bitter dupes in "Only a Pawn in Their Game". They are still around, still being fed the same lies, and still buying the cons offered by the flag-waving liars running their country.
Kem Patrick -
"An off-hand remark, and a poor choice of words and Ka-Boom!", the American electorate will write Obama off like Mike Dukakis in his tank costume?
If your dire scenario of massive voter backlash for this single remark has the legs you think it has, then why shouldn't voters similarly write of John McCain's entire candidacy for his tasteless Beach Boys' parody "Bomb-bomb-bomb-bombbomb-Iran"?
Robert Reich nails what's most at stake here when he decries the mainstream media's addiction to "gladiator entertainment rather than real talk."
Barack Obama (rather inartfully and tactlessly) spoke some fundamental truths about what is amiss in our political culture. In contrast, McCain cracked sick jokes about incinerating human beings with hi tech weaponry in order to get some tasteless yuks during one of his campaign rallies.
Whose remarks actually merit close media scrutiny as indicative of the content of the candidate's character?
Sure, this can be demagogued awhile by Clinton and McCain's spinmeisters out there in Archie Bunkerville. But if these remarks are the kiss of death for Barack Obama's presidential campaign and John McCain gets a pass, then the whole superficial beauty contest by which we elect our office holders has deteriorated far beyond all hope of repair.
Bill from Saginaw
I agree that 80% know that something is wrong. The problem is that same 80% don't know where to direct their anger and frustration due to the fact that they still depend on media like Fox to get their information. The key is redirecting the populace away from these destructive tools of corporate propaganda.
I am more upset Obama is being made to apologize for his remarks.
He told 'it like it is'.
The people know, I think in spite of this - we'll see, though.
The local presses are noting that at many appearances, Obama received applause and standing ovations when he raised the issue, while Clinton was greeted with 'stony' silences and even some jeers when she raised the issue, sometimes including the 'elitist' remark.
Thank You Robert Reich,
I guess it's a Dumb Question to ask why the reality of a report like this won't be presented by todays Media Services. I travel numerous times to the Tug Hill Region of New York State During the winter to Cross country ski and I have gotten very familiar with local folks up there. The average age in those towns are 60 and above and the younger ones that are there are just barely making it and have been for years. One town I go to is Boonville and Ethan Allen just Closed it's doors about 2 years ago, the last decent employer of that town. Traveling Thru Pa. past such towns as Clarks Summit, Scranton, White Haven, Jim Thorpe, you see it. Barack Obama is 100 per cent correct. I wish folks would wake up and see that.
Russert and his lesser ilk, aka "The Primal Screamers" to be found on FAUX News et al are completely irrevelent to anyone with a functioning brain. Unfortunately the US of A, currently is populated by a sub-human (in the truest sense of the word)shuffling, medicated, zombie-like species which deserves exactly the type of gov't it currently has. As others have noted, there seems NO way out of this dilemma other than letting it take its' natural course... to oblivion. The simple fact that even a vetted corporate type like Obama can speak an inconvenient truth and get relentlessly hammered by the media goons pretty much speaks for itself - the Orwellian World has arrived in full glory. Unfortunately, if you think you can fight this by organizing locally, you are sadly mistaken. Just try it if you are still optimistic and see where it leads. If you have the means and the fortitude, NOW would be a good time to exit Planet America and put up stakes elsewhere. If you think that the 3000 odd detention centers currently being erected/refurbed throughout the USA are for foreigners and terrorista you are sadly mistaken - no reservations necessary!
"Bitter? You ain't seen nothing yet."
Thank You, Robert Reich (it's also great to see an academic and former secretary of labor make a typo: "povety." :-]
tj, I think the typo is CD's specialty. Give them some credit.
yes susanparker, that is why many say Obama is elitist and out of touch. Americans are 'bitter,' and [falsely] blame outsourcing and immigration (the implication is that those opposed to illegal immigration are xenophobic and/or racist) for their problems, without admitting that job loss together with a paucity of good-paying jobs to replace them, along with a huge influx of cheap labor adding to that downward wage pressure has anything to do with it. To this the working class says, "Hey Mister, I am not as dumb as you think I are."
Now as far as clinging goes, I can concede that we are ALL Klingons in our own right. What people actually cling to in order to escape whatever it is they're trying to escape varies from person to person, even if if certain groups do share similarities. And, yes, much of what we cling to has a lot to do with class, and the Klingons that are available to us for clinging.
So, I don't really see what the big deal is about that. Maybe people are overly sensitive about their religion? As for me, I think all religions are equally nonsensical and have nothing to do with authentic spirituality. Until or unless we get such nonsense out of the way, we'll never be able to discuss the real issues, but that's another matter.
I wonder how much money those talking heads are making, and if they will be feeling the pain of what is coming.
Interesting posts, and I too am curious to see how this PA primary turns out. I suspect the Hillary supporters are jumping on it but what about the undecided voters? Serves her right if she's punished for pushing it too far.
kathyodat
REICH: Does Russert really believe he's doing the nation a service for this parade of spin doctors talking about potential spins and the spin-offs from the words Obama used to state what everyone knows is true?
Answer: Russert is too busy polishing his invisible Pulitizer to bother challenging such assertions. Had he been a real journalist instead of a talking head then real issues would be discussed instead of these faux issues.