In other news, water is wet and the sky is blue

Let's revisit what Obama said, shall we?

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. 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.

The recent flapadoodle over Obama's statement echoes manufactured outrages of years past. Like when Howard Dean said the GOP was "pretty much a white Christian party." Or when Barbara Boxer pointed out to Condi that neither had a personal stake in the Iraq war as neither had relatives serving in Iraq. In neither case did the brief flare of controversy translate into stunning election losses for the party.

Now, McCain and La Hill are spitting nails over Obama's truth-telling. Yes, Senators McCain and La Hill! It's true! Rural voters have been screwed economically and have lost their jobs. They're bitter and have a good right to be. Only in Wackyland--a.ka. the Beltway media and cocktail circuit--is it "elitist" to say that water is wet.

Le Sweetie still says that Obama stepped in it. I say, "Pffffffft!" This is just another floundering attempt at an old, tired frame traditionally used to attack liberals, and La Hill's sounding more and more like a fracking Republican each time she trots out the "E" word. The "E" word being "elitist."

Nobody's really fooled, ya know.

Oh come on, Hillary! All politicians anywhere around the world are elitist. Once they enter that political world and start receiving salaries higher than a CEO of a major company, have drivers, maids and office staff at their beck and call, and fly around the world first class, they are no longer ‘one of us’. Hillary Clinton is as much, if not more, of an elitist than anyone else in US politics. Why? Because her husband is a former President and she is a former First Lady, which assures them the best of everything, plus round the clock security till they die!

This is not about elistism, this is about honesty. Obama chose a bad combination of words, pure and simple. All those who wish to blow this recent incident out of proportion, are simply doing what Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld did during the last election campaign, and that is keep everybody scared. Obama is being painted as the big bad scary black man who doesn’t like white middle America. All turn to Hillary. She’ll look after you.

I actually don't have a problem with what Obama said. And I'm a transplanted small towner. No, I suspect the real reason that Obama caused such a shit storm is that, well, he's figured out a dirty little electoral secret that probably makes certain establishment types uncomfortable.

Anyhow, we have a former First Lady and a scion of a military family who married a beer heiress, and they're both attacking a biracial kid raised by a single mom. This is important to keep in mind.