here's Obama not apologizing: "If I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that," he told the Winston-Salem Journal. Poor wording was not the problem; on the contrary, it was his precision that was so unfortunate, and his ability to pack half a dozen unintended insults into a single sentence uncanny. And in San Francisco, no less? Roger Ailes couldn't have planned it better, unless he'd maybe followed up the event with some impromptu windsurfing in the bay!
The Quote
"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."
then, straight into the ditch:
"So it's not surprising then that they get bitter,'' (Angry, OK, but bitter? I don't think I've ever heard anyone describe someone they liked that way.)
"they cling to guns'' (If they had jobs, maybe they wouldn't be gun nuts?)
"or religion'' (Or religious nuts, either? This is an especially weird conclusion since Obama himself is a devout Christian; was he pandering to the segment of the party that does see believers that way?)
"or antipathy to people who aren't like them'' (So no wonder such a lot of them are haters?)
"or anti-immigrant sentiment'' (Who blame their troubles on people who'll live in concrete-block squalor while picking fruit for next to nothing.)
"or anti-trade sentiment'' (And don't see the big picture on globalization and free trade like you Davos-goers do.)
"as a way to explain their frustrations.'' (In lieu of a Harvard Law degree.)
Arizona Sen. McCain, speaking to reporters on his campaign plane on a flight to Pittsburgh, said the remarks may well have defined Obama for Americans as representing "a certain out-of-touch elitism."
Yes, he's condescending. It's not just that in explaining everyone to everyone Obama winds up patronizing everyone. He doesn't patronize everyone equally. Specifically, he regards the views of these Pennsylvanians as epiphenomena--byproducts of economic stagnation--in a way he doesn't regard, say, his own views as epiphenomena.** Once the Pennsylvanians get some jobs back, they'll change and become as enlightened as Obama or the San Franciscans to whom he was talking. That's the clear logic of his argument. Superiority of this sort--not crediting the authenticity and standing of your subject's views--is a violation of social equality, which is a more important value for Americans than money equality. Liiberals tend to lose elections when they forget that.
"he condescends to everyone" theory of Obama. Obama describes ongoing black anger about racism as an artifact of racism--it's an epiphenomenon only in the sense that it will eventually disappear when its legitimate cause disappears. Obama describes white anger--indeed white anger, white racism, white religiosity, white NRA membership and white opposition to comprehensive immigration reform--as an artifact of something unrelated, namely the loss of good industrial jobs. It''s fundamentally inauthentic, Obama suggests, because (unlike black anger) it isn't caused by what those who express it say it is caused by.
And Obama never describes his own views as the products of anything except an accurate perception of reality. Come to think of it, has he ever expressed any doubt about--let alone apologized for--his views? He certainly didn't apologize in his "race" speech. He presents himself as near ominscient, the Archimedian point from which everyone else's beliefs and behavior can be assessed and explained, and to which almost everyone's beliefs will revert after the revolution. ... sorry, I mean after President Obama has restored hope! ...
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