Obama's Great Mistake, The "San Francisco Democrat"

[TacticalPeek]

April 13, 2008
Obama's Great Mistake, The "San Francisco Democrat"
By David Paul Kuhn

It's difficult to underestimate the enduring impact of Barack Obama's "bitter" remark. The day after John Kerry blurted that he "actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it" Vice President Dick Cheney ripped into the Democratic nominee and GOP strategists were already envisioning a new ad featuring the gaffe, intent on undercutting Kerry's character as a flip-flopper.

That week, four years ago, there were no banner headlines in major American newspapers declaring a turning point in the presidential race. Soon after the remark Kerry took a break from the campaign and skied at a resort in Idaho, a trip that added the air of elitism to Kerry's already sundered grit.

The Bush campaign had effectively won the campaign. It was only mid March.

...

Manufactured disgust, all too prevalent in our politics today, should not be mistaken for the legitimate disgust. Obama has caused some legitimate disgust. And he should heed that disgust, and heed it fast.

He is not, however. Instead Obama stays true to character, tepidly combative and totally cool. Obama has stood by the remark. He has said that he could have been more rhetorically tactful -- a defense reminiscent of Kerry's explanation.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/obamas_great_mistake_the_san_f.html


And it will 'work' like Kerry's.

:kick:

[dkf]

1. San Francisco is a code word...

[TahitiNut]

3. Am I hearing some Pavlovian Pols ringing the "gays" bell? (Ready. Set. Foam at the mouth.)

Funny how that works.

[cliffordu]

15. LOL!

Ready. Set. Foam at Mouth....


Reminds me of some of the nastier Hill supporters here........ :rofl:



:patriot:

[crankychatter]

29. You're a hoot... I was about to read the poster the riot act

Now I'm smiling again

[JoFerret]

9. Of course it is

And that's why it is being used against him (effectively.) It also happens to be where he said the ill-chosen words.
(This too shall pass.)

[juajen]

2. I totally agree with the "legitimate disgust" remarks!

NT

[acrosstheuniverse]

5. Here is info on the writer of this piece

David Paul Kuhn, a Politico.com senior political writer, is author of the The Neglected Voter: White Men and the Democratic Dilemma.

nuff' said :eyes:

[JoFerret]

11. Know anything else about him?

Not "'nuff said" for me to draw conclusions as to his leanings, bias, pov, etc. What are you saying?

[BlooInBloo]

12. Drudgico. 'Nuff said.

[JoFerret]

18. You mean the author of this book?

http://www.politico.com/reporters/DavidPaulKuhn.html

The one that Wes Clark calls "brilliantly incisive".

Look - I am defending Kuhn. I had never heard of him before today. I am just aware of the tendency of some people to totally trash anyone for being critical of their own person olympian god. So I did a little research - emphasis on little - and see he appears relatively mor. I see no reason so far to dismiss him and his views out of hand.
Am I wrong?

[EFerrari]

13. LOL! The Abused Majority!

[kevinmc]

4. PA. White women begin to turn away from Clinton

LEVITTOWN, Pa. — Like many women over 50, Paula Houwen was eager to vote for Hillary Clinton for president.

"I was impressed when she was first lady. She wasn't the country's trophy wife," the 56-year-old suburban Philadelphia pharmacist recalled.

Today, though, Houwen's no longer a Clinton fan.

"I do not like the way Hillary Clinton has run her campaign," she said.

Clinton's strongest core of support — white women — is beginning to erode in Pennsylvania, the site of the critical April 22 Democratic presidential primary, and a loss here could effectively end her White House run.

A Quinnipiac University survey taken April 3-6 in Pennsylvania found that Clinton's support fell 6 percentage points in a week among white women. Nationally, a Lifetime Networks poll of women found that 26 percent said they liked Clinton less now than in January, while only 15 percent said they liked her more.

"These are Democratic women who waited all their lives for a woman president, but Hillary is not turning them on," said polling analyst Clay Richards.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/33411.html






Paid for by

[FrenchieCat]

6. Obama's greatest mistake?

Running while Black.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_frenchie_080413__22bitter_22_double_stan.htm

[TahitiNut]

16. Oooo-la-la!! Tres manifique!

[madrchsod]

24. hmmm ...you said it

i was chicken in another post!

[TahitiNut]

25. Well, I may be old and celibate ...

... but I'm not blind or dead yet. :silly: :dunce: (Reminds me a bit of Tinoire ... one of my dearest friends.)

[Clintonista2]

17. Oh look, it's frenchiecat framing the campaign as Obama Vs You're racist

How surprising... NOT.

[GoldieAZ49]

19. his gaffe has nothing to do with race

from the linked article

What's The Matter With Obama's Words, Not Kansas

"They don't vote on economic issues because they don't expect anybody's going to help them," Obama said, in an attempt to contextualize his remark. "So people end up, you know, voting on issues like guns" or "gay marriage" or "take refuge in their faith."

To many liberals this all makes perfect sense. Indeed Obama's perspective is the prevailing viewpoint in Democratic circles. And this is what's the matter with a party that has accepted "What's the Matter with Kansas" as gospel.

No book has more influenced Democratic thought in recent years. The premise is that because Democrats stopped representing working and middle class voters' economic concerns, "dropping the class language that once distinguished them sharply from Republicans they have left themselves vulnerable to wedge issues."

Obama has merely reiterated the prevailing lesson Democrats have taken from Republicans victories in seven of the last ten presidential elections.

-snip-
Then there is the exhibited ignorance. Of course families who struggle financially care more about moral values, they are more likely to experience the breakdown of the family. In other words, cultural issues are not a substitute for economic concerns, as Obama argues, but inseparable from many concerned by their economic struggle.

All of this is exactly the sort of mistake Democrats have been making for decades. How many times can some leading liberals live up to the culturally elitist charge without considering that perhaps there is some electricity behind the charge?

[JoFerret]

35. What's your point here?

.

[BootinUp]

7. Great press for Obama

:sarcasm:

[BzaDem]

8. Great article. n/t

[Armstead]

10. And Hillary has never had a fund raiser in San Francisco?

[EFerrari]

21. They come here for money and to insert themselves into local politics.

There are a lot of defense contractors here, as well as, SF is a jumping off point for doing business with China.

So, what we may think about "San Francisco Democrats" and what the Clintons think are two radically different things, fyi.

[EFerrari]

14. No, it won't work. Not this time.

The DLC is trying to pull all the same shit they did on Dean. It won't work this time.

[2rth2pwr]

20. People back then thought that if voters would be given all the information

they would understand what Kerry said because it was the truth.

Is there an echo in here?

[cali]

22. Of course the author thinks this is the end for Obama

he's a winger. Why are YOU posting wingnut shit here?

[madrchsod]

23. "San Francisco Democrat"

cool code word ........oh he meant democrats.

do i have to find my "inner bryan"?

[Cha]

26. BULLSHIT....Only an rw asshole

would think this was a "mistake" and have "San Francisco" in their title.

[JoFerret]

33. No - those attuned

...and we all need to be.

[Eurobabe]

27. nd Mr. Kuhn should have watched the Charlie Rose clip

and done some research. Obama said almost the same thing in 2004. 11 minutes in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJut4-dHuV8

[PetraPooh]

28. Since I think Kerry actually won and election fraud gave it to Bush,

I have to say I disagree with you.

[TLM]

30. Why continue to lie....

He was talking about wedge issue voters being bitter towards government and politics.

The fact you have to lie to spin it as something else, shows how weak, desperate, and dishonest Hi-LIE-ry and her supporters have become.

[Bensthename]

31. "Bitter at 25 years of job loss".That is horrible. Deffinately worse then lying about being shot at

[americanstranger]

32. 'San Francisco Democrat'

Didn't Rush Limbaugh use that term quite a bit?

- as

[SanchoPanza]

34. Neo-Liberal Nonsense

Frank's book was published in June of 2004, obliterating the argument that economic populism lead to the ruination of the Democratic Party. And the comparison to William Jennings Bryan is outright laughable. Kuhn should actually read up on the issues surrounding the 1896, 1900, and 1908 elections. Preferably after he removes his head from his ass.

If anything, the argument Frank proposed worked masterfully for several House candidates in 2006, in districts that up until then were solid Republican, and at the very least Jon Tester and Sherrod Brown benefitted from an economically-leftist campaign message. Prior to that, Al From had been losing elections for Democrats for years by basically writing off "Fly-Over" States in favor of heavily populated areas. Some had gotten sick of it (maybe "bitter" is the operative word), and sought out new messaging strategies to reach large swathes of the American public on what should be, minus the tepid howling of "Blue Dogs", the bread and butter of Democratic politics. What these candidates did was make the argument to people who had been written off by the genuine elitists of the Democratic Party:

"You've been voting Republican for years on the basis of social conservatism. What have you gotten out of it?"

Perhaps, for once, the "elitists" shouldn't be so afraid of offending the oh-so-delicate sensibilities of blue collar Americans in the Midwest, South, and the Rust Belt and actually, you know, talk to them.