April 18, 2008
CBS 3: Old People Hate Obama!
Yesterday, CBS 3's dreamy Susan Barnett did a report on how a bunch of old people love Hillary Clinton and John McCain and hate Barack Obama. But not because he's black! Just because.... they don't want to vote for him. Also, apparently everyone thinks Iraq attacked us on 9/11 and that Obama hates America and won't salute the flag.
Oh, and the one black guy hates John McCain because he's a "all the big boys get bigger", apparently. Well, duh.
Posted by D-Mac on April 18, 2008 02:58 PM
Posted to Barack Obama
, CBS 3
, Hillary Clinton
, John McCain
, Old People
Comments
WHAT SEN. CLINTON THINKS OF US
Ben Barber later wrote a 2001 book about this and other Clinton salons with intellectuals, and I remember him taking lots of notes at Camp David -- which obviously lay the basis for his 2001 account. In that book, which many of us read when it came out years ago, he gave vivid and accurate renditions of the discussions I heard and participated in, and I have spoken to other attendees at various Clinton salons who agree on Barber's accuracy. Obviously, contemporaneous notes and a book written years ago, long before today's arguments, are the best possible evidence -- especially since Barber is reportedly now a Hillary Clinton supporter. His previously documented reports are much better evidence of what was said in 1995 than instant "recollections" now scrounged up by the HRC and Obama campaigns.
Barber reports in his 2001 book that Hillary Clinton said "Screw 'em" about southern working class whites who did not support Bill Clinton. Two other scholar-particiants, Alan Wolfe and Harry Boyte, agree she said this. Reported demurrals (and not a clear denial) come from Clinton staffers Bruce Reed and Ken Baer, not from the independent intellectuals in attendance. But independent witnesses who keep notes trump employees any day.
I have gone back to my 1995 notes to check my recollections of the event. My notes do not have any exact words, so I am not going to try to corroborate a particular phrase from Hillary Clinton or any other speaker.
But what is clear in both in my memory and my notes is that there was extensive, hard-nosed discussion about why masses of voters did not support Clinton or trust government or base their choices on economic as opposed to what people saw as peripheral life-style concerns. Hillary Clinton was among the most cold-blooded analysts in attendance. She spoke of ordinary voters as if they were a species apart, and showed interest only in the political usefulness of their choices -- usefulness to the Clinton administration, that is.
I vividly remember at the time finding it impressive that Bill Clinton (not Hillary Clinton) showed real empathy for the ordinary people whose motives and supposedly misguided choices were under analysis. Ironically, just as Barber reported, Bill Clinton was the one who combined analysis and empathy, much as Obama himself did in his full San Francisco remarks.
I think this whole angle of "gotcha" politics about snippets of speech transposed from one context to another is ridiculous and pathological for democracy in America -- and I cannot fathom why the Clintons or George Stephanopoulos are descending to this dirt, not to mention the guilt-by-association crap. It is particularly despicable of them to criticize Obama for the sort of observation/analysis that was routine in and around the 1990s Clinton White House. And I cannot help but feel there is a psychological edge of pure envy in Bill Clinton's attacks: Obama is empathetic and charismatic as well as smart, just like Bill was back then, in those so much better days!
Over and out. I am going to try to find a way to preserve in amber my better memories and feelings about the Clintons, so as not to lose altogether the sense of admiration I once felt, but can no longer.
Posted by: Owen Hill at April 18, 2008 06:06 PM
BullShit! I am 77 years old and I support Obama.
Posted by: Mel Hoversten at April 20, 2008 06:51 PM
BullShit! I am 77 years old and I support Obama.
Posted by: Mel Hoversten at April 20, 2008 06:51 PM
BullShit! I am 77 years old and I support Obama.
Posted by: Mel Hoversten at April 20, 2008 06:51 PM
BullShit! I am 77 years old and I support Obama.
Posted by: Mel Hoversten at April 20, 2008 06:51 PM



I guess we should change Clinton's Campaign Bus from SOLUTIONS EXPRESS to DOUBLE SPEAK EXPRESS. The Clinton's sold the rights of workers & the Unions in America for $800,000 in 2005 to Columbia. Bush sells America to the Chinese for $12b each month to fight Cheyenne's /Haliburton's war in Iraq and Mark Penn tried to continue Clinton's plan in Colombia for 2009 until they got exposed. Double speak is all I can say. America is not for sale. No Vote for Bill/Hillary in 2008/2009. Enough is enough.
Posted by: Owen Hill at April 18, 2008 06:04 PM