Projection... Hypocrisy... Condescension... Irony... (UPDATED)

It seems those are the choices, maybe all of the above, of what to take away from Obama's latest speech:

So, it depends on where you are, but I think it's fair to say that the places where we are going to have to do the most work are the places where people feel most cynical about government. The people are mis-appre...I think they're misunderstanding why the demographics in our, in this contest have broken out as they are. Because everybody just ascribes it to 'white working-class don't wanna work -- don't wanna vote for the black guy.' That's...there were intimations of that in an article in the Sunday New York Times today - kind of implies that it's sort of a race thing.

Here's how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long, and they feel so betrayed by government, and when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn't buy it. And when it's delivered by -- it's true that when it's delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama (laugher), then that adds another layer of skepticism (laughter).

But -- so the questions you're most likely to get about me, 'Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What's the concrete thing?' What they wanna hear is -- so, we'll give you talking points about what we're proposing -- close tax loopholes, roll back, you know, the tax cuts for the top 1 percent. Obama's gonna give tax breaks to middle-class folks and we're gonna provide health care for every American. So we'll go down a series of talking points.

But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. 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. 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.

Me personally?  I think Barack is speaking from a place constructed by 20+ years of laboring in the pews of his racist and bigoted church led by his racist and bigoted church and married to the racist and bigoted Black Liberation Theology.  How could you not think of bitter and clingy people when you're planted in pews and exposed to such for so long?

Verum Serum puts it succinctly:

What’s disturbing to me isn’t just the condescension he displayed, it’s the stunning hypocrisy. According to his own website wants to “fix our broken immigration system…” and “Create Secure Borders.” Is that “anti-immigrant sentiment” Barack? And over on this page we read “Obama believes that NAFTA and its potential were oversold to the American people. Obama will work with the leaders of Canada and Mexico to fix NAFTA so that it works for American workers.” Wow, that sounds almost “anti-trade.” I don’t know, is Barack trying to explain his own frustration?

What’s even more disturbing is the fact that what he’s offering here is essentially Marxism. The idea that religion and politics are merely emanations of a frustrated proletariat is classic Marx, who famously said “Religion…is the opiate of the masses.” Here, Obama has merely broadened Marx to include guns and border control.

If there is any sense left in the American electorate, this phrase will resonate well beyond the Pennsylvania primary. Here is a man who clearly holds in contempt a great many of his fellow citizens, be they gun owners, religious believers, or people who believe we need to control the border.

I hope Pennsylvania voters will keep his comments in mind when they enter voting booths in little more than a week.

This entire Obama spectacle is quite the show.  You can't deny his appeal. 

On the surface, he comes across as an amicable guy you can't help but feel some kinship to.  On the surface. 

But when one moves beyond the superficial, the kinship is lost, the amicableness crumbles, and you're left with unabashed and hard-core liberalism. 

Couple that with his ties to a racist, bigoted, anti-semitic church, his spouse who I see to be Jeremiah Wright in drag, and his appeal to a Democratic base far removed from so much of what I see to be good and decent, and John McCain begins to look Reagan-esque.

And doesn't that in and of itself speak volumes?

UPDATE: Via Michelle, this image that sums things up nicely:

Comments

[tim]

“And doesn't that in and of itself speak volumes?”

Maybe things like this will get the vote out for McCain.

“The people are mis-appre...I think they're misunderstanding…”

“Because everybody just ascribes it to 'white working-class don't wanna work -- don't wanna vote for the black guy.' That's...there were intimations of that…”

“And when it's delivered by -- it's true that when it's delivered by a 46-year-old black man…”

“But -- so the questions you're most likely…”

Wow, that's a ...what a... wond...truely grea...inspiring talk...orator.

Dude makes Pres. Bush sound like Churchill.

[Mommynator]

I do NOT understand what is wrong with being a Bible-believing, God-fearing, gun toter.

If you’re Bible believing and God fearing, that means you’re self governing because you have to answer to God. Which means the government does NOT have to supervise your every move.

If you’re a gun toter, well, that just goes along with being self sufficient and independent. You take care of things yourself.

Maybe the bitterness in towns that have lost jobs and businesses isn’t that they’ve been lost, but that the government has made it so that they were lost with their taxes and strangulations . . . uh . . . regulations. Instead of businesses being allowed to plow their profits back into their businesses and people to hire, of course they shut down.

Maybe the bitterness is that they just want the government to leave them alone. And to be rid of snotty elitocrats like Obama and Hillary.