Are We Bitter in Pennsylvania? Hell, Yes. Thanks Senator Obama for Voicing It
And to Senator Clinton, Please Stop the Rove/Bush Tactics to Divide Us
I am going to forward to you, as journalists (in separate e-mails) ... from a Pennsylvanian, and an older, working class white male.... some letters I think you.. as journalists, if you choose to be... should read.
They will give you a better take on how we feel here in Pennsylvania. They come from 1) the mayors of many of our small towns who have lost jobs overseas; 2) Dan Rooney, the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who has been around a long time, seen a lot, and judged what it takes to win very well; and 3) Carl Bernstein, a journalist who apparently does not use the daily attack ads from various candidates as something to be reported, but, rather put some thought into a piece.
(This is to the press who continue to dwell on the Clintons' misrepresentations of Obama's remarks, rather than the rather scary issues still hovering around her campaign, and the change in McCain's finance plan. If you're on this list, you're likely not one of those who have taken the easy way out, but I encourage you to pressure your fellow writers to be journalists, not pundits.. for the sake of the country.)
Some you may have read them already, but I DO hope you read them if you have not. Are we bitter in Pennsylvania? Yes. Our jobs went overseas for a NAFTA agreement that Hillary and Bill Clinton helped to get passed. She continues to have Mark Penn on her staff, even though he advises a Colombian government that has shown POSSIBLE links to the murder of Union activists; and she sat on the board of Walmart saying how she was "proud of the Walmart Way", while their chief lawyer/strategist called unions a blight on the working class, all the while shipping those jobs overseas.
And what do many in the press report currently? What's easy. What's spoonfed. By the Clintons in attack ads. By McCain in attack ads. Words taken out of context in a speech by Obama that DID express the bitterness of working class Pennsylvanians. Words "misremembererd" in much the same way as she "misremembered" her trip to Bosnia.
(And I am working class, but not a union member, so please do not use that as a potential motive for this letter.) Who is the elitist? Those who take money from the ultrawealthy. Senator Clinton's list of letter writers who ascribed to taking money from the Democratic coffers if the superdelegates did not vote for Clinton regardless, is a who's who of the ultrawealthy. Obama's money comes from each and every one of us.
Please do not ascribe his following to the supereducated elite. I did go to college, but I think many of my generation did... working class or not. I'm not a professor. I'm not a think tank person. I put on blue jeans every day and go to work for a living.
As for Bill, Hill and John, with their hundred million dollar lifestyles, trying to call the only candidate from a truly humble beginning an elitist...well as they say in rural America...THAT DOG WON'T HUNT! And please, Senator Clinton, don't be so condescending to us in thinking that we are dumb enough to buy it.
So to your fellow journalists...please... stop taking the easy way out.
Lastly, I have to tell you... I was always an Edwards supporter, not an Obama supporter or a Hilllary supporter, but I am disillusioned by how the Clintons' have taken a page from the Bush campaigns, and how many in the press (not you, most likely if you're on this list) have done the same as they did in the Bush era... use that as the gospel, rather than act as journalists and investigate and report the real issues, rather than nuances and misrepresentations coming from the campaigns.
I have become an Obama supporter as I see the nihilistic campaign of the Clintons and the acquiescence of many in the press begin to drive this country down again, just as people like Edwards and Obama were finding ways to buoy it up again.
So are we bitter? Hell, yes! But thank you Barack Obama and John Edwards for both chanelling that anger into positive movements that have brought people together as never before. And thanks to both of you for so eloquently (most of the time) putting that anger of ours into words, along with the hope we all have (and have had) for your campaigns for the real working class. No half-truths by others can get us to vote against our best interests and turn our anger on the wrong people, nor destroy our hope that Obama and Edwards have brought to us since the first time in my life during the years of Bobby Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy.
Please, encourage your fellow journalists to remember not to ascribe to the same journalistic tendencies of the Bush years that caused this country so much trouble.
And have you reported that many of the small town newspapers that Hillary claims are bitter, such as Allentown and her "hometown" of Scranton, have officially endorsed Obama? (letters from the mayors of PA towns, Dan Rooney, and Carl Berstein to follow in separate e-mails)
I am going to forward to you, as journalists (in separate e-mails) ... from a Pennsylvanian, and an older, working class white male.... some letters I think you.. as journalists, if you choose to be... should read.
They will give you a better take on how we feel here in Pennsylvania. They come from 1) the mayors of many of our small towns who have lost jobs overseas; 2) Dan Rooney, the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who has been around a long time, seen a lot, and judged what it takes to win very well; and 3) Carl Bernstein, a journalist who apparently does not use the daily attack ads from various candidates as something to be reported, but, rather put some thought into a piece.
(This is to the press who continue to dwell on the Clintons' misrepresentations of Obama's remarks, rather than the rather scary issues still hovering around her campaign, and the change in McCain's finance plan. If you're on this list, you're likely not one of those who have taken the easy way out, but I encourage you to pressure your fellow writers to be journalists, not pundits.. for the sake of the country.)
Some you may have read them already, but I DO hope you read them if you have not. Are we bitter in Pennsylvania? Yes. Our jobs went overseas for a NAFTA agreement that Hillary and Bill Clinton helped to get passed. She continues to have Mark Penn on her staff, even though he advises a Colombian government that has shown POSSIBLE links to the murder of Union activists; and she sat on the board of Walmart saying how she was "proud of the Walmart Way", while their chief lawyer/strategist called unions a blight on the working class, all the while shipping those jobs overseas.
And what do many in the press report currently? What's easy. What's spoonfed. By the Clintons in attack ads. By McCain in attack ads. Words taken out of context in a speech by Obama that DID express the bitterness of working class Pennsylvanians. Words "misremembererd" in much the same way as she "misremembered" her trip to Bosnia.
(And I am working class, but not a union member, so please do not use that as a potential motive for this letter.) Who is the elitist? Those who take money from the ultrawealthy. Senator Clinton's list of letter writers who ascribed to taking money from the Democratic coffers if the superdelegates did not vote for Clinton regardless, is a who's who of the ultrawealthy. Obama's money comes from each and every one of us.
Please do not ascribe his following to the supereducated elite. I did go to college, but I think many of my generation did... working class or not. I'm not a professor. I'm not a think tank person. I put on blue jeans every day and go to work for a living.
As for Bill, Hill and John, with their hundred million dollar lifestyles, trying to call the only candidate from a truly humble beginning an elitist...well as they say in rural America...THAT DOG WON'T HUNT! And please, Senator Clinton, don't be so condescending to us in thinking that we are dumb enough to buy it.
So to your fellow journalists...please... stop taking the easy way out.
Lastly, I have to tell you... I was always an Edwards supporter, not an Obama supporter or a Hilllary supporter, but I am disillusioned by how the Clintons' have taken a page from the Bush campaigns, and how many in the press (not you, most likely if you're on this list) have done the same as they did in the Bush era... use that as the gospel, rather than act as journalists and investigate and report the real issues, rather than nuances and misrepresentations coming from the campaigns.
I have become an Obama supporter as I see the nihilistic campaign of the Clintons and the acquiescence of many in the press begin to drive this country down again, just as people like Edwards and Obama were finding ways to buoy it up again.
So are we bitter? Hell, yes! But thank you Barack Obama and John Edwards for both chanelling that anger into positive movements that have brought people together as never before. And thanks to both of you for so eloquently (most of the time) putting that anger of ours into words, along with the hope we all have (and have had) for your campaigns for the real working class. No half-truths by others can get us to vote against our best interests and turn our anger on the wrong people, nor destroy our hope that Obama and Edwards have brought to us since the first time in my life during the years of Bobby Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy.
Please, encourage your fellow journalists to remember not to ascribe to the same journalistic tendencies of the Bush years that caused this country so much trouble.
And have you reported that many of the small town newspapers that Hillary claims are bitter, such as Allentown and her "hometown" of Scranton, have officially endorsed Obama? (letters from the mayors of PA towns, Dan Rooney, and Carl Berstein to follow in separate e-mails)
posted by Mariner at 12:36 PM
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