Listen to What He Said
I'm impressed with the mindreading abilities of so many people who can tell us what Barack Obama meant (or "really" meant) by his extemporaneous answers to questions from a fundraising crowd in California a week ago. Mike Hashimoto, in the The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, interprets the comments as strike three against Obama:
"Obama just handed McCain the third leg of a three-legged stool: questionable past associations (Wright, Rezko, Weather Underground guy); 'most liberal' member of the Senate; and now dismissive of white, working-class voters in states he needs to win."Notice that Hashimoto doesn't quote Obama. He just presents as fact that Obama was dismissive of white, working-class voters and then discusses the impact of this supposed fact on the general election.
A reader named "BJ" tells us how a small-town voter thinks, according to BJ's understanding of what Obama really meant:
"Since my job got sent overseas, I joined the FLDS, bought some guns, signed up for the KKK, enlisted in the Minuteman Border Watch patrol, and voted to keep marriage between males and females."Notice that "BJ" doesn't quote Obama, either. The detractors rarely quote Obama, except in a word or phrase or sentence taken out of context. Instead, they spin Obama's words into wholly new notions and tell us that this or that is what Obama really meant. Mindreading.
Voters would be better served listening to the man himself and judging him by his own words, not by words his detractors try to paint him as saying. And when I listen to Obama, I think, that sounds about right.
"I said something that everybody knows is true, which is that there are a whole bunch of folks in small towns in Pennsylvania, in towns right here in Indiana, in my hometown in Illinois, who are bitter. So I said well you know when you're bitter you turn to what you can count on. So people they vote about guns, or they take comfort from their faith and their family and their community. Now, I didn't say it as well as I should have."It sounds like Obama understands small town America. And big city America. Americans sure can't count on the economy or what Washington has done for them the last seven years.
-- Barack Obama
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