RALEIGH—In
an unscripted moment at a San Francisco
fundraiser on April 6, Barack Obama said:
"You go into 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. And it's not
surprising then 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."
On April 12,
Obama told the Winston-Salem Journal’s James
Romoser in an interview: “Well look, if
there — obviously, if I worded things in a
way that made people offended, I deeply
regret that. But the underlying truth of
what I said remains…” (“Obama Says He
Regrets Recent Remarks” Trail Mix Blog,
April 12, 2008
http://www.journalnow.net/index.php/trailmix/entry/obama-regrets-recent-remarks)
Chairman Linda Daves, North Carolina
Republican Party, made the following
statement:
“If
Barack Obama will not retract his comments,
then Democrats supporting him in North
Carolina, including Beverly Perdue and
Richard Moore, should make clear whether
they agree with him. Are the people in the
small towns of North Carolina supposedly
just as bitter and frustrated as those in
Pennsylvania? Working class Americans
making a life in small towns across North
Carolina have always been the backbone on
the greatness of our state. Now Barack
Obama has reduced these people to
God-clinging, gun-toting racists intent on
expressing their frustration on their fellow
citizens. The tradition of rich, vibrant
faith is a hallmark of our state and nation
that should not be mocked. People in small
towns and large have found solace in their
faith through good times and bad. The right
to bear arms was among the first and most
important protections that the Founding
Fathers believed should be guaranteed to the
people of a new nation. The Second
Amendment is not an outcry of bitterness and
frustration but a matter of honor and
tradition that should be respected. Barack
Obama’s latest ad in North Carolina is
entitled ‘Nothing’s Changed.’ Nothing has
changed. We have seen elitist Democrat
Presidential candidates who look down on the
rest of us and reject small-town values
before. Democrats supporting Obama in North
Carolina should stand up for the people of
small towns that he has insulted.
If not,
we can only assume that they share his
outlook on those values.”
Back to home page