Imaginary Snipers, Obama's Messianic Strain, 'Bitter' Voters

By: Peter L. DeCoursey, For The Bulletin
04/15/2008

Until last Friday, I was not able to imagine a more effective fall TV presidential campaign commercial than something like this:

"It's 2009. Terrorism. China. Russia. Iraq. Afghanistan. Iran. Do you want a president who stood up? [Picture of U.S. Sen. John McCain.] Or [picture of Clinton] a president who remembers sniper fire no one else heard, saw or remembers?"

Sure, here in Pennsylvania, Sen. McCain has a lot of 'splainin' to do, but, gosh, if you wanted a better contrast than Clinton making up a gunfire incident compared to a victim of enemy torture, I can't imagine what it would be.

Until last Friday, anyway. Then it became public that U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) made astonishingly elitist and arrogant remarks at a San Francisco fundraiser.

Sen. Obama said even when voters like his issue positions, "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. 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."

It is dizzying to count up all the ways that statement insults anyone not voting for Sen. Obama.

Those voters are clearly stupid, according to Sen. Obama, since they are planning to support either Sen. McCain or Sen. Clinton, who are going to fail these communities as Bush and Clinton and former President Ronald Reagan did before them.

Their inability to believe that Sen. Obama is going to be different and better than every other president is born of them being "bitter" over the failures of other politicians.

And in their bitterness, "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."

Geez, Sen. Obama, couldn't they just honestly, without being racist or nativist or gun nuts or whatever, just prefer another candidate for president?

Do they have to be stupid and taking refuge in racism or gun idolatry to think someone else is better than you?

Sen. Obama said Sunday that he may have misspoken, chosen his words badly, and "that it is unfortunate that in this political process, people are trying to misconstrue my words" and that Sen. Clinton is not believable mocking him as an elitist.

But he kept defending his comments, just as when he said his grandmother fearing black men on the street was the reaction of a "typical white person."

And here's the worst part: He was talking about fellow Democrats that way, dismissing as duped yahoos folks who basically agree with him.

The word for someone who thinks the world is divided into those who agree with him and those who are wrong, bitter and clinging to outdated ideas is "arrogant." And that is one of the nicer words for it.

And frankly, if you read that quote, it is more clear evidence of the messianic strain that is so bothersome about the Obama campaign.

He keeps saying that he can do things no one else has done, that he is unique in being able to do them. He says only he can unify Americans in a way no past president has done, to achieve major liberal goals a majority of the public has shot down like a skeet duck every time they are proposed.

He says he, and only he, can deliver us from the Old Politics of division and lack of progress to a New Politics of Unity.

And he has made millions of Americans get starry-eyed to the point of believing it.

But it is more than the Gospel of Obama stuff that is worrying. It is that he and any other smart person know how much of the stuff he is saying is hogwash.

No president could have or can now save manufacturing jobs from going places where they can make the same stuff more cheaply and mostly just as well.

No president makes more than a tiny difference in the economy. They are like the third base coach on a baseball team. They can lose or win a game for you, and if the team wins the World Series, they get a ring. But they are by no means, and Sen. Obama knows this, decisive in the economy.

But forget that realpolitik stuff and the messianic thing - the "only I, Barack Obama, can save America" bit - and ask yourself, what is the central premise of the Obama campaign?

It is that he is uniquely able to bring together all strains of Americans to stampede the politicians into solving our national problems: health care, education, energy and other issues.

If he is already name-calling Democrats for not voting for him, how in the world is he going to unite them, much less all Americans? By blaming their unwillingness to vote for him on past presidents? By saying they cling to guns or issues and vote against him out of bitterness? Yeah, that seems like it'll work.

Sen. Obama still leads in overall delegates and popular votes. But he has impressively closed the "idiotic statement" lead Sen. Clinton held.

Peter L. DeCoursey is Harrisburg bureau chief for Capitolwire.