Bella's Blog

WASHINGTON -- Former presidential candidate John Edwards, who won nationwide praise and sympathy as he campaigned side by side with his cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, admitted in shame Friday he had had an affair with a woman who produced videos as he prepared to launch his campaign.

Acknowledging a sex scandal he had dismissed as "tabloid trash" only last month, Edwards said he had told his wife and family long ago, but "I had hoped that it would never become public."

He denied fathering a daughter, born to the woman with whom he had the affair, and offered to be tested to prove it. A former Edwards campaign staff member professes to be the father.

The former North Carolina senator, who was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004, confessed to ABC News that he had lied repeatedly about the affair with 42-year-old Rielle Hunter. Hunter's daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter, was born on Feb. 27 this year, and no father's name is given on the birth certificate filed in California.

After the story broke Friday, Edwards released a statement that said, "In 2006, I made a serious error in judgment and conducted myself in a way that was disloyal to my family and to my core beliefs. I recognized my mistake, and I told my wife that I had a liaison with another woman, and I asked for her forgiveness. Although I was honest in every painful detail with my family, I did not tell the public."

"I was and am ashamed of my conduct and choices," he said. "With my family, I took responsibility for my actions in 2006, and today I take full responsibility publicly."

Edwards declared his presidential candidacy in December 2006. His wife was at his side that day and campaigned enthusiastically with him and by herself in the months that followed. She announced in March 2007 that her cancer, formerly in remission, had returned and there apparently was no cure.

She and her husband said it was important for the campaign to continue.

Edwards dropped out midway through this year's primaries after it became apparent he could not keep up with front-runners Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. He recently endorsed Obama and has been mentioned as a possible running mate.

He was John Kerry's running mate in 2004 when Kerry lost to President Bush.

In his statement, he said, "It is inadequate to say to the people who believed in me that I am sorry, as it is inadequate to say to the people who love me that I am sorry.

"In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic. If you want to beat me up feel free. You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself. I have been stripped bare and will now work with everything I have to help my family and others who need my help."

The National Enquirer first reported on the affair in October 2007, in the run-up to the Democratic primaries, and Edwards denied it.

"The story is false," he told reporters then. "It's completely untrue, ridiculous." He professed his love for his wife, who had an incurable form of cancer, saying, "I've been in love with the same woman for 30-plus years and as anybody who's been around us knows, she's an extraordinary human being, warm, loving, beautiful, sexy and as good a person as I have ever known. So the story's just false."

Last month, the Enquirer carried another story _ the blaring headline referred to an Edwards "love child" _ stating that its reporters had accosted Edwards in a Los Angeles hotel where he had met with Hunter after her child's birth. Edwards called it "tabloid trash," but he generally avoided reporters' inquiries, as did his former top aides.

He said in his statement Friday he had "used the fact that the story contained many falsities to deny it," and he called that "being 99 percent honest."

In an interview, scheduled to air on ABC News' "Nightline" Friday night, Edwards said the tabloid was correct when it reported on his meeting with Hunter at the Beverly Hills Hilton last month.

A number of mainstream news organizations had looked into the adultery allegations but had not published or aired stories. But newspapers in Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C., recounted the Enquirer's allegations in prominent articles on Thursday.

The Edwardses have three children _ Cate, Jack and Emma Claire. Another son, Wade, died at 16 in a 1996 car accident.

David Bonior, Edwards' campaign manager for his 2008 presidential bid, said he was disappointed and angry at Friday's news.

"Thousands of friends of the senator's and his supporters have put their faith and confidence in him, and he's let them down," said Bonior, a former congressman from Michigan. "They've been betrayed by his action."

Asked whether the affair would damage Edwards' future aspirations in public service, Bonior replied: "You can't lie in politics and expect to have people's confidence."

CBS News chief White House correspondent Bob Schieffer spoke to John and Elizabeth Edwards on Friday afternoon. Schieffer reported that when Elizabeth got on the phone, "she was obviously in tears" and that she said "this is really, really tough," but she confirmed Edwards told her about the affair in 2006 and the couple had decided to "move on." When Schieffer asked John Edwards how his wife was doing, he said "she is just amazing, like she always is."

In 1999, when Edwards was a senator, he said of President Clinton and his affair with Monica Lewinsky:

"I think this president has shown a remarkable disrespect for his office, for the moral dimensions of leadership, for his friends, for his wife, for his precious daughter. It is breathtaking to me the level to which that disrespect has risen."

In 2006, Edwards' political action committee paid $100,000 in a four-month span to a newly formed firm run by Hunter, who directed the production of four Web videos showing Edwards in supposedly candid moments as well as in a public speech talking about morality.

The payments from Edwards' One America Committee to Midline Groove Productions LLC started on July 5, 2006, five days after Hunter incorporated the firm in Delaware.

Midline provided "Website/Internet services," according to reports that Edwards' PAC filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Midline's work product consists of four YouTube videos showing Edwards in informal settings as he prepares to make speeches in Storm Lake, Iowa, and Pittsburgh, as he prepares for an appearance on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and travels in Uganda in 2006.

Edwards' PAC followed the six-figure payment with two smaller payments totaling $14,461, the last on April 1, 2007.

At the time, Hunter was compiling the videos in 2006, Edwards was preparing his run for president.

Episode One of the four videos shows a conversation between Edwards and an unseen woman as the two chat aboard a plane about an upcoming speech in Storm Lake, Iowa.

Cutting between clips of the speech and the conversation with the woman, Edwards touches on his standard political themes, declaring that government must do a better job of addressing the great issues of the day, from poverty and education to jobs and the war in Iraq.

"I want to see our party lead on the great moral issues _ yes, me a Democrat using that word _ the great moral issues that face our country," Edwards tells the crowd. "If we want to live in a moral, honest just America and if we want to live in a moral and just world, we can't wait for somebody else to do it. We have to do it."

© 2008 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

What a disgrace!!!

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/airplane
.asp

What will he do next???

When will American’s WAKE UP???

Obama The Patriot - Removes American Flag From His Plane

Barack Obama recently finished a $500,000 total overhaul of his 757. And as part of the new design, he decided to remove the American flag from the tail...
What American running for President of the United States would remove the symbol of his country? And worse, he replaced the flag with it with a symbol of himself...

INDIANAPOLIS (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., Sunday blamed market manipulation as the likely cause of record high gas prices in the United States.

Appearing on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," the Democratic presidential contender said if she is elected in November, she will immediately order an investigation into the industry.

"We know that there's market manipulation going on. So I would launch an investigation if I were president right now by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission," Clinton said.

The New York senator said any attempts to lower gas prices should require the participation of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

"I would begin to go directly at OPEC," she said. "I think it's been 25 years where we've, you know, largely just been at the mercy of the OPEC countries."

Clinton said in addition to taking on OPEC members, she would confront oil companies about the rising cost of gasoline.

"You see, I really believe we've got to start right now demonstrating a willingness to take on these oil companies," she said in response to a "This Week" audience question.


Copyright 2008 by United Press International

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said Sunday his religious dedication was not to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his former pastor's views, but to his church.

The Democratic presidential hopeful said on NBC's "Meet the Press" he joined Wright's church based on his personal beliefs and not those of the outspoken minister.

"But, you know, I think that the American people understand that when I joined Trinity United Church of Christ, I was committing not to Pastor Wright, I was committing to a church and I was committing to Christ," Obama said.

Obama said he initially delayed denouncing some of Wright's comments due to loyalty.

"As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me," Obama said.

However, Obama was critical of Wright's most recent public comments about race, which prompted him to limit his affiliation with the religious leader.

"What he said did not bring the country together; it divided the country," he said. "It fed into all of the racial antagonisms and divisions that have haunted this country for so long, and, you know, I did not want to give a platform for that."


Copyright 2008 by United Press International

Obama Paid By Donor Who Got State Grant

Wednesday, April 30, 2008 12:20 PM

By: Newsmax Staff

As an Illinois state Senator, Barack Obama received more than $100,000 from a company owned by an entrepreneur whom Obama helped to obtain a state grant.

Robert Blackwell Jr., a contributor to Obama’s campaigns, began paying Obama an $8,000-a-month retainer in early 2001 to provide legal advice to his technology firm, Electronic Knowledge Interchange.

At the time, Obama had recently completed his unsuccessful campaign for Congress, and had numerous debts and a law practice he had neglected for a year while campaigning, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Obama had been so strapped for cash that his credit card was initially rejected when he tried to rent a car at the 2000 Democratic convention, Obama disclosed in his book “The Audacity of Hope.”

The monthly payments from EKI supplemented Obama’s $58,000-a-year part-time state Senate salary, and eventually totaled $112,000.

“A few months after he received his final payment from EKI, Obama sent a request on state Senate letterhead urging Illinois officials to provide a $50,000 tourism promotion grant to another Blackwell company, Killerspin,” the Times story disclosed.

Killerspin runs table tennis tournaments around the country and sells its line of equipment and apparel, along with DVD recordings of the tournaments.

The day after Obama wrote his letter urging that Killerspin receive the grant, Blackwell contributed $1,000 to Obama’s Senate campaign.

Killerspin eventually received $320,000 in state grants between 2002 and 2004 to subsidize its competitions.

Blackwell is credited on Obama’s Web site with committing to raise $100,000 to $200,000 for Obama’s presidential campaign.

According to the Times, Obama did not specify on disclosure forms for 2001 and 2002 that EKI provided him with most of his private-sector compensation.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs told the Times that Obama did nothing wrong in acting on Blackwell’s behalf for a “worthy project” developed by a constituent.

David Axelrod, Obama’s chief political advisor, was more vehement in his statement: “Any implication that Sen. Obama would risk an ethical breach in order to secure a small grant for a ping pong tournament is nuts.”

© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

This about says it all

Sen. John McCain came out swinging against the Rev. Jeremiah Wright on Sunday and suggested Sen. Barack Obama's relationship with the controversial minister was "beyond belief."

Campaigning in Coral Gables, Fla., McCain reiterated that he still wants the North Carolina Republican Party to stop running an ad that shows Wright screaming "BLEEP America." The ad links the pastor with Obama.

But McCain said he was deeply disturbed by new comments Wright has made.

"I saw yesterday some additional comments that have been revealed by Pastor Wright, one of them comparing the United States Marine Corps with Roman Legionnaires who were responsible for the death of our savior. I mean being involved in that, it's beyond belief. And then of course saying that al-Qaida and the American flag were the same flags," McCain told reporters.

McCain pointed out that Obama told Fox News Sunday that he thought criticism of his involvement with Wright was fair.

"But Senator Obama himself says it’s a legitimate political issue, so I would imagine that many other people would share that view and it will be in the arena,” McCain said.

He then took a swipe at Obama's claim that Americans are "bitter" and "clinging" to their faiths and guns.

"I can understand why Americans, when viewing these kinds of comments, are angry and upset," McCain said, adding, "Just like they view Senator Obama’s statements about why people turn to their faith and their values. He believes that it’s out of economic concerns. We all know it’s out of a fundamental belief, a fundamental faith in this country and its values and its principles."

The Obama campaign reacted quickly to McCain's broadside.

"With each passing day, John McCain acts more and more like someone who's spent 26 years learning the divisive, distracting tactics of Washington," an Obama campaign statement read. "That's not the change that the American people are looking for."

© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Obama Explains Comment About McCain

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 12:29 PM 

PITTSBURGH -- Barack Obama, who said Republican John McCain would be an improvement over President Bush, argued Tuesday that his comment didn't undercut Democrats' contention that the GOP nominee-in-waiting offers the same as the unpopular president.

"To say that John McCain and some of his instincts may be better than George Bush's, that's a low bar," the Democratic presidential candidate said, adding that he also has stressed that McCain is offering "warmed over versions of Bush foreign policy and economic policy."

"So, there's no contradiction there," Obama said.

In Reading, Pa. on Sunday, the Illinois senator was trying to argue that he is the better choice over Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton in Tuesday's primary in Pennsylvania. But Obama, who often claims that McCain would be an extension of Bush's tenure, ended up inadvertently praising McCain.

"You have a real choice in this election. Either Democrat would be better than John McCain. And all three of us would be better than George Bush," Obama said.

That comment contrasted with what the Democratic Party as a whole often says about McCain as it tries to make the general election a referendum on Bush _ that the likely Republican nominee offers a vision identical to that of the president on everything from Iraq to the economy.

It also gave Clinton an opening to criticize Obama, saying: "We need a nominee who will take on John McCain, not cheer on John McCain."

Asked Tuesday about his praise of McCain, Obama tried to turn the tables on Clinton.

"I think Senator Clinton's suggesting that she and John McCain are the two people who are qualified to be commander in chief is probably something that could end up coming back to haunt us in November," Obama told reporters.

Last month, Clinton told retired military leaders that presidential candidates must "be able to demonstrate we can cross the commander in chief threshold ... I believe that I've done that. Certainly, Senator McCain has done that and you'll have to ask Senator Obama with respect to his candidacy."

© 2008 Associated Press.

Bill Clinton Denies Race Card Comment

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 5:43 PM

Former president Bill Clinton was embroiled Tuesday in a new campaign flap after accusing his wife's White House rival Barack Obama of playing "the race card on me."

A day after making the race card remark in a radio interview, in a discussion about January's bruising South Carolina primary, Clinton told reporters in Pittsburgh: "No, no, no. That's not what I said.

"You always follow me around and play these little games, and I'm not going to play your games today. This is a day about election day," he said, as Pennsylvania Democrats decided between Obama and Hillary Clinton.

"You have mischaracterized it to get another cheap story to divert the American people from the real urgent issues before us, and I choose not to play your game today. Have a nice day," the former president added.

Interviewed Monday by a Philadelphia radio station, Clinton was asked whether it was a mistake by him in January to liken Obama's candidacy to the African-American Jesse Jackson's in 1988.

"No. I think that they (the Obama campaign) played the race card on me. And we now know, from memos from the campaign and everything, that they planned to do it all along," Clinton had told the WHYY station.

After the interview was over but with the microphone still on, Clinton was heard to growl: "I don't think I should take any s(expletive) from anybody on that, do you?"

Clinton's South Carolina remark alienated several top black Democrats, who saw an attempt by the former president to belittle the mixed-race Obama and portray his White House bid as fueled only by African-American support.

Asked about Clinton's latest intervention Tuesday while campaigning in Pittsburgh, Obama said he had "no idea" what the former president was talking about.

"Was there a plan to get him to say that my campaign was like Jesse Jackson's? I don't know what he was referring to, unfortunately," the Illinois senator told reporters.

"So former president Clinton dismissed my victory in South Carolina as being similar to Jesse Jackson and he is suggesting that somehow I had something to do with it? OK, well you better ask him what he meant by that," he said.

Clinton adopted a much lower profile on his wife's campaign trail after the South Carolina primary, which Obama won in a landslide.

But the former president has periodically waded into controversy, most recently being admonished by Hillary Clinton for reviving her exaggerated claim that she endured sniper fire during a 1996 trip to Bosnia.

--AFP

  Self Defense/Castle Doctrine

Standing Guard: Barack Obama`s Slippery Oratory  

To understand Barack Obama on the Second Amendment, you have to know about the clash of character between the then-Chicago state senator and an ordinary citizen who exercised his right to armed self-defense in violation of a local gun ban.

That citizen was a 52-year-old resident of Wilmette, Illinois, who, on Dec. 28, 2003, woke to find that, during the night, his home had been invaded by a career criminal; a thief who stole household items, keys and the homeowner’s car.

The victim, Hale DeMar, described his fear in a letter to the Chicago Sun- Times: “For me, the seconds until I found my children still safely tucked in their beds were horrifying . . . The police were called and in routine fashion they came, took the report and with little concern left, promising to increase surveillance. Little comfort, since the invader now had keys to our home and our automobiles. The police informed me that this was not an uncommon event in east Wilmette and offered their condolences . . .” Not 24 hours after the first burglary, the thief returned. Using DeMar’s house keys, the man entered the home, this time setting off the alarm system, automatically notifying the security company. Given the previous night’s lackluster response by police, DeMar was prepared, armed with a handgun--legally purchased years before and kept in a safe. But under Wilmette’s gun ban, that firearm in the home was illegal.

DeMar confronted the criminal, and believing his children were in danger, shot the burglar, who then fled the home.

“Until you are shocked by a piercing alarm in the middle of the night and met in your kitchen by a masked invader as your children shudder in their beds, until you confront that very real nightmare, please don’t suggest that some village trustee knows better … “If my actions have spared only one family from the distress and trauma that this habitual criminal has caused hundreds of others, then I have served my civic duty and taken one evil creature off of our streets, something that our impotent criminal justice system had failed to do, despite some thirty odd arrests, plea bargains and suspended sentences.” The burglar, who was arrested after driving DeMar’s stolen SUV to a hospital, had an extensive criminal record.

Cook County prosecutors ultimately declared DeMar’s use of a firearm to be justified. But Wilmette village officials pressed nonetheless to prosecute him for illegal possession of his handgun--a charge punishable by a huge fine and jail time. A town official was quoted in Reason magazine saying, “We need to set the example that we’re trying to protect our citizens.” And he said, DeMar--by possessing a legally purchased handgun--“is endangering innocent civilians.” The outcry of the Illinois public was heard all the way to the state capitol.

As a result, the Illinois House and Senate passed legislation in May 2004 to protect citizens who use handguns in self-defense in their homes or businesses despite local handgun bans.

The House accepted the DeMar selfdefense bill by a vote of 86-25 and the Senate moved the legislation on a 38-20 vote.

And here lies the seminal moment for state Senator Barack Obama. When Obama turned thumbs down on the bill, he voted against the most basic element of the Second Amendment-- the right of defense of self and family-- the reason that millions of Americans own firearms.

When the governor vetoed the bill, Obama once again voted against a citizen’s right to self-defense. Despite his vote, the veto override passed the Senate and the House by overwhelming majorities, thereby enacting this bill into law.

Now, fast forward to today’s slippery oratory of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama just three years from being an unknown state senator--now morphed by the media into a spellbinding u.s. senator seeking to be president of the United States.

Using words like “protecting sportsmen,” Obama is now saying that he believes in the Second Amendment … but with almost universal exceptions, all of which he lists under the heading of “common sense gun safety laws.” “Common sense gun safety” and the Second Amendment? Like endorsing the D.C. gun ban, which outlaws armed self-defense in the home--now being challenged before the u.s. Supreme Court. Obama, who as president would be in the position to nominate justices to that high court, has declared that the d.c. ban doesn’t violate the Second Amendment.

“Common sense gun safety” and the Second Amendment? In a “1998 National Political Awareness Test,” he pledged to support a “Ban [on] the sale or transfer of all forms of semi-automatic weapons”--meaning most handguns and many rifles and shotguns that you and I own.

“Common sense gun safety” and the Second Amendment? Like demanding that the federal government preempt the 40 hard-won state laws creating Right-to-Carry.

Here’s how the Chicago Tribune put it: “Obama said he opposed allowing ordinary citizens to carry concealed weapons and that a federal law banning concealed carried weapons except for law enforcement is needed.” “Common sense gun safety” and the Second Amendment? Like the draconian proposals funded to the tune of $18,000,000 by the rabidly anti-gun Joyce Foundation while Obama was an activist member of its board of directors.

Obama’s alleged support of the Second Amendment is utterly cynical and false. Barack Obama is not for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms; he`s out to destroy it.

Copyright 2008, National Rifle Association of America, Institute for Legislative Action.
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Wayne LaPierre

What they didn't tell you tell you today

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Obama and the Joyce Foundation

The press is finally starting to notice Barack Obama's problem with gun owners.  Politico notes that Obama served on the board of directors for the Joyce Foundation, which has given millions of dollars to gun-control groups. In fact, Politico's Kenneth Vogel reports that Obama thought about taking over as head of the Joyce Foundation, but decided to focus on politics instead. 

The Joyce Foundation gave $21 million to anti-gun groups while the senator served on the board, yet now the head of the Joyce Foundation is trying to claim the group doesn't just fund gun-banners. 

Ellen Alberding told Politico, "We're not promoting a particular solution. We're promoting really smart people to think about problems and come up with ideas on how to solve them."  That's baloney. From the Violence Policy Center to Ohioans Against Gun Violence, the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Education Fund, the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence and many others, the Joyce Foundation gives its money to groups that have never supported gun ownership. When was the last time any of those groups came out in support of a pro-Second Amendment law? The answer is never. 

The shameless attempts to disguise Obama's record on the Second Amendment has caused the candidate to make the claim that he doesn't know enough about the D.C. Gun Ban case to offer an opinion. It's forced other Democrats to distance themselves from Obama, because they represent pro-Second Amendment constituencies. And now the Joyce Foundation can't even come clean about their point of view ... all because Obama and his supporters can't let Americans find out just what he thinks about your right to keep and bear arms.

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To get more comments on current issues and up to date information visit www.nranews.com.
© 2007 National Rifle Association of America

Group to Air Obama 'Willie Horton' Ad
Monday, April 21, 2008 8:34 PM

By: Jim Meyers

The political operative behind the Willie Horton ad that helped defeat Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential race is releasing a new ad this week targeting Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama.

Floyd Brown, a longtime conservative strategist who heads the conservative National Campaign Fund, said he is launching the ad to expose Obama’s weakness on gang violence.

“The ad draws a parallel between Obama’s weakness on gang violence and the war on terror,” said Brown. Brown is the former head of Citizens United, which claims to be the largest political action group for conservatives in the United States.

In his new ad Brown tells of a woman leaving church choir practice who was killed by gang gunfire while shielding her 6-year-old daughter, a 15-year-old boy beaten with bricks after a gang member crashed into his car, and a 14-year-old boy shot five times in the back for refusing to flash a gang hand sign.

“They all died in 2001. In Chicago,” the voice-over declares.

That same year, Barack Obama — then an Illinois state senator — voted against expanding the death penalty for gang-related murders, the ad points out.

The ad concludes, “When the time came to get tough, Obama chose to be weak. So the question is: Can a man so weak in the war on gangs be trusted in the war on terror?”

Brown says the ad will run in targeted states beginning on Tuesday.

You can view the ad by Clicking Here Now.

During the early part of Barack Obama's political career he opposed the death penalty. In recent years, however, he has modified his position to support the death penalty in cases involving the "most heinous" of crimes.

In 2001 as an Illinois state senator, Obama did vote against a proposed law that would have widened the scope of the death penalty to include some gang activity. The bill passed the legislature but was later vetoed by then Republican Gov. George Ryan, who imposed a moratorium on death penalty executions.

Obama defended his opposition to the gang death penalty bill because, he argued, it would unevenly apply to minorities.

“There’s a strong overlap between gang affiliation and young men of color . . . I think it’s problematic for them to be singled out as more likely to receive the death penalty for carrying out certain acts than are others who do the same thing,” Obama said at the time.

Whether this highly partisan ad will stick as Obama’s “Willie Horton” is yet to be seen.

Massachusetts inmate Willie Horton was serving a life sentence for murder, without parole, when he was released as part of a weekend furlough program in June 1986. He did not return, and in April 1987 he twice raped a woman in Maryland after pistol-whipping and knifing her fiancé.

Michael Dukakis was the governor of Massachusetts at the time of Horton’s release. He supported the furlough program as a method of criminal rehabilitation, and when the Massachusetts legislature passed a bill prohibiting furloughs for first-degree murderers, Dukakis vetoed the bill.

Beginning in September 1988, an organization headed by Floyd Brown backed George H.W. Bush in his race against Dukakis. Brown’s group produced and aired an ad detailing the Horton case and Dukakis’ role.

To conservatives, the name Willie Horton became synonymous with soft-on-crime liberalism. Liberals said the ad was nothing more than veiled racism. Horton was an African-American. The ad is widely thought to have played a significant role in helping Bush win the presidency.

© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Who are voting for??????

This about sums it up!!!!

Obama 'Small Town' Comments Draw Fire, Support

Source: feeds.huffingtonpost.com

** UPDATED BELOW WITH RESPONSES FROM MCCAIN, OBAMA, PUNDITS **

Sen. Hillary Clinton drew sharp disagreements with Sen. Barack Obama late Friday for comments he made suggesting that job loss and economic woes had compelled people in Pennsylvania to bitterness, "guns or religion or antipathy, or anti-immigrant sentiment."

"Pennsylvanians," she declared, "don't need a president who looks down on them. They need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, your families."

The line was cutting and drew applause from the crowd. And it demonstrates that the Clinton campaign feels it has a political winner if not an issue that could dominate the news cycle for several days.

"If we start acting like Americans," Clinton continued, "and role up our sleeves we can make sure that America's best years are ahead of us."

Clinton's reaction came just hours after the Huffington Post first reported on Obama's statement on small-town resentment. She was beaten to the punch by Sen. John McCain, who chastised Obama not for lacking an optimistic tone, but for deploying "liberal elitist" rhetoric.

Obama's remarks, which came at a San Francisco fundraiser, were as follows:

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.

Clinton addressed the Obama statement without prompting. Telling the crowd that, "it is being reported that my opponent said that the people of Pennsylvania who faced hard times are bitter," the New Yorker immediately sought to draw a contrast.

"Well, that is not my experience," she said. "As I travel around Pennsylvania I meet people who are resilient, optimistic, positive, who are rolling up their sleeves. They are working hard every day for a better future for themselves and their children"

UPDATE: McCain spokesman Steve Schmidt had this to say on Obama's remarks:

UPDATE: The Obama camp has released the following statement, responding to John McCain, via spokesman Tommy Vietor:

Later, Obama responded in person at an event in Indiana:

"I was in San Francisco talking to a group at a fundraiser and somebody asked how're you going to get votes in Pennsylvania? What's going on there? We hear that's its hard for some working class people to get behind you're campaign. I said, "Well look, they're frustrated and for good reason. Because for the last 25 years they've seen jobs shipped overseas. They've seen their economies collapse. They have lost their jobs. They have lost their pensions. They have lost their healthcare.

"And for 25, 30 years Democrats and Republicans have come before them and said we're going to make your community better. We're going to make it right and nothing ever happens. And of course they're bitter. Of course they're frustrated. You would be too. In fact many of you are. Because the same thing has happened here in Indiana. The same thing happened across the border in Decatur. The same thing has happened all across the country. Nobody is looking out for you. Nobody is thinking about you. And so people end up- they don't vote on economic issues because they don't expect anybody's going to help them. So people end up, you know, voting on issues like guns, and are they going to have the right to bear arms. They vote on issues like gay marriage. And they take refuge in their faith and their community and their families and things they can count on. But they don't believe they can count on Washington. So I made this statement-- so, here's what rich. Senator Clinton says 'No, I don't think that people are bitter in Pennsylvania. You know, I think Barack's being condescending.' John McCain says, 'Oh, how could he say that? How could he say people are bitter? You know, he's obviously out of touch with people.'

"Out of touch? Out of touch? I mean, John McCain--it took him three tries to finally figure out that the home foreclosure crisis was a problem and to come up with a plan for it, and he's saying I'm out of touch? Senator Clinton voted for a credit card-sponsored bankruptcy bill that made it harder for people to get out of debt after taking money from the financial services companies, and she says I'm out of touch? No, I'm in touch. I know exactly what's going on. I know what's going on in Pennsylvania. I know what's going on in Indiana. I know what's going on in Illinois. People are fed-up. They're angry and they're frustrated and they're bitter. And they want to see a change in Washington and that's why I'm running for President of the United States of America."

UPDATE: The Clinton campaign emailed around harsh comments from two Republican pundits:

Republican strategist Ed Rollins: Q: "On a scale of 1 to 10 how damaging is this?" Rollins: 'Ten.' [CNN, Lou Dobbs, 4/11/08]

The Obama campaign, meanwhile, emailed out a CNN segment where Gloria Borger, Jack Cafferty, and Jeffrey Toobin all defended the comments:

GLORIA BORGER: Well, Hillary Clinton said today, you know, I don't see bitter people out there, I see struggling people or whatever it is, but she said the people aren't bitter. But I think the people are angry – and maybe Obama's terminology was in artful but I think he's expressing a sentiment of mad-as-hell-voters, not going to take it anymore, that we've seen throughout this election. And that's why perhaps voters are saying over and over again that they want to change. So I think Hillary Clinton is trying to make him into the elite candidate but he's talking about people being angry.

BLITZER: All right, and Hillary Clinton responded to the Obama comments this way; Jeff. Let me play her little sound bite.

HRC: It's being reported that my opponent said that the people of Pennsylvania who faced hard times are bitter. Well, that's not my experience. As I travel around Pennsylvania, I meet people who are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive, who are rolling up their sleeves. They're working hard every day for a better future for themselves and their children. Pennsylvanians don't need a president who looks down on them.

BLITZER: All right, Jeff. What do you think?

JEFF TOOBIN: I think that is so ridiculous. I mean that is not at all what Barack Obama said. I just think this is an example of how a campaign between the two of them can be purely destructive. And not elevate either candidate. I mean, Hillary Clinton is clearly distorting what Obama said. And by the way, what Obama said is factually accurate. It's been true throughout history that people who have economic problems lash out against various others. I mean, I just think it is an embarrassing for the Clinton campaign to hang on this as if it's some sort of gaffe by Obama.

BLITZER: It's not just the Clinton campaign, Jack it's also the McCain campaign. They issued a statement saying it's a remarkable statement and extremely revealing it shows an elitism towards and condescension towards hard working Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking. It is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans.

JACK CAFFERTY: Really? And this is from John McCain?

BLITZER: No, this is from Steve Schmidt a senior adviser for John McCain.

CAFFERTY: Look, Jeff's right. They call it the rust belt for a reason. The great jobs and the economic prosperity left that part of the country two or three decades ago. The people are frustrated. The people have no economic opportunity. What happens to folks like that in the Middle East, you ask? Well, take a look. They go to places like al Qaeda training camps. I mean, there's nothing new here. And what Barack Obama was suggesting is not that the people of Pennsylvania are to blame for any of it. It's that the jerks in Washington, D.C., as represented by the ten years of the Bushes and the Clintons and the McCains who have lied to and misled these people for all of this time while they shipped the jobs over seas and signed phony trade deals like NAFTA are to blame for the deteriorating economic conditions among America's middle class. I mean, I'm a college dropout and I can read the damn thing and figure it out.

BORGER: You know, in this case the Hillary Clinton campaign and the John McCain campaign have the same goal and that is to portray Obama as this sort of (inaudible) elitist who doesn't understand the real working class people or independent voters. And so they're both on the same side on this one and it's obvious why.

BLITZER: Go ahead, Jeff.

TOOBIN: I just think it's remarkable that Barack Obama, this guy who grew up in a single-family household with no money, who lived in Indonesia, who came from very modest upbringings, somehow he's the elitist? That's really a pretty extraordinary sort of contortion of his background. I mean.

BORGER: It's that Harvard, Yale thing.

CAFFERTY: He did not make $109 million in the last eight year did he?

BORGER: Right.