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Obama's Ugly Closing Argument - Will insulting voters persuade them to back Harris?
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Ubiquitous
2024-10-12 02:05:01 UTC
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Worried that the presidential race may be slipping away from them, Democrats
now express contempt for the people whose votes they need to win in November.
Especially annoying to the party’s leadership is that they have to try to
persuade Pennsylvanians. On Tuesday vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz
(D., Minn.) lamented to wealthy California donors that their party has to win
votes in Western Pennsylvania’s Beaver County, and also persuade people in
York, in the eastern half of the Keystone State. To diminish the power of
such voters, Mr. Walz wants to get rid of the Constitution’s Electoral
College. Now former President Barack Obama has arrived in Pittsburgh to scold
some of the locals for not supporting current Vice President Kamala Harris.

Mr. Obama is now employing the rhetorical tactics he once used against
congressional Republicans to attempt to shame voters into obeying his
political instruction. Mr. Obama’s oratory has always been much more refined
than that of either of his presidential successors—but at least as nasty. The
standard Obama approach is to assume that no one could possibly have an
informed and honest disagreement with him and therefore his opponents must be
ignorant or driven by concealed base motives.

Gregory Krieg, Edward-Isaac Dovere and Eva McKend report for CNN:

Former President Barack Obama on Thursday admonished Black men who
are hesitating to back Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential
campaign, telling them it’s “not acceptable” to sit out this election
and suggesting they might be reluctant to vote for Harris because she’s
a woman.

The striking comments by Obama, made to a small group of voters in a
surprise stop at a local Harris campaign office in Pittsburgh, were
part of a more forceful campaign message delivered by the former
president on Thursday as polls continue to show a neck-and-neck race.
At a rally in the city later that evening, Obama issued some of his
most searing public criticisms of his successor to date.

The lack of energy some see around Harris’ campaign, Obama first told
the smaller group, “seems to be more pronounced with the brothers.”

Mr. Obama then launched a fact-free attack on their motivations. CNN reports:

“You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses, I’ve got a
problem with that,” Obama said. “Because part of it makes me think –
and I’m speaking to men directly – part of it makes me think that,
well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president,
and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for
that.”

The vice president’s significant role in creating a 40-year-high in inflation
that ravaged incomes isn’t a legitimate reason to oppose her? And of course
there are many other legitimate reasons to find fault with the incumbent vice
president in a world in crisis. Emma Bowman at National Public Radio has more
on Mr. Obama’s insults to Pennsylvanians:

“On the one hand, you have somebody who grew up like you, knows you,
went to college with you, understands the struggles and pain and joy
that comes from those experiences,” adding that Harris, who is Black
and Asian American, is focused on policy that will benefit Black
communities, such as affordable housing and health care. “And on the
other side, you have someone who has consistently shown disregard, not
just for the communities, but for you as a person.”

Maybe voters of all backgrounds have had just about all the Biden-Harris
“affordability” they can stand and are nostalgic about the real income gains
of the Trump era.

It’s also very possible that Pennsylvania voters of all backgrounds don’t
think their communities will be well served by Ms. Harris, a San Francisco
leftist who has backed seemingly every zany idea favored by those California
donors, and then some.

Regardless, it’s up to the voters to decide which candidates are most likely
to enable prosperity. Maybe Mr. Walz and Mr. Obama should try winning over
these voters, rather than trying to reduce their electoral power or tossing
them into a 2024 version of Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables.”

These days that basket is looking more and more like a broad, multiracial
coalition.

As for the Democrats, the country desperately needs Mr. Obama and his party
to turn away from the poisonous ideological mindset which holds that every
setback for their political agenda represents a failure of our form of
government or our people.

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Let's go Brandon!
John Doe
2024-10-15 19:29:05 UTC
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Permalink
Post by Ubiquitous
Worried that the presidential race may be slipping away from them, Democrats
now express contempt for the people whose votes they need to win in November.
Especially annoying to the party’s leadership is that they have to try to
persuade Pennsylvanians. On Tuesday vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz
(D., Minn.) lamented to wealthy California donors that their party has to win
votes in Western Pennsylvania’s Beaver County, and also persuade people in
York, in the eastern half of the Keystone State. To diminish the power of
such voters, Mr. Walz wants to get rid of the Constitution’s Electoral
College. Now former President Barack Obama has arrived in Pittsburgh to scold
some of the locals for not supporting current Vice President Kamala Harris.
Mr. Obama is now employing the rhetorical tactics he once used against
congressional Republicans to attempt to shame voters into obeying his
political instruction. Mr. Obama’s oratory has always been much more refined
than that of either of his presidential successors—but at least as nasty. The
standard Obama approach is to assume that no one could possibly have an
informed and honest disagreement with him and therefore his opponents must be
ignorant or driven by concealed base motives.
Former President Barack Obama on Thursday admonished Black men who
are hesitating to back Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential
campaign, telling them it’s “not acceptable” to sit out this election
and suggesting they might be reluctant to vote for Harris because she’s
a woman.
The striking comments by Obama, made to a small group of voters in a
surprise stop at a local Harris campaign office in Pittsburgh, were
part of a more forceful campaign message delivered by the former
president on Thursday as polls continue to show a neck-and-neck race.
At a rally in the city later that evening, Obama issued some of his
most searing public criticisms of his successor to date.
The lack of energy some see around Harris’ campaign, Obama first told
the smaller group, “seems to be more pronounced with the brothers.”
“You’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses, I’ve got a
problem with that,” Obama said. “Because part of it makes me think –
and I’m speaking to men directly – part of it makes me think that,
well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president,
and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for
that.”
The vice president’s significant role in creating a 40-year-high in inflation
that ravaged incomes isn’t a legitimate reason to oppose her? And of course
there are many other legitimate reasons to find fault with the incumbent vice
president in a world in crisis. Emma Bowman at National Public Radio has more
“On the one hand, you have somebody who grew up like you, knows you,
went to college with you, understands the struggles and pain and joy
that comes from those experiences,” adding that Harris, who is Black
and Asian American, is focused on policy that will benefit Black
communities, such as affordable housing and health care. “And on the
other side, you have someone who has consistently shown disregard, not
just for the communities, but for you as a person.”
Maybe voters of all backgrounds have had just about all the Biden-Harris
“affordability” they can stand and are nostalgic about the real income gains
of the Trump era.
It’s also very possible that Pennsylvania voters of all backgrounds don’t
think their communities will be well served by Ms. Harris, a San Francisco
leftist who has backed seemingly every zany idea favored by those California
donors, and then some.
Regardless, it’s up to the voters to decide which candidates are most likely
to enable prosperity. Maybe Mr. Walz and Mr. Obama should try winning over
these voters, rather than trying to reduce their electoral power or tossing
them into a 2024 version of Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables.”
These days that basket is looking more and more like a broad, multiracial
coalition.
As for the Democrats, the country desperately needs Mr. Obama and his party
to turn away from the poisonous ideological mindset which holds that every
setback for their political agenda represents a failure of our form of
government or our people.
I personally can't imagine voting for Trump's stated plan of jailing the
people who have criticized him. He's no longer using statements like
Nazi Germany, he's virtually quoting them now. That should disturb
patriots in every party.
Post by Ubiquitous
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