April 11, 2008

Barack Obama misleads, smears Middle America

Speaking in San Francisco at a fundraiser for the wealthy (and in Marin County no less; pictures of his tour here), Barack Obama smeared Pennsylvanians and others by saying:

"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. So it's not surprising then that 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."

While much could be said, here's a video covering just part of the immigration and trade comments; script after the video:

Among other things, Obama was being misleading regarding "anti-immigrant sentiment". For instance, the town of Hazleton PA passed an ordinance called the "Illegal Immigration Relief Act". That ordinance was designed only to reduce *illegal* immigration in that town. The mayor and other backers made it clear that it wasn't intended to affect legal immigrants.

Despite what Obama thinks, not too many people are against all immigrants or even against illegal aliens personally. Obama is simply trying to smear those opposed to illegal immigration as "anti-immigrant" because, as he's made clear time and again, he supports illegal immigration.

As for "anti-trade sentiment", Obama recently came out in support of Bush's "Security and Prosperity Partnership" (spp.gov), a scheme to "harmonize" regulations among the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. It's been called "NAFTA on steroids", and many feel it could be a precursor to some form of North American Union comprising the three countries.

The SPP has been shrouded in secrecy and has been pushed without Congressional oversight. Freedom of Information Act requests have had to be filed in order to obtain even basic information about the scheme. No wonder that when Obama came out in support of that Bush scheme he spoke in code.

UPDATE: Obama has since "explained" his remarks, one of the latest including this:

People say they feel like no one is paying attention or listening to them and that is something – that is one of the reasons I am running for president.

And, that's one of the reasons why he's attempting to smear legitimate concerns over the massive illegal activity that he supports as "anti-immigrant sentiments". Please, Obama, keep explaining yourself, it's getting better and better.

Posted to Politics at April 11, 2008 09:12 PM