Rural America should forgive, not forget, Obama's 'slander'

Last week revealed that leading Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama at a fundraiser on April 6 in San Francisco let his private audience of mostly important and selfimportant Democratic donors know what he thinks about little people in little towns.

Obama, when asked why he was having trouble connecting with working class rural Pennsylvania voters, responded that it was because those people were economically frustrated. So, he said, "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."

Because, you know, economic frustration is the only reason one might believe in God or the Second Amendment. Likewise, there are no real reasons to not vote for Obama - only bitter, racist and xenophobic protectionism can explain resistance to Obamamania. Right?

Rural America was shocked by the would-be president's statements painting rural Americans with such a broad brush - and with such a dark color.

Thankfully, most Americans do not agree with Obama. According to a Rassmussen Reports survey, 56 percent of the nation disagrees with Mr. Obama's analysis. His San Francisco audience, however, was more likely to agree with Obama than disagree. A plurality of liberals agreed with Obama's statement by a 45 percent to 37 percent margin.

After assiduously attempting to ride a political wave to the White House built on light and airy platitudes about "hope" and post-partisanship delivered in cool, calm, moderated tones, Obama seems to be showing his true colors.

Suspicions about Obama first arose when he stopped wearing a tiny lapel pin of an American flag and he was seen not crossing his heart at the singing of the national anthem. It seemed odd though innocuous.

Then, on February 18, his 44-year old wife Michelle stated that she was "proud of her country" for the "first time in (her) adult life." It struck many as peculiar that she has not found anything about America to be proud of since around 1982.

That she doesn't find the liberation of the countries formerly behind the Iron Curtain as patriotically inspiring as watching people vote to put her family in the White House could cause some to speculate that Michelle Obama's patriotism is a little self-absorbed.

Then the slanderous anti-American tirades of the Obamas' minister of 20 years, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, came to light and began to give context to the Obamas.

Among the more tame rants that Rev. Wright indulged included wild conspiracy theories about the American government engineering the AIDS virus as a means of genocide against blacks. He also made accusations that America is a state-sponsor of terrorism and he labeled this country the "U.S. of K.K.K.A." Charming, don't you agree?

All of a sudden it became easier to understand how someone might sit in the pews of Rev. Wright's congregation at Trinity United Church of Christ week after week and never feel very proud to be an American.

It doesn't exactly inspire one to hum along to the tune of, "God bless America," does it?

Obama's champions claimed, however, that he should not be judged by comments that his wife or long-time spiritual advisor made. That, we were told, was to pass judgment based on guilt by association - which was to be frowned upon no matter how close those associates are to the candidate.

Now it is Obama who, having built most of his campaign on words in lieu of experience, has spoken words all his own that seem to ring true only if one lives in Rev. Wright's America.

Obama has since made apologies of sorts. He admits that he probably didn't speak very well in making his comment. He was, after all, at a private fundraiser in San Francisco and didn't expect anyone in the real world would ever actually hear what he thought about the little people in flyover country. Obama has since gone on to try to persuade rural Americans that not only are we bitter, but that it is understandable that we are bitter. We are bitter, he intones, because we are consumed with what government should be doing for us and would be doing for us if it weren't for that big bad George W. Bush thwarting those efforts.

In his apology, he belies an underlying philosophy that the problem with government is always that it isn't doing enough to bring about economic growth and never that it is actually getting in the way of prosperity.

Rural Americans should certainly forgive Obama's slander, but they should not forget it if they find his name on their ballots when they go to vote in November.