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Obama Tells Workers, When They Lose Their Job, They Lose Their Dignity | 80 comments (80 topical)

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a very elitist statement I think on the same (5.00 / 3) (#1)
by athyrio on Mon May 05, 2008 at 02:26:55 AM EST
order as the bitter, etc. remarks in San Francisco..... It is like he doesn't have a clue how we feel in the blue collar class and what is important to us....

When not in his 1-stump-speech mode, (5.00 / 4) (#5)
by andrys on Mon May 05, 2008 at 03:09:45 AM EST
... he tends to not think through his off-the-cuff statements.

 I have to wonder at people who think it natural that after such a long, arduous campaign (which he keeps complaining about) he still has the same old stump speech which I know by heart.

  Add his statement in San Francisco (yes, in that fundraiser with the cling-to microscopic look at people) he actually said,


"Ironically, this is an area--foreign policy is the area where I am probably most confident that I know more and understand the world better than Senator Clinton or Senator McCain."
 . . .
"When Senator Clinton brags 'I've met leaders from eighty countries'--I know what those trips are like! I've been on them. You go from the airport to the embassy. There's a group of children who do native dance..."

"You do that in eighty countries--you don't know those eighty countries. So when I speak about having lived in Indonesia for four years, having family that is impoverished in small villages in Africa--knowing the leaders is not important--what I know is the people. . . ."

  He was age 6 to 10 or so when living in Indonesia.  That he can say this in all seriousness and get away with it when Clinton would be pummeled to the ground if she said something so insane, says more than I want to know about this campaign and the mindsets that allow such statements to  go unexamined.  HOPE can ignore reason.

  He spent a couple of weeks in the middle east when he was a college student, so he is more experienced than Clinton or McCain when it comes to "foreign policy."  The man is severely delusional in this area (and I have to wonder what other areas).

 

- Andrys


[ Parent ]

Indeed! (5.00 / 1) (#43)
by felizarte on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:26:58 AM EST
Except that I think, he tends to say exactly what is in his mind and heart which is quite revealing of his shallowness.  How very wrong of him to equate dignity with one's economic status!

[ Parent ]
No fan but... (none / 0) (#73)
by RustedView on Mon May 05, 2008 at 11:34:00 AM EST
I'm no fan of Obama, or Clinton, or McCain, but...
I think Obama is trying to turn himself into a firebrand as a strategy for winning in places like Indiana.  I can see Eugene V. Debs up on stage in his home state going on about how "When they take your job, they are trying to take your dignity with it.  A man's work is his livelihood and a man can take pride in his work, can find dignity in it.  When they ship your good jobs to the lowest-bidding country, they are trying to take your dignity away from you.  Stand up and let it be known that 'No, my dignity is mine, not yours to take!'"

Maybe it's just my naivete, but I'd like to think Obama goes off script in these moments and just doesn't phrase what he is thinking correctly.  Sadly, I know that isn't true, everything is scripted these days.

One last thing, as a direct reply to felizarte:  Our society equates dignity with economic status all the time.  The Bill Gates sits at the top of our ladder, while the unemployed and homeless are considered the lowest, with no dignity.  There was a recent NYT article about a homeless man in Queens who begs for money in a suit and tie, which I think disproves the point, but this sort of classism still exists in our society, you just won't here most politicians (save Edwards) explicitly talk about it.

[ Parent ]

I've lived overseas.... (5.00 / 1) (#64)
by JavaCityPal on Mon May 05, 2008 at 10:50:44 AM EST
Quite near his childhood location, too. Papua New Guinea (on the border with Indonesia), Saudi Arabia, and Australia. There was a huge difference between what we came to understand about the culture in the countries we lived vs. those we simply vacationed in for a few weeks. He shows no understanding of any cultures. But, my favorite of his comments is:

"When Senator Clinton brags 'I've met leaders from eighty countries'--I know what those trips are like! I've been on them. You go from the airport to the embassy. There's a group of children who do native dance..."

You suppose a junior senator gets the same treatment as a First Lady? The trips she made were not the routine, especially not when she traveled with her husband. Obama really talks to us like we are stupid.

Although, the dignity comment...I lost my job in February, it's hard to hold onto dignity after that, but not impossible.


[ Parent ]

As long as I cling to my gun... (5.00 / 5) (#20)
by lambert on Mon May 05, 2008 at 05:57:18 AM EST
... I won't feel I've lost any dignity at all!

[ Parent ]
don't forget your (none / 0) (#37)
by cpinva on Mon May 05, 2008 at 07:52:37 AM EST
bible! :)

[ Parent ]
It's funny... (5.00 / 1) (#46)
by Kathy on Mon May 05, 2008 at 08:39:20 AM EST
It is like he doesn't have a clue how we feel in the blue collar class

because, if you listen to what he says and read the biographical info on him and his mother...Obama seems to be embracing the same upper middle class lifestyle that his mother ran away from.

[ Parent ]

obama seems to have lost his dignity long ago... (1.00 / 0) (#66)
by PssttCmere08 on Mon May 05, 2008 at 11:01:32 AM EST
Someone who has lost their job is not going to feel any better by what he said.  Where the hell does he get this stuff?

[ Parent ]
Some of us are comforted by a pol (none / 0) (#81)
by halstoon on Mon May 05, 2008 at 03:11:32 PM EST
who isn't constantly blowing smoke up our a$$es.

When you lose your job and the whole town goes down the $hitter b/c the factory left town, you aren't exactly excited about life, my friend.

When you see the gov't then give the company that laid you off a tax credit for giving your job to India, well, you don't feel like the gov't see you as very dignified.

[ Parent ]

Obama Tells Workers, When They Lose Their Job, They Lose Their Dignity | 80 comments (80 topical)

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