Sunday, April 13, 2008

Pssst Barack...Your Liberalism's Showing

I've always known that Barack Obama was teeming with elitist liberalism just under the surface. Up until now however, the closest glimpse we got came not from him, but via his wife in her "first time in my adult life I'm truly proud of my country" line.

No longer. On Friday, Obama told a group of elite San Francisco liberals that small town residents in the Midwest "cling to guns or religion" because they are "bitter" about their lot in life.

This is big news and will hopefully sour independent voters on him. As for the self-described Obamaniacs, I doubt this makes even a blip. What he said is classic liberal boilerplate and they're no doubt wondering what the fuss is all about.

There's several layers of stupid in Obama's gaffe, but what sticks out most for me is the way in which he referenced religion. We already know Obama's stance on guns: he doesn't like them and thinks there should be less of them. So by using "guns" and "religion" interchangeably it's almost impossible to deny an implied negative connotation for both.

For someone who has talked and written extensively about his "faith" doesn't it seem unlikely that he'd feel the need to explain it in others? It sounded less like religion was a part his life and more like it was a peculiarity. Call me crazy, but I think Obama's religiosity has been at least partially strategic.

For a more in depth take I suggest checking out this well done article on Politico that lists 12 reasons why this was such a huge mistake.

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