A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Christine Bowman

Why is Clinton calling Obama names? Could this be what she learned from 35 years of experience in politics? That reckless name-calling can work in elections. Removing words from their context is just a strategy. Unscripted truths sometimes explode like grenades.

In fact, long before entering politics Hillary Rodham had to have learned that words and name-calling can hurt a brainy but well-meaning geek. That is just part of American culture, right? We have an anti-intellectual bent. It's the peevish, defensive side of our wonderful egalitarianism.

So now Hillary's spending the run-up to the Pennsylvania primary denouncing the following statement from Obama:

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. And it's not surprising then 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.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler... [1]

The only part Clinton chooses to repeat verbatim, though, is "… they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion …" The media echo chamber has focused there, as well.

As everyone knows, Hillary Clinton's had a few gaffes of her own. For comparison, here are a few of HRC's better-known doozies:

I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession which I entered before my husband was in public life. -- Hillary Rodham Clinton, Response to reporter's questions (16 March 1992), reported on "Making Hillary an Issue" Nightline (26 March 1992). Quoted in Boston Globe [2].

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton [3]

Another ill-considered quip:

You know, I'm not sitting here like some little woman standing by my man, like Tammy Wynette. -- Hillary Rodham Clinton, "60 minutes" interview, 1992

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article... [4]

And about Christianity:

I have to confess that it's crossed my mind that you could not be a Republican and a Christian. -- Hillary Clinton in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, 1997

http://womenshistory.about.com/cs/quotes... [5]

Let's remember that both Clinton and Obama had middle class upbringings; neither one begged in the streets or inherited old money. Both used their brains and hard work ethics to earn their Ivy League educations, and they both started out their careers in service to those less fortunate. She worked at the Children's Defense Fund. He worked as a community organizer. Although they had secured elite credentials and bright futures, they decided to work for less privileged Americans.

Of course, Clinton and Obama are among America's elite now. They have money and power to spare, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are patronizing elitists. Does Hillary look down on country music fans and women who bake? Does she think Republicans who go to church are fake Christians? Probably not. And does Obama look down upon, or plan to stand up for, people who are facing hard times? We know from many remarks, writings and the legislative record that his understanding of economics is far more nuanced than that. He doesn't blame rust belt workers for the loss of their own jobs.

Let's hope our presidential candidates really are the elite leaders, the creme de la creme; and let's not call them any more dirty names. The "elitist" name-calling is inappropriate, and it's a tasteless bit of politicking on Clinton's part. We shouldn't waste any candidate's time by asking, more or less, when she/he stopped beating their spouse.

Here's a cogent reminder of that, from an elite source, in case anyone needs it:

Eleanor Roosevelt understood that every one of us every day has choices to make about the kind of person we are and what we wish to become. You can decide to be someone who brings people together, or you can fall prey to those who wish to divide us. You can be someone who educates yourself, or you can believe that being negative is clever and being cynical is fashionable. You have a choice. -- Hillary Rodham Clinton, 1995, at the dedication of Eleanor Roosevelt College

http://www.issues2000.org/Senate/Hillary_Clinton... [6]

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

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