Jake Tapper's Political Punch has some statements Bill Clinton has made in West Virginia the last few days. They are very clear in their intent, and Democrats should not do this to each other.
Bill Clinton's Message to Rural AmericaTapper speaks of what Bill Clinton is doing...he is doing what a candidate usually does to a person in the other party...not our own.
He can do the math. He must know that it's quite improbable that his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., will be the Democratic presidential nominee. So what purpose does it serve for him to barnstorm a state like West Virginia and tell rural voters that Obama and his elitist political/media cabal allies are mocking Appalachia?
He's using the kind of language Democrats typically use against Republicans -- as in, stuff you say when you don't want voters to vote for the other guy under any circumstance.
This is tough stuff to walk back from.
I am going to just post the more surprising paragraphs from Tapper's post.
Per ABC News' Sarah Amos, this is what the 42nd president of the United States said Friday in Ripley, W.Va.:
"Hillary is in this race because of people like you and places like this and no matter what they say," Clinton said. "And no matter how much fun they make of your support of her and the fact that working people all over America have stuck with her, she thinks you're as smart as they are. She thinks you've got as much right to have your say as anybody else. And, you know, they make a lot of fun of me because I like to campaign in places like this, they say I have been exiled to rural America, as if that was a problem. I don't know about you, but I'd rather be here than listening to that stuff I have to hear on television, I'd rather be with you. There is a simple reason: You need a president a lot more than those people telling you not to vote for her."
There is just so much wrong with those words. I can not believe he did that.
In Madison, W.Va.:
"It is very interesting, from the very beginning of this race there has been a sharp divide in the vote -- the people who need a president, who need to turn the economy around, who need to restore the middle class, who need to give poor people a chance to work their way into the middle class, who need to give our children a better future, who need to restore our standing in the world and the war in Iraq, but do it in a way that rebuilds our military and stands up for America's security and standing around the world -- they have been for her from the get-go."
Jake Tapper sums it up by saying
"His message to these voters: Obama and the media are laughing at you and think you're stupid!!!"You know what? I think they are wrong that he has that weakness with working class voters. I think it is something they pulled out of thin air, and then they exploited it. They have built it up into an issue to benefit her campaign.
When you say something long enough and keep your campaign going to keep saying it over and over....it finally starts polling as an issue.
DU Donor
