Bitter Speech and Annie Oakley

John from Phoenix, in a comment posted to the Sense piece, "Race and Religion on the Campaign Trail", has written, "I read that now we have a new Obama speech to discuss, the 'Bitter Speech', and I hope to read your views on it. Here's my take: I was delighted with what he said. What he said is true, and I liked the way he said it the first time better that his rewriting of it after he received so much criticism. Still, I liked that he did not retract the essence of the statement, just tried to take the edges off it. We all know there is a lot of hate out there, and it is not all in small towns. Whole neighborhoods of Phoenix could be described by Obama's words. And in the more enlightened neighborhoods of Phoenix, there are a lot of people who are reluctant to express their hatred, but seethe quietly." John ended his comment, "And now Obama has spoken. I may vote for him after all."

Speaking at a closed door fund raiser in California, Obama said many people are bitter over the economic situation and cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them. As John points out, Obama has stood by what he said, though he has been explaining that he could have said it more clearly. Some conservatives, and the Clinton campaign, have been saying this shows Obama is an elitist knocker of religion and an opponent of gun ownership. Hillary has pathetically been sanctimoniously recalling in public a wonderful time her Dad took her out to show her how to shoot a rifle. Her expedient embrace of gun ownership as if she were a charter NRA member has led Obama to chuckle that she is now talking like she is some kind of Annie Oakley who in addition to strapping on her six shooter also spends her weekends in the duck blinds.

It is pretty hard to miss the irony in the two most recent attacks on Obama. First he was criticized for staying in church rather than walking out on his pastor, and now he is accused of being anti-religious. What Obama meant in the "bitter" comment was that it is understandable people seek support from their religious views in times of economic trouble. Religious people who are struggling financially understand what he was saying.

Obama was being honest when he linked guns and xenophobia. Americans whose jobs are in jeopardy or already lost are even more likely to be hostile to immigrants and foreigners who they see as taking away the jobs of Americans. In "Bowling for Columbine", Michael Moore's interview with Charlton Heston showed that Heston's idea of the ultimate need for gun ownership rights is as protection against African-Americans. America's slave holders relied on their guns to protect themselves and their property (the slaves themselves whom the holders claimed to own). Now, as Obama was pointing out, those who feel threatened by immigrants are turning to their guns for protection. Obama has often before warned us about the mistake of blaming immigrants for our economic troubles, while reminding us we are all in the economy together and must work together to make it better. This time, in linking guns to xenophobia, he tapped into one of the conservative hot button issues.

Most interesting to me about this whole flap is how readily Hillary tried to make herself into the non-elitist gun lover. All this farce does is show her to be even more duplicitous and untrustworthy. Her lead in Pennsylvania has been shrinking and those bitter people of whom Obama was speaking may actually respect him enough for speaking the truth to consider voting for him.

By the way, the real Annie Oakley had a fascinating and quite admirable life, particularly for a woman of her times, as told in this Wikipedia article.