at least Georgie cared about rich white people.
In another revealing nugget Barack shows he cares only about himself and his pretty pretty words; from Politico in an article titled "Obama struggles to feel voters' pain"
– Barack Obama lost his common-man touch Wednesday at The Common Man restaurant.
His campaign assembled six voters with hard luck stories for a roundtable at the aptly-named New Hampshire chain.
There was the 25-year-old single mother with no health insurance and mounting school loans. She got choked up when another woman, cradling a 10-week-old, talked about her family’s strained finances and her wish just to stay home and raise her children.
Then there was Sandra Burt, who lost her job on her 65th birthday. She cannot afford her $2,900 monthly prescription drug costs (she tried skipping doses, but ended up in the hospital). Her husband cashed in his life insurance and sold his treasured truck. They live in a 30-year-old double-wide trailer where the thermostat is set at 64 degrees.
Obama listened intently at the center of a U-shaped table, but amid the heart-wrenching stories that moved even members of the media, he betrayed little emotion.
“We put on extra blankets. We put on an extra pair of socks, whatever it takes,” said Burt, weeping at the end of the table. “What would you do?”
Before Obama could respond, Burt apologized – “I’m sorry,” she said – for breaking down in front of klieg lights, more than a dozen cameras and many more reporters.
“No, listen, it is outrageous,” said Obama, his voice monotone. “We are going to change this.”
For all the charisma that Obama can show day-to-day, bringing crowds to their feet with optimistic rhetoric or lingering on the rope line to hear voters’ stories, he can also appear equally detached.
The dual personality of Barack Obama – the aloof, professorial side – emerged Wednesday at a time when he might have benefited from more of the I-feel-your-pain approach he exhibits regularly on the campaign trail.
His response to Burt was a snapshot of his stump speech.
“There is a direct correlation between the special interests agendas in Washington and your situation,” Obama said, looking down at the table as often as he did at her. “Nobody expects government to do everything for them. What people do expect is if you are working hard and doing the right thing, then you should be able to retire with dignity and respect and have some basic health care.”
“Can you fix it?” Burt asked.
“I know I can fix it if I got the American people understanding that it needs to be fixed,” he said.
When somebody handed napkins to Obama for Burt, he dropped the pile in her hands from across the table, passing up what could have been an opportunity to make contact. (Another way to look at it is he resisted pandering.)
He later mentioned the success of his book allowed him to buy a big house. He was highlighting the unfairness of a tax system that gave him a mortgage deduction not available to those who own less expensive properties, but the story seemed somehow misplaced.
Barack, show you care- it's one of the biggest messages in The Queen
Part of the job of president is to be consoler in chief to make us sure and to feel safe in moments of great national doubt, even GweeB did this after September 11th serving as a reassuring figure and in those kind of moments we don’t need someone to explain in professorial detached tones the causes of the tragedy and how we can solve the problem we need someone to feel, someone to say "there there it’ll be all right". To be a reflection of our grief but also of our resolve.That’s why people love and were drawn to Bill Clinton, because he cared about people and not just the problems in an abstract analytical manner.
Oh and it’s not pandering if you really care; it’s called being human and wanting to do what you can to comfort someone in pain.
Sphere: Related Content
No comments:
Post a Comment