04-21-2008, 01:07 AM
Not really autism-related; this article came up in the news scan in my blog. About halfway through my mouth opened in shock. (Now you all can't wait to read it, can't you? 
)
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/sto...48,00.html
)http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/sto...48,00.html
Quote:
CINDY Sowers, 48, is so mad at Barack Obama that she decided to make a sign. It was 3am on Wednesday and she was tending to her autistic grandson while watching television.
She took out a white board and with black tape spelled out NOT BITTER. Then she stuck the sign in her front yard.
Sowers lives in a small house on the main road heading north out of Mercersburg in southern central Pennsylvania. Nineteenth-century president James Buchanan, who supported the rights of slave owners, was born near here. The only Pennsylvanian to be elected president, he held office in the lead-up to the American Civil War, echoes of which can be found in the historical signs along the roads and in the attitudes of the people.
Southern Pennsylvania is almost all white and a place of guns, God and hard economic times. Obama will be lucky to win more than a handful of votes here.
This is the political market that Obama so offended when his private comments to a wealthy fundraising gathering in San Francisco were splashed across cable TV last week.
In a scratchy recording, Obama can be heard stumbling into a clumsy explanation of political conservatism in rural areas and small towns: "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."
"We are a bunch of rednecks?" Sowers asks on the porch of her house. "I think there are a lot of people who are angry about that."
Sowers, retired from the military, where she held an administrative position, is an avowed Hillary Clinton supporter. She is the kind of blue-collar Democrat who should ensure a Clinton victory in Pennsylvania's Democratic primary on Tuesday.
Sowers's tired eyes reflect the daily grind. She lives with her night-shift working husband, 18-year-old son and 22-year-old daughter, who is a single parent with an autistic son. But, as Sowers says, she's not bitter; she is quick to smile and share a joke. And she's certainly no redneck. Sowers's son, who dates a young woman of mixed race, is supporting Obama, she notes.
"He's angry at me for making this sign, but I don't think he's paying close enough attention," she says. To Sowers, Obama cannot be trusted because of his long-term association with a "wacko" preacher: his pastor in south Chicago, Jeremiah Wright, who is known for occasionally incendiary sermons that Obama's critics say are anti-American.
However, while Sowers's anger at Obama's comments is understandable, other attitudes in these parts are far moredisturbing.
"He was a jerk for saying that," comments Sowers's neighbour Kym Dayley, standing outside her home by her pick-up truck, chatting to her 14-year-old son, Jeffrey, and a friend, Kim Reed, 41.
"The way he comes across TV, I think he is really cocky," she adds. But the conversation soon turns to the fears among poorer whites that Obama was alluding to in his comments, the kind of fears that are likely to be played on even more in a general election.
I ask Dayley if the colour of Obama's skin has anything to do with some of the attitudes to the Illinois senator in southern Pennsylvania. "To me it's a problem, yeah," she responds. "I'm not picking on where he is from, but it just doesn't seem right to me."
Why? "Now you are going to get me into the whole religion thing," Dayley nervously says. Drawing on the Book of Revelations, she says that from what she has read, the signs indicate we are near the "end of days". And then this: "I just know from a lot of reading and things that have come to pass that I think he is the Antichrist." In Dayley's view, the US is being duped by a charismatic messenger of Satan.
Her friend Reed looks on impassively during this remarkable exchange and I ask her if she holds the same view. "No," she says, adding Obama will probably win the Democratic nomination and she may even vote for him. I ask Dayley whether she can stay friends with someone who helps elect the Antichrist. She shrugs and says it will be her friend's decision and that is fine with her. But Dayley's fears are shared among some of her other friends, she says.
Even the non-church-going Sowers entertains the thought, when I ask her if she agrees with her neighbour. "I had wondered about that," she says.
Driving north, past prominent calls to worship - such as a huge sign on the side of a barn proclaiming "God's country" - I stop at one of the bigger gun shops in the area, East Coast Gun Sales, to ask what the management thinks about Obama's comments. "We don't comment on political matters," one salesman says, leaning over a window box full of handguns. The customers are similarly uncommunicative, except one tall young man who is checking out gun-sights. "Barack, Barack, Barack Obama," he says in a mocking tone. "Well, I'll tell you this, I ain't voting for no woman and I ain't voting for no ***."
Given such attitudes, it is little wonder that Obama won Secret Service protection soon after he announced his candidacy in February last year, at an earlier stage in the election cycle than any other presidential contender in history.
But, much to the consternation of central Pennsylvanians such as Dayley and the bigot in the gun shop, a Clinton win in the state is unlikely to stop Obama's inexorable crawl to the party's nomination, followed by a better than even money shot at the White House. The proportional contest means Obama will likely end up with at most 20 fewer delegates than Clinton on Tuesday. He leads her by more than 160 pledged delegates and in the 10 remaining contests there is no way she can catch up.
But because the race has been so close, neither can get to the 2024 delegates needed to clinch the nomination, and the contest will be decided by the nearly 800 super delegates. These elected congressmen, state governors, party officials and the like are, in the end, likely to cast their votes in keeping with the popular vote. In that case, Obama wins.
Clinton's tactic is to highlight Obama's vulnerabilities in a general election; it's a coded message but you can see the fruits of Clinton's labour and Obama's missteps in places such as southern Pennsylvania, reinforcing a subtle - or obvious - antipathy to blacks. Bill Clinton has attempted to pigeonhole Obama as a Jesse Jackson, while Hillary Clinton engaged in some baiting in her televised debate with Obama this week.
In full attack mode, she questioned his links with Wright, but also brought up Louis Farrakhan, the contentious Nation of Islam leader who endorsed Obama in February. (Obama says it was unsolicited backing and he has pointedly "rejected and denounced" his support.)
"As leaders, we have a choice who we associate with and who we apparently give some kind of seal of approval to," Clinton said in the debate. "And ... it wasn't only the specific remarks but some of the relationships with Reverend Farrakhan, you know, these are problems. And they raise questions in people's minds. And so this is a legitimate area ... for people to be exploring and trying to find answers."
Throughout southern Pennsylvania one hears whispers that Obama is a closet Muslim (he has attended the same Christian church for more than 20 years) or, indeed, that he is the Antichrist. In the hundreds of kilometres I've driven along the back roads of this region, I saw just one sign in a front yard supporting Obama. But what Obama has shown is that by mobilising the younger, educated class across campuses, as well as African Americans and wealthy whites, he can overcome the bigoted views that many still hold in old Civil War lands. This makes it highly likely he will win the Democratic nomination, but the message from Clinton is that he will struggle with poor whites because of his race when it comes to the general election.
Pennsylvania is a swing state and narrowly went to John Kerry in the 2004 presidential race (half of the voters were registered gun owners). The state, along with Ohio, where Clinton easily beat Obama in early March, are critical in the 2007 presidential race.
It leaves super delegates with a difficult decision. One advantage for Obama is that Republican nominee John McCain is also disliked in places such as southern Pennsylvania on account of his relatively liberal views on matters such asimmigration.
Dayley says she is not going to vote for anyone, a view I've heard often, which means any problem for McCain in these parts could be cancelled out, though we are still months away from the election and there are signs McCain is beginning to gather some steam.
But even if they do vote for McCain, the traditional red state Republican turnout in small towns and rural areas in America's middle may well fail to match the huge turnout Obama is winning in the big cities and along the liberal east and west coasts, underlying the perennial political divide in a not-so-united US.
She took out a white board and with black tape spelled out NOT BITTER. Then she stuck the sign in her front yard.
Sowers lives in a small house on the main road heading north out of Mercersburg in southern central Pennsylvania. Nineteenth-century president James Buchanan, who supported the rights of slave owners, was born near here. The only Pennsylvanian to be elected president, he held office in the lead-up to the American Civil War, echoes of which can be found in the historical signs along the roads and in the attitudes of the people.
Southern Pennsylvania is almost all white and a place of guns, God and hard economic times. Obama will be lucky to win more than a handful of votes here.
This is the political market that Obama so offended when his private comments to a wealthy fundraising gathering in San Francisco were splashed across cable TV last week.
In a scratchy recording, Obama can be heard stumbling into a clumsy explanation of political conservatism in rural areas and small towns: "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."
"We are a bunch of rednecks?" Sowers asks on the porch of her house. "I think there are a lot of people who are angry about that."
Sowers, retired from the military, where she held an administrative position, is an avowed Hillary Clinton supporter. She is the kind of blue-collar Democrat who should ensure a Clinton victory in Pennsylvania's Democratic primary on Tuesday.
Sowers's tired eyes reflect the daily grind. She lives with her night-shift working husband, 18-year-old son and 22-year-old daughter, who is a single parent with an autistic son. But, as Sowers says, she's not bitter; she is quick to smile and share a joke. And she's certainly no redneck. Sowers's son, who dates a young woman of mixed race, is supporting Obama, she notes.
"He's angry at me for making this sign, but I don't think he's paying close enough attention," she says. To Sowers, Obama cannot be trusted because of his long-term association with a "wacko" preacher: his pastor in south Chicago, Jeremiah Wright, who is known for occasionally incendiary sermons that Obama's critics say are anti-American.
However, while Sowers's anger at Obama's comments is understandable, other attitudes in these parts are far moredisturbing.
"He was a jerk for saying that," comments Sowers's neighbour Kym Dayley, standing outside her home by her pick-up truck, chatting to her 14-year-old son, Jeffrey, and a friend, Kim Reed, 41.
"The way he comes across TV, I think he is really cocky," she adds. But the conversation soon turns to the fears among poorer whites that Obama was alluding to in his comments, the kind of fears that are likely to be played on even more in a general election.
I ask Dayley if the colour of Obama's skin has anything to do with some of the attitudes to the Illinois senator in southern Pennsylvania. "To me it's a problem, yeah," she responds. "I'm not picking on where he is from, but it just doesn't seem right to me."
Why? "Now you are going to get me into the whole religion thing," Dayley nervously says. Drawing on the Book of Revelations, she says that from what she has read, the signs indicate we are near the "end of days". And then this: "I just know from a lot of reading and things that have come to pass that I think he is the Antichrist." In Dayley's view, the US is being duped by a charismatic messenger of Satan.
Her friend Reed looks on impassively during this remarkable exchange and I ask her if she holds the same view. "No," she says, adding Obama will probably win the Democratic nomination and she may even vote for him. I ask Dayley whether she can stay friends with someone who helps elect the Antichrist. She shrugs and says it will be her friend's decision and that is fine with her. But Dayley's fears are shared among some of her other friends, she says.
Even the non-church-going Sowers entertains the thought, when I ask her if she agrees with her neighbour. "I had wondered about that," she says.
Driving north, past prominent calls to worship - such as a huge sign on the side of a barn proclaiming "God's country" - I stop at one of the bigger gun shops in the area, East Coast Gun Sales, to ask what the management thinks about Obama's comments. "We don't comment on political matters," one salesman says, leaning over a window box full of handguns. The customers are similarly uncommunicative, except one tall young man who is checking out gun-sights. "Barack, Barack, Barack Obama," he says in a mocking tone. "Well, I'll tell you this, I ain't voting for no woman and I ain't voting for no ***."
Given such attitudes, it is little wonder that Obama won Secret Service protection soon after he announced his candidacy in February last year, at an earlier stage in the election cycle than any other presidential contender in history.
But, much to the consternation of central Pennsylvanians such as Dayley and the bigot in the gun shop, a Clinton win in the state is unlikely to stop Obama's inexorable crawl to the party's nomination, followed by a better than even money shot at the White House. The proportional contest means Obama will likely end up with at most 20 fewer delegates than Clinton on Tuesday. He leads her by more than 160 pledged delegates and in the 10 remaining contests there is no way she can catch up.
But because the race has been so close, neither can get to the 2024 delegates needed to clinch the nomination, and the contest will be decided by the nearly 800 super delegates. These elected congressmen, state governors, party officials and the like are, in the end, likely to cast their votes in keeping with the popular vote. In that case, Obama wins.
Clinton's tactic is to highlight Obama's vulnerabilities in a general election; it's a coded message but you can see the fruits of Clinton's labour and Obama's missteps in places such as southern Pennsylvania, reinforcing a subtle - or obvious - antipathy to blacks. Bill Clinton has attempted to pigeonhole Obama as a Jesse Jackson, while Hillary Clinton engaged in some baiting in her televised debate with Obama this week.
In full attack mode, she questioned his links with Wright, but also brought up Louis Farrakhan, the contentious Nation of Islam leader who endorsed Obama in February. (Obama says it was unsolicited backing and he has pointedly "rejected and denounced" his support.)
"As leaders, we have a choice who we associate with and who we apparently give some kind of seal of approval to," Clinton said in the debate. "And ... it wasn't only the specific remarks but some of the relationships with Reverend Farrakhan, you know, these are problems. And they raise questions in people's minds. And so this is a legitimate area ... for people to be exploring and trying to find answers."
Throughout southern Pennsylvania one hears whispers that Obama is a closet Muslim (he has attended the same Christian church for more than 20 years) or, indeed, that he is the Antichrist. In the hundreds of kilometres I've driven along the back roads of this region, I saw just one sign in a front yard supporting Obama. But what Obama has shown is that by mobilising the younger, educated class across campuses, as well as African Americans and wealthy whites, he can overcome the bigoted views that many still hold in old Civil War lands. This makes it highly likely he will win the Democratic nomination, but the message from Clinton is that he will struggle with poor whites because of his race when it comes to the general election.
Pennsylvania is a swing state and narrowly went to John Kerry in the 2004 presidential race (half of the voters were registered gun owners). The state, along with Ohio, where Clinton easily beat Obama in early March, are critical in the 2007 presidential race.
It leaves super delegates with a difficult decision. One advantage for Obama is that Republican nominee John McCain is also disliked in places such as southern Pennsylvania on account of his relatively liberal views on matters such asimmigration.
Dayley says she is not going to vote for anyone, a view I've heard often, which means any problem for McCain in these parts could be cancelled out, though we are still months away from the election and there are signs McCain is beginning to gather some steam.
But even if they do vote for McCain, the traditional red state Republican turnout in small towns and rural areas in America's middle may well fail to match the huge turnout Obama is winning in the big cities and along the liberal east and west coasts, underlying the perennial political divide in a not-so-united US.
)