I don't know about anyone else, but I'll sure be glad when this is over and done with.....  Right now, odds are in Obama's favor to win it all.  I just do not see people who are hardcore Democrats voting for McCain, even if they're saying right now that they'll do so because they're big Clinton backers.

Hey - who here is dissapointed in San Francisco in light of the latest Obama smear and the Randi Rhodes debacle?  In both cases, things were said, then said things were repeated, along with cries of "Wahh wahh, we're big f'ing babies in SF, and our widdle feewings were hurt!!  Punish the bad people that said the bad things!  Because words hurt!  Wahhh!"

God, I'm embarraseed to be from San Francisco this week...

Once again, proving themselves as "America's Finest Newssource"...

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/poll_bullshit_is_most_ important

With Obama's comments at the San Francisco fundraising event, he proved that he is totally out of touch with rural/small town America.  They don't cling to guns or religion due to bitterness.  They are the people that hunt for food, either by choice or necessity.  These are the same people that spend most of their Sundays in church because of faith and community.  And they have for years, long before either GHW Bush or Bill Clinton moved into the White House. 

Maybe Obama is just projecting his own bitterness, which seems to fit in with his church of choice. (Insert smiley face here)

As for Ms. Rhodes, Air America had every right to fire her.  She made the offending comments at an Air America sponsored event, and as a representative of Air America.  The upside for her is now she may have a chance to get on a radio station with more than 10 listeners (including the board operators).

Let's look at his quote, shall we?

"You go into 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."

Sure seems like he's saying people are bitter and are clinging to guns or religion or racist feelings.  And it's all Clinton's and Bush's fault.  And we all know there's nothing more dangerous than a church member with a gun!

Fall, 2007
Barack Obama:
"You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin.  Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest."

Spring 2008

"With Obama's comments at the San Francisco fundraising event, he proved that he is totally out of touch with rural/small town America."

Oh, for crying out loud. He's not talking about people who have guns or go to church. He's talking about people who get swayed to the right by political issues like Gun Control,  or religion related issues like gay marriage, abortion and stem-cell research because they need something that appears clean-cut to focus on. And the intensity of their devotion to these issues he ascribes to a sense of being left behind, betrayed or abandoned with the significant loss of jobs and opportunities in their communities.

Obviously, as a democrat, he sees the policies of the Democratic party as a better cure for what ails them than what the Republicans offer, but as long as they're preoccupied with the side issues where they do agree with the Republican right, these people will remain unconvinced.

His speech also ties into his former speeches about divisiveness due to racial and ethnic mistrust.

His "crime" is that he's trying to address the issue of why the voters feel as they feel or choose what they choose. Instead of pandering to the divisiveness he's trying to confront and overcome it. And more than anything, the gloating from Clinton and McCain over his "offensive" remarks show that they are not prepared to deal with this central problem in American society.