And yeah, Hillary at this point is just the unwitting tool of the Republican Party. She’s like salary-free attack dog to tear down Obama before the general election.

When is she going to step down? It was about time…what…two months ago? I think she has the attitude of “If I can’t be the Democratic to win the White House, then nobody can!”

Mellel:

Only when politicians start telling it like it is can progress be made. When Obama says “bitter” you see the problem, you know it’s there, and you understand that something must be done. When Clinton uses words like “optimistic” and “resilient”, it slides over the problem and pretends that nothing needs to be done.

“Resilient” and “optimistic” are words reserved for a nation’s second-class citizens. They’re empty compliments used to deter dissent.

I don’t disagree with any of this. At the same time, “telling it like it is” can be done in different ways. It’s like telling minorities to “get over” racial oppression. To a certain degree, we have to, but usage of “get over it” puts all the responsibility on the minority and none on the rest of the country. The word “bitter” works the same way; it implies a problem with the designee. As a prospective leader of the country, Obama has two responsibilities to these poor people: tell it like it is, and motivate them to improve their lot in life. The use of the word “bitter” hurts his ability to motivate because it is condescending, and he realizes it according to the NY Times today.

I don’t disagree with you on the factualness of what he said. I just think it was a poor way to say it because it accuses rather than uplifts.

Only when politicians start telling it like it is can progress be made. When Obama says “bitter” you see the problem, you know it’s there, and you understand that something must be done. When Clinton uses words like “optimistic” and “resilient”, it slides over the problem and pretends that nothing needs to be done.

“Resilient” and “optimistic” are words reserved for a nation’s second-class citizens. They’re empty compliments used to deter dissent.

Obama’s follow-up comments (at Ball State University):

“Lately there has been a little typical sort of political flare up because I said something that everybody knows is true, which is that there are a whole bunch of folks in small towns in Pennsylvania, in towns right here in Indiana, in my hometown in Illinois who are bitter.

“And so they pray and they count on each other and they count on their families. You know this in your own lives, and what we need is a government that is actually paying attention. Government that is fighting for working people day in and day out making sure that we are trying to allow them to live out the American dream.”

And yeah, Hillary at this point is just the unwitting tool of the Republican Party. She’s like salary-free attack dog to tear down Obama before the general election.