It seems that Barack Obama has an even bigger problem with his "small town" comments than I suspected. A flat majority of Americans, 56%, think he is wrong. Worse yet, a huge majority of independents, 51% to 27%, disagree with his stance. Obama did not even get a majority agreeing with him among Democrats, getting only 46% to agree while 33% disagree.
Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters nationwide disagree with Barack Obama’s statement that people in small towns “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." A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 25% agree with the Democratic frontrunner while 19% are not sure.
Partisan and ideological differences suggest that the comments are more likely to be a factor in the General Election than in the Primaries. A plurality of politically liberal voters—46%–agree with Obama’s statement while 33% disagree. Moderate voters take the opposite view and disagree by a 51% to 27% margin. Seventy-four percent (74%) of conservatives disagree with Obama’s statement, only 12% agree.
While everyone knew full well that conservatives thought he was badly out of line, the independent numbers show the real problem. As does the revolt among members of his own party. Or should I say revulsion. This was a serious blunder on Obama's part, one that is very likely a campaign killer for him in the general election. Count on this being a major line of atack on Obama. It is more powerful even than the Wright issue, because it comes from Obama's own mouth.
AP’s spinning has reached warp speed:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080414/ap_on_el_pr/pennsylvania_bitter_voters
Key quote:
"Yes, some Democrats in Pennsylvania’s Rust Belt communities were upset by Barack Obama’s suggestion that voters there "cling to guns or religion" because of bitterness about their economic lot. But many more seem to think it was no big deal — and if there’s a problem it’s with the political slapfest that has followed."
Gee – I wonder who Mark Scolforo (the author of the article) is voting for. Talk about cherry-picking the evidence!
News shows were rapidly spinning last night, as well. They apparently went out of their way and dug deep to find people to interview who said it was "no big deal" or even agreed with the Obamessiah. I saw at lest 4 of those interviews and only one interview with a man who said he had planned to vote for Barrie but was now going to vote for Hillary (I know, not much improvement).