Obama discovers the failures of liberalism--insults voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio

Mayhill Fowler covers the Obama campaign appearance in California where he tries to explain voters in the rust belt. This is from a transcript of his remarks.

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So, it depends on where you are, but I think it's fair to say that the places where we are going to have to do the most work are the places where people are most cynical about government. The people are mis-appre...they're misunderstanding why the demographics in our, in this contest have broken out as they are. Because everybody just ascribes it to 'white working-class don't wanna work -- don't wanna vote for the black guy.' That's...there were intimations of that in an article in the Sunday New York Times today - kind of implies that it's sort of a race thing.

Here's how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long. They feel so betrayed by government that when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn't buy it. And when it's delivered by -- it's true that when it's delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama, then that adds another layer of skepticism.

But -- so the questions you're most likely to get about me, 'Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What is the concrete thing?' What they wanna hear is so we'll give you talking points about what we're proposing -- to close tax loopholes, uh you know uh roll back the tax cuts for the top 1%, Obama's gonna give tax breaks to uh middle-class folks and we're gonna provide healthcare for every American.

But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of 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.

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Most of the comments I have seen on this talk about how he is being condescending toward a group of voters that are going for his opponent for the most part. That is certainly true, but the thing that struck me was his acknowledgment of the inability of government to change their circumstances whether Democrat or Republican. Certainly what he is offering in specific "changes" will not change their circumstances. Those changes have to come from within for the most part. They need the entrepreneurs who can develop products and services that people want who will in turn need to hire more people to provide those products and services.

The problem is that in these states Democrats have made the economy unattractive to those people who create jobs and opportunities. That is why Toyota built its pickup truck plant in San Antonio instead of the region Obama is complaining about. Labor unions have also made the area unattractive for new business. They have saddled old business with built in costs which make them uncompetitive.

His lack of understanding of the values of those Pennsylvania voters will also hurt him this fall. Personally I like Pennsylvania. I enjoy the history associated with Philadelphia and I think the countryside around Pittsburgh is some of the prettiest I have ever seen. I know why some have those whistle gadgets on their bumpers of their pickups to shoo the dear off the road and why they don't want anyone messing with their right to hunt them.

Many of the people he was describing are Scots-Irish whose forefathers came there 200 years ago and spread through Appalachia in West Virginia and down into Tennessee and Alabama as well as the Carolinas.

They do not take kindly to people looking down their noses at them. This description of why he is behind in Pennsylvania is not likely to turn the situation around.

Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post notes the Republican rapid response to Obama's statement.

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Within moments, Republicans had pounced. Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign told Politico's Jonathan Martin that Obama's comment revealed "an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking." Schmidt added: "It is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans."

Within hours, the National Republican Congressional Committee had issued a release pushing Rep. Chris Carney -- a vulnerable freshman Democrat from Pennsylvania -- to condemn Obama's remarks.

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Republicans are certain to use comments like this one to paint Obama as an out-of-step liberal beholden to the wants and needs of voters on the two coasts. It's a blueprint Republicans followed to perfection during the 2004 campaign against Sen. John Kerry -- effectively portraying the Massachusetts senator as an elitist without interest in or regard for the average voter in fly-over country.

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Hillary Clinton also went to bat for the people in Pennsylvania. I think Obama may have to turn this into another speech about why we need a conversation about cynicism in America.