Let me cut straight to the chase. Kos posted earlier today about this comment by Hillary Clinton, but I must say more. I don't write as someone hostile to Clinton; I've been impressed by how hard she's fighting in this campaign. I'm a Barack Obama supporter, but if I could graft together the tenacity of Clinton and the temperament and vision of Obama, that would be my ideal candidate.
But I'm deeply offended by what Clinton said on Fox News Channel last night -- and how the Clinton campaign lied about it today. She said something arrogant, elitist, and offensive, and then the campaign lied. L-I-E-D. The spelled-out word will make sense after the fold.
Don't know if you happen to have noticed (snark alert), but for weeks Clinton has been criticizing Obama as an out-of-touch, small town-despising elitist. You might have heard her say this once or twice. Like here in Pittsburgh and here at a forum on faith and politics at Messiah College in Pennsylvania and here in Indianapolis and here on Mars and here in Puerto Rico . . .
But Obama did hand her the opportunity, of course -- when he made the biggest mistake of his campaign, saying at a fundraiser in San Francisco that people in small towns in the Midwest are "bitter" about their economic status and, as a result, "cling to" God and guns.
Obama has been paying for those comments for weeks.
If fair is fair, then Clinton should now pay for comments that aired Wednesday evening in an interview on "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News Channel. Clinton and host Bill O'Reilly were talking about the tax rate that Clinton would impose on wealthy Americans, if she were President. O'Reilly and Clinton were finding some common ground in the discussion, so much so that there were smiles and fun banter about how O'Reilly and the Clinton family were among wealthy Americans.
And then Clinton said, "And you know what? Rich people--God bless us." She didn't stop there: "We deserve all the opportunities to make sure our country and our blessings continue to the next generation."
It was perhaps an off-the-cuff comment, not carefully worded, something like saying people in small towns are bitter about their economic positions. But here's where it gets interesting: A Slate story this afternoon noted this:
On today’s "state of the race" conference call, a reporter asked about an exchange between Hillary Clinton and Bill O’Reilly on yesterday’s show in which Clinton uttered the words, "Rich people—God bless us."
Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson denied that’s what she said: "She said ‘God blessed us.’ B-L-E-S-S-E-D."
See if you agree. Watch for the exchange, at the 1:40 mark of this clip.
She did not say blessed, despite what the campaign claims. That's simply false. F-A-L-S-E. That's not what she said.
Even more importantly, I don't think it's what she meant, either, because she followed "Rich people--God bless us" with "We deserve all the opportunities" available in the United States. Let me say it straight: "We deserve" ain't "God blessed us" language.
It's arrogant and elitist and out of touch with working Americans. It's also offensive to people of progressive religous faith, who don't believe for a moment that they (we) "deserve" anything God gives us.
This story must get its due in the press. Post it everywhere, push it. I've crossposted this at Seattlepoliticore. It belongs in an ad. The Jed Report should be turning this into a viral clip. We need it set to music by someone. Can anyone get it on Drudge?
I don't despise Clinton. I despise hypocrisy. Obama said what he said and he's paid the price. But his campaign never lied about what he said. They took it like an adult. The Clinton campaign chose to lie. if we don't accept that among Republicans, then we should not accept it among Democrats, whoever the candidate is.