HOPE AND CHANGE OMMMMM HOPE AND CHANGE OMMMM

In a recent speech to a group of left-coast liberals, Obama said the following:

"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. So it's not surprising then that 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.
Um, now these are in some communities, you know. I think what you'll find is, is that people of every background -- there are gonna be a mix of people, you can go in the toughest neighborhoods, you know working-class lunch-pail folks, you'll find Obama enthusiasts. And you can go into places where you think I'd be very strong and people will just be skeptical. The important thing is that you show up and you're doing what you're doing"

Didn't that last sentence sound positively... Clintonesque? Or maybe all liberals just sound the same to me?
Anyway, why Obama felt the need to try to characterize US to THEM thusly is beyond me. He seems to have been trying to tell them that while he certainly isn't one of us, he understands what motivates rural and small town people's voting patterns. And he of course doesn't.
To paint us all as disgruntled hayseeds with feelings of abandonment by the government is to flatter himself and all the big government types he identifies with. We don't get up in the morning and with our first cup of coffee set about grumbling to ourselves about how we missed life's lottery, and how the government has abandoned us. Me personally? I could give a rat 's patoot if government knows I exist. While I have grave concerns about the bloated government we have, I hardly make that the focus of my day. Good people didn’t sit and bemoan the fact that the economy where I grew up went in the toilet (thank you, farm programs, Byron Dorgan, et al). People moved, went to school to learn a new trade, did whatever it took to keep moving in life. To paint us with the same broad brush strokes as those unfortunate losers standing in front of the burned-down post office in Compton, waiting for their welfare checks, is to categorize us as something we are not.
While he is certainly entitled to his opinion, I must say I don’t know what in his background would qualify him to give an accurate portrayal of rural people’s lives and feelings to a group of Left coast liberals. Looking at his life history on Wikipedia, I don’t see where he ever lived anywhere that had good deer hunting. Indonesia, Hawaii, Chicago, New York City- none of these are terribly rural.
The fact that a lot of us ARE cynical towards government gives him heartburn- we don’t seem to want to TRUST him when he says he can fix it all, if we just believe in him. Hope and Change Hope and Change Hope and Change is the mantra that will get it done. In a pig’s eye, I say.