Chameleon Candidate

As a McCain supporter, I receive an e-mail from my new best friend, Rick Davis every day or so. Rick Davis is the Campaign Manager for the McCain campaign. Today's letter came in the form of a donation request, as they all do. This one focuses on the big ole faux pas Senator Obama made out there in San Francisco that came to light over the weekend.

The silver lining of this long, long, long campaign season is that the junior senator from Illinois is under more scrutiny than he has faced in previous runs for office. This time around it's a national campaign and he has strong contenders. In previous elections, we have learned, he did away with competition for his seat in Illinois state government by technical maneuvers, as reported in the Houston Press article, and then for his seat in the Senate his only challenger was a last minute run by Alan Keyes. Talk about having it handed to him.

The national press, while working hard to put him in the White House, has now been embarrassed into actually doing some reporting on Senator Obama. Not so much his background, which would be helpful, but at least finally some reporting on real time events. Obama was narced on by, of all places, the Huffington Post and a blog entry about the fund raising event in San Francisco with the millionaire and billionaire swells on what is known as Billionaire's Row. Being the chameleon that he is, Obama was all about being one of them. Which, technically he is, with the more than million dollars made since he's been a published author.

Obama said, "You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the job 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." Also quoted by Mayhill Fowler at the Huffington Post, Obama "revealed his previously unknown college sojourn to Pakistan". Well, now. Take that you fancy people.

So, not only are the citizens in small towns in Pennsylvania bitter, unemployed, church-going, gun-toting people, they probably haven't been to Pakistan either. Mon Dieu.

There was no press at this private event. I'm sure Obama felt safe in exposing himself to his crowd. Too bad it wasn't the same self he has so carefully been crafting on the campaign trail.

The people in Pennsylvania, like most of America, except on the coasts of America, are not bitter people. They are optimistic, can-do people. They go to church out of joy and faith, not clinging to faith with bitterness. They believe in the Second Amendment. And, yes, jobs have actually been created in Pennsylvania over the past 25 years.

After the Clinton and McCain campaigns chided Obama on his elitist opinions, it was also pointed out that most Americans do not think those living in the middle of the country, flyover country, are anything but regular people.

Most Americans have nothing against immigration, but are not accepting of illegal immigration. Most Americans are not racist. Most Americans are welcoming, giving people. We are a generous and optimistic people. It seems only in Obama's world that he dwells in the negative, or he would not have remained a member of his church, for example. He married Michelle, who wrote a thesis at Princeton about not wanting to think about "further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant." She has always been a full participant, as far as I read. Ivy League educated, lawyer, generously salaried VP at Univ of Chicago Hospital system, million dollar home, children in private school and after school enrichment cultural programs, Senate wife and now a speaker to large audiences. We should all be so downtrodden.

Obama chided Hillary for drinking in Crown Point, Indiana. She was in video coverage doing a shot of whiskey and then chasing it with a beer. Obama said she was "throwing back a shot and a beer." Well, Senator Obama, in Indiana that is called a boilermaker. See, the average people there know that and it is very common in bars. Has been forever. He was the one, after all, shown drinking a brew in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, home of the beer with that name.

And, for the gun reference Obama chided Hillary with today? OK, call her Annie Oakley. That was easy. But then, mixing up lines written to make a joke of it all, I'm sure, he joked that he didn't believe she was in a duck blind with a six-shooter. Yeah, I would hope not. So, his botched joke further proved the out of touch point.

If we are not to judge Obama by the people with whom he associates, maybe we should just listen to him.

Most of my relatives are living in small towns in Indiana. Not many have lived the kind of life afforded to Barack and Michelle Obama. Yet, they are not bitter, racist, hostile to immigrants, or despondent. Many didn't go to college. All are working that want to do so. Some drink boilermakers and bowl. Others shop at Whole Foods and buy arugula, like Barack and Michelle. The point is that they all are regular Americans. And none of them feel the need to speak to one group of fellow Americans any differently than to others.

Today, John McCain put out this statement: "During the Great Depression, with many millions of Americans out of work and the country suffering the worst economic crisis in our history, there rose from small towns, rural communities, inner cities, a generation of Americans who fought to save the world from despotism and mass murder, and came home to build the wealthiest, strongest and most generous nation on earth. They suffered the worst during the Depression, but it did not shake their faith in, and fidelity to, America. They did not turn to their religious faith and cultural traditions out of resentment and a feeling of powerlessness to affect the course of government or pursue prosperity. On the contrary, their faith had given generations of their families' purpose and meaning, as it does today."

The very people Obama insulted, intentionally or not, are the very backbone of this country. They get up and go to work and school and take care of their families and communities every day, whether it is an election year or not. America is not "just downright mean", as Michelle said in a speech.

Obama was raised in Hawaii and attended private school there. He was briefly a resident in Indonesia and attended religious school there. He graduated from Harvard, editor of the Law Review. He was hired by a corporate law firm in Chicago, as was Michelle. He chose politics and every three years has sought higher office. He should just accept who he is and stop with the chameleon act. It'll trip him up every time. Press present or not.

Listen. They tell you who they really are.