I don't recall the outrage when "What's the Matter with Kansas" was published.

[Telly Savalas]

Obama's comments repeated the thesis of that book.

That book was widely praised on the left half of the blogosphere.

When did the change of heart happen for those expressing such heartfelt outrage over this?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Right about the time Hillary saw the nomination going to somebody other than her.

[kid a]

2. Great point - Its not about "issues" for HIllary supporters anymore - its WIN AT ANY COST

[ErinBerin84]

3. The great thing is

the MSM has been guiltiest of all in portraying these stereotypes. Besides the latte liberals, they will be talking about blue collar voters, and show footage of a construction worker eating a sub and wiping his hands on his shirt or something. To hear Mary Matalin speak of elitism. Andrea Mitchell. It's just so annoying, they are the worst culprits of all.

I posted this before, but here's Jason Linkins take from the Huffington Post-he writes the Sunday morning news roundup.

"See, thanks to Senator Obama, who couldn't come up with a way of explaining the thesis of Thomas Frank's book, What's the Matter With Kansas?, to a room for of Bay Area Democrats that wasn't wholly inept, we can comfortably predict that this Sunday morning, instead of a vital discussion of the unbelievably goofy and, well, UNBELIEVABLE testimony proffered by David Petraeus and Ryan Crocker on Iraq, we're instead going to listen to the Sunday Morning hosts and panels give a national conversation on elitism. This, despite the fact that they are, to a man, out-of-touch by several million degrees and so elitist that they are practically toffee-encrusted"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/13/tv-soundoff-sunday-talkin_n_96405.html

[Leopolds Ghost]

4. "toffee-encrusted" LOL!! I'm stealing that one. Note that "Kansas" was written against the DLC

of course Hillary would be offended by the sentiments therein.

The DLC strategy is to target market that segment of the Reagan
Democrats who is willing to vote for her on wedge issues alone,
pick and choose the wedge issues and concede the issues on which
they've defected to the Repubs -- or worse, concede that they are
irrelevant and strike a deal with Repubs on issues like free trade
that the Media wants to remain inviolable and untouchable by
"ignorant masses being whipped up by cynical elitists to challenge
us" -- a total redefinition of what it means to be an elitist.

[Quixote1818]

5. Thanks for posting this. I was thinking the exact same thing. And in fact

I think what Obama said in San Francisco came from his reading of Whats the Matter with Kansas". He made a similar statement about Religion and Guns in an interview with Charlie Rose where they were talking about the book.


K and R.