people who "cling to guns or religion"? In a 3/20/09 appearance on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno, Barack Obama when commenting on his improved bowling skills since an embarrassing perfornance caught on tape during his Presidential campaign, said he was now worthy of the "Special Olympics or something." He was trying to make a joke but it later blew up in his face over showing insensitivity to the mentally handicapped.
The media hasn't been picking up on this as compared to his prior gaffe almost 1 year ago during his campaign when commenting on his poor performance in smaller towns in Pennsylvania:
"You go into 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."
Do these two gaffes have anything in common? And what do they tell us about Obama's perceptions of himself versus others in the world who may be less fortunate or at a lesser station in life than him?
The media hasn't been picking up on this as compared to his prior gaffe almost 1 year ago during his campaign when commenting on his poor performance in smaller towns in Pennsylvania:
"You go into 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."
Do these two gaffes have anything in common? And what do they tell us about Obama's perceptions of himself versus others in the world who may be less fortunate or at a lesser station in life than him?