Elite snobs criticize Obama for being an elite snob (Probably because they’re bitter)

So, multi-millionaires Hilary Clinton and John McCain are piling onto Barack Obama for being an urban-centric snob who doesn’t understand rural America because he said this at a fundraiser in (gasp!) San Francisco:

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. 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.

Really, what’s so controversial about that statement? Is it just too truthy for y’all?

Anyone with even a passing familiarity with life in rural parts of the country these days understands that unemployment and a lack of opportunity have absolutely crippled these communities. There are few jobs and fewer prospects to be had—and the youth are responding by leaving. Opportunities to work the family farm, the local manufacturing plant are gone, replaced by low-paying hourly employment at Wal-Mart or in the tourism industry.

And that’s not just the conclusion of some elitist College professor. Self-proclaimed redneck Barbara O’Brien, writing at Crooks and Liars, notes:

It always amuses me when upper-class people with power and privilege start screeching about “elitism.” Today all manner of political, media and blogging elites — people with advanced degrees who’ve never been to a tractor pull in their lives — are snorting about elitism because Barack Obama said something that anyone with a real redneck background knows to be true — working-class, small-town whites feel left behind, bitter and frustrated.

…

In community after community, the old factory or mining jobs that sustained the local economy are gone. Forty years ago, young folks left high school, signed on to jobs that paid Union-obtained wages and benefits, and looked forward to all the trappings of American middle-class affluence — homes, new cars, trips to Disney World. Now the bright young people move away to cities, and those who remain in the small towns sustain themselves — barely — by flipping hamburgers or cashiering at Wal-Mart.

The only ones who aren’t bitter and frustrated are those too young or too dim to realize life was much better a couple of generations ago.

Based on the media reaction over the weekend, you’d think rural America was out marching down roads, and overturning tractors in response to Obama’s comments. Yet, hilariously, Fox News sent a camera crew into rural Pennsylvania to find people who were angry about what Obama said. And they couldn't find anyone.

The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder has a sober and even analysis about the pitfalls Obama now faces for saying something that, while demonstrably true, was phrased awkwardly enough to give a slick spin machine enough room to manufacture a controversy out of it. (If you want a local example, try Rick Esenberg who seems to have taken on deliberately misunderstanding Obama speeches as a part-time job.)

My guess is Obama’s remarks rankled a segment of the elite in America because the political classes from both parties realize they have ignored rural areas as good jobs and industrial investments fled overseas as they pandered for votes on pointless wedge “issues” like gun control, prayer in schools, and 9/11.

And while both parties are too blame, Thomas Frank covered the phenomenon of the success Republicans have had in getting rural America to vote against the interests of their pocketbooks in his book, What's the Matter with Kansas?

It’s a phenomenon that’s played out in Wisconsin. Republicans have been successful in condemning the Healthy Wisconsin program as “government-run” healthcare, while also convincing large chunks of state residents that that they were being threatened by gays getting married or liberal judges on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Yeah, those issues will really bring the jobs back.

As it turns out, Obama has spoken passionately about problems facing rural America, and how political parties pander for their votes. Disagree? Here’s this clip, Via Talking Points Memo, from a 2004 Charlie Rose interview.

Again, what’s the problem?