Hey at least if you were uncertain before you now know exactly where he stands and he isn’t trying to hide his contempt for gun owners and those that believe in God. This should have come as no surprise to anyone. What would you expect from the most left wing liberal in the Senate?

I do have to believe that while those words were written by a speech writer, only one of two things could cause him to utter them:

1) He's just a puppet who reads whatever gets put in front of him
2) He actually didn't see any issue with that choice of wording

Both disturb me.

If he'd made a statement about people finding solace in their faith during times of hardship, we wouldn't be having this discussion...but he didn't say it like that, and it is a disturbing issue.

-Mark

I hope that he wins PA because it will embolden him to say even grosser, more crass remarks about Mr. and Mrs. Middleamerica ... how we need to be ruled over and all that jazz.

And what if he should say something even more insulting about the average person? That we are just too unsophisticated to live in the 'new' world? That we are too backwards to be accepted by our European brothers? That we Americans are fat, stupid, and lazy?

Well ... then the Dem party will run with Hillary in 08. This is what we want because it will destroy the democratic party. The black vote will feel betrayed. They will neither forgive nor forget. For 100 years they will remember that the democratic party snubbed a black man and sided with a white woman.

Many naysayers look at the sorry state of today's candidates. It's true that McCain is no Reagan ... but I would prefer to draw attention to how close the democratic party is to destroying itself not just in this election but for many to come. They have but to make a simple choice and their world will fall. They cannot survive pissing off 100 million black voters.

Just my .02

Speech writers write what the candidate wants them to write. Obama is responsible for the content of any speech he reads in public. As I said he is the most left wing nut job in the Senate according to several surveys I have read so I don’t doubt for a moment that this is truly the way he feels about us. Now I also don’t believe Hilary when she claims to be a hunter/shooter/gun rights advocate either.

The R party is in the same boat with the quality of the "top" candidates... they just haven't stupidly let it continue for so long.

Except that there are fewer than 40 million blacks in the country, and that a quarter of those are children, and that only half of the remaining adults vote.

So, maybe 15 million.

I think the black voter turnout is actually down in the lower 40's percent.

Latest word is that his remarks did nothing to alienate his base of support, but only further pushed away conservatives who won't vote for him anyway. So this is good. He will be further emboldened to make divisive remarks.

Kinda reminds me of Cynthia McKinney down in Atlanta, GA. She built her career on these sorts of remarks, and after a while they began to wear thin.

After hearing all this controversy I went and listened to the speech/s in question. And I have to say. Either people are just listening to the spin created by opponents of his campaign or are twisting his words due to existing bias.

I did not hear him say guns or religion are bad. I heard him say that people get bitter when they have been lied to by politicians year after year and they cling to issues that are close to them. Like religion, guns, etc.

I think many people (including people here) are just twisting his words to fit their already preconceived notions. Hell I'm a gun owner, I have both an "evil assault rifle" and a pistol, but it's hardly the most important thing in this country right now.

I spent Tuesday at Moo U (UW River Falls) for a Protecting the St. Croix conference. As I am walking up the stairs to our meeting room a 20 something white male is holding a microphone with a cord running to a carrying case. I hear him ask a young college student "why do you think [he whose middle name should not be spoken] is the most qualified candidate for POTUS?"
That young man just shrugged him off so I made eye contact with our young reporter and continued up the stairs to complete his interview.
Unfortunately he must have remembered a class he was late for because he hastily turned and disappeared into a crowd.
I am not sure how to take this. Did he know that the 40 year old, 280lbs, boot wearing, leather jacket bound, donning a black cowboy hat, gentlemen that was approaching was going to agree with his thoughts and just decided not to have more support for his story?
I mean he should have known I was unarmed. It was Wisconsin and a college campus. He should have no reason to fear anyone in his safe, secure college commons building.
Gee, I just wanted to help

You may be the one being misled if you think Obama is the answer to any of our current problems. Look at his voting record, instead of listening to his glossed over speeches. As far as owning a gun, there are plenty of "Fudds" who will vote for him. I hope you won't join them.

I'm not even talking about supporting Obama or not. I am simply looking at the reaction people are having to this particular set of statements. I then listened / watched the comments in their entirety and noticing that there are people purposely misunderstanding the statement purely to forward an agenda. Then you get people quoting the spin as if it's first hand fact.

there is a giant pile of spin going on, not just in the media but also on this board. I'm not trying to make you vote for Obama I'm just pointing out some unfair finger pointing that's going on.

on the topic of his voting record are there specific ones you want me to look at. (with actual records not a blog site, http://thomas.loc.gov/home/rollcallvotes.html) I just went a glanced at a list of votes in the last couple years and nothing stuck out to me as bad. I'm open for real discussion and not just rhetoric. I do think things like the 94 Assault Rifle ban are stupid and useless, but I'm not a single issue voter.

It's not spin that Obama is on record for calling for a ban on all semi-autos.

I am not a one-issue voter either, but his views on guns are indicative of his general opinion of the roles of citizens and of government, and it's not a pretty picture.

Hi Andrew, Are you the gentleman who teaches the Carry class? if so I would love to get in on your next one.

No it's not spin to say that he has supported Semi-Auto assault weapon ban. but if your just using that as a indicator of the idea of Authoritarian control over individual rights then that is a little one dimensional.

Our current administration has worked very hard to curtail civil liberties with warrant-less wiretaps and the foundation of a whole department to try and regulate citizens (DHS). These not only are Authoritarian actions but they increase government spending, the very antithesis of fiscal conservatism. The current GOP front runner looks to be trying to keep our new trend toward a police state right on going. There is both a right wing and left wing path to this result.

If you think that this is a sign of Government/Citizen relations what is your point of view on legalization of drugs, prostitution and unregulated gambling?

lundo,

Sorry, but I am not going to waste my time doing an in depth report on any anti-gun candidate. It sounds like you are trying to rationalize voting for an anti-gun candidate, something I will not do.