Richard WarnickRobert Reich: ‘Bitter? You ain’t seen nothing yet’
A gaffe happens when a politician, accidentally or on purpose, speaks the truth in public. That’s what Barack Obama got caught doing.
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich has something to say about the “bitter” so-called controversy that’s been heavily promoted by the Clinton campaign and the media all weekend.
Male hourly wages began to drop in the early 1970s, adjusted for inflation. The average man in his 30s is earning less than his father did thirty years ago. Yet America is far richer. Where did the money go? To the top.
Are Americans who have been left behind frustrated? Of course. And their frustrations, their anger and, yes, sometimes their bitterness, have been used since then — by demagogues, by nationalists and xenophobes, by radical conservatives, by political nuts and fanatical fruitcakes – to blame immigrants and foreign traders, to blame blacks and the poor, to blame “liberal elites,” to blame anyone and anything.
…Bitter? You ain’t seen nothing yet. …Eighty percent of Americans know the nation is on the wrong track. The old politics, and the old media that feeds it, are irrelevant now.
I wish I could agree that the media are irrelevant. It looks like the media control the agenda. Shall we talk about detailed high-level White House meetings to approve torture methods for CIA detainees? The media have decided we won’t. No, the subject of our national conversation is going to be whether Americans are “bitter,” or whether it’s OK to describe us as “bitter,” or if politicians are elitists, or something.
UPDATE: Josh Marshall adds:
[O]ne of the more comedic aspects of this 72 hours — watching a cavalcade of extremely wealthy pundits, editorialists and political operatives from New York and Washington tell me how rural Americans won’t stand for this.
UPDATE: From HuffPo– Clinton Heckled, Obama Cheered Over ‘Bitter’ Remarks.
UPDATE: More from HuffPo– David Coleman: I Was There: What Obama Really Said About Pennsylvania.
April 14th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Richard - thank you for linking this!
April 14th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Good for Mr. Reich!
He’s not likely to get invited on “Press The Meat” after that one, or possibly any other Sunday morning Tupperware conversation.
Obama wasn’t criticizing the people who ARE bitter, he was criticizing the people who MADE them bitter. That would be Russert and all of the other well-lit six figure bell boys who carry the luggage of the elite sociopaths that make sure we have plenty of busy work to keep us OFF capitol hill.
Bitter? Me?
Not until these bitter people APPEAR to elect another president or congressman who is going to work precisely against their interests! Republicans are stealing our elections and packing the courts. The media is going to ignore the story just as they have been for the last many years. THAT’S something to get bitter ABOUT!
(Insert Dean Scream)
April 14th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Here’s a big criticism of Mr. Reich though. When asked by somebody before the 2006 election:
“Hell, why not try to impeach Bush?”
Reich responded:
Why does everybody criticize Bush in the harshest terms, but NEVER give us a way to get the hell rid of him and hold him accountable under the constitution. In that respect, Reich isn’t any better then the rest of the pundits.
April 14th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
He is also quite a rich bastard, that has had those working wages funneled into his pocket in the form of inflated tuitions, for his pontifications of how the system he is benefiting from is screwing the working man.
Don’t try to impeach bush? So he is in on it, and would rather play politics than stand for what is right. If the dems lose this election, they will have REICHLY(richly) deserved it.
This country is toast. Without the butter the future economy would seem to say.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
somebody please tell Obama that I’m NOT BITTER before I have to kick his ass!
April 17th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
[...] The GDP is rising, Productivity is Increasing—and Still Workers Wages Fall Former labor secretary Robert Reich recently blogged about those recent comments of Obama which have been so distorted over the last several days. The point was to take the media to task for their superficial coverage. An interesting read. But what really caught my eye was the way he introduced the topic. I was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, 61 years ago. My father sold $1.98 cotton blouses to blue-collar women and women whose husbands worked in factories. Years later, I was secretary of labor of the United States, and I tried the best I could – which wasn’t nearly good enough – to help reverse one of the most troublesome trends America has faced: The stagnation of middle-class wages and the expansion of povety. Male hourly wages began to drop in the early 1970s, adjusted for inflation. The average man in his 30s is earning less than his father did thirty years ago. Yet America is far richer. Where did the money go? To the top. (Robert Reich, “Obama, Bitterness, Meet the Press, and the Old Politics” ; thanks to Richard Warnick for pointing it out) [...]