They Said It. I Repeat It.

Clearing out some memory for my DVR, I just stumbled across an interesting exchange from the February 29, 2008 edition of Real Time With Bill Maher. This wasn't a bit...

Bill Maher:

How many rednecks are there in Pennsylvania? If you had to guess a percentage, a rough ball park figure.

Hillary Clinton superdelegate/PA Governor Ed Rendell:

Less and less every year. And again, give Senator Obama, in my next sentence in the interview, I said he’s done a great job bringing new people into the fold and a great job overcoming those barriers in states which I’d have said have the same problems. But look, there are people in Pennsylvania who don’t wanna see a woman President because they don’t think a woman could be a good commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. That’s a fact. That’s a fact.

When I ran for Governor the first time, I ran for Governor as a young man in the early ‘80s, a newspaper reporter told me he was in central Pennsylvania at the time people called in and said we can’t vote for that guy he’s Jewish and from Philadelphia. So prejudice exists, again give Senator Obama tremendous credit for to a great deal overcoming that. There’s no question about it. Does it exist? Sure, but there’s prejudice against a lot of people in the political spectrum.

Is Gov. Rendell a condescending elitist or a realist? The sole difference between Gov. Rendell's comments vs. Sen. Obama's comments is that Obama actually provided a context and rationale for his perception whereas Gov. Rendell simply implies there is rampant bigotry and sexism among his constituents.

The only mistake Sen. Obama made in his "bitter people" comments is one of politesse. He should never have singled out PA before the primary lest undecided voters be offended. Those already committed to Obama are all too painfully aware that he speaks the truth.

Enough with this kerfuffle already.

-AF
+Edited ever so slightly for clarity.