Ed Rendell Responds To Murtha's 'Racist,' 'Redneck' Comments

[RamboLiberal]

CLAIRTON, Pa. -- Pennsylvania voters head to the polls in less than two weeks, but that's not soon enough for Gov. Ed Rendell.

The governor was in the Pittsburgh region Wednesday for a groundbreaking ceremony at the U.S. Steel plant in Clairton, whre he said he wishes the election could be today.

Rendell also fired back at Rep. John Murtha's characterization of some people in our region as "racist" or "redneck."

"When he categorizes an entire part of the state, that's just, that's wrong. Are there people in Pennsylvania who'll vote on racial lines? Maybe a few," Rendell said.

Rendell has said in the past that race might work against Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in Pennsylvania. On Wednesday, the governor offered the following analogy.

"If you're drowning in the middle of a river, your boat capsizes, and you know the current is too strong for you to swim to shore, but you see a guy on the shore and he's got a coil of rope and you yell to him, you don't care if he's black, white, orange, purple. You don't care what his religion is," Rendell said.

Obama enjoys a substantial lead in the polls over Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Rendell said he fears some voters may stay home on Election Day on the belief that their vote is not needed.

"We can't be complacent. The latest poll with Susquehanna it's an eight-point lead. But those things shift around awful fast. There's still 6 or 7 percent undecided. So, I'm yelling at everyone. I don't care how big the lines are, I don't care if it's raining. Everybody who's for Senator Obama has to get out and stay out and vote," Rendell said.

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/17782687/detail.html

[Jennicut]

1. Rendell is showing his strategy here: don't be complacent

He wants as many getting out to vote for Obama as he possible can.

[Every Man A King]

2. I wonder if this was a good cop/bad cop

strategy from Murtha/Rendell?

[OneGrassRoot]

3. Okay, this is really tacky, but.....

I grew up there, still have family there. THEY are the ones to whom Murtha was referring in his comments.

Blind followers, racists, bigots, vote against their best interests, "librul wusses" suck, elite media, etc., etc.

On one hand, I thought Murtha calling them out -- which I have been doing nonstop -- would embolden them. They WANT to scream their racist/bigoted crap from the rooftops, they hate being "politically correct." That's why these totally bogus emails about Obama being muslim, being a terrorist, etc. came about: because they couldn't say exactly what they wanted to say, so they made shit up.

But what I've noticed with them being called out nationally, with Murtha's comment, is something rather interesting. They are denying they are like that. I don't mean facetiously as they used to with me; their mouths would say, "It's not 'cause he's black," even though we both knew that's EXACTLY what's going on.

It's something different. Perhaps an element of shame? Could I be that presumptuous to think they could be ashamed of their views when they've seen them plastered on the TV screen of late, seeing themselves in the Palin mob?

Regardless, I now wonder if Murtha's comments are having a reverse psychology effect. These people aren't big on thinking and reasoning. Seriously. They're followers.

If, for whatever reason, a vibe of "Hey, we're not racist! Don't talk about us that way!" has taken hold with those who ARE racist and would never have voted Obama to begin with, I'm sensing they'll do one of two things: 1) Not vote at all because the whole thing is requiring too much damn introspection at this point...lol; or 2) Vote Obama to say, "SEE, I TOLD YOU I'M NOT RACIST!"

Again, reverse psychology works well on these types.

Just my musings this morning as I prepare to counter yet another right-wing relative email.

:)