Obama says gun owners are bitter clingers; Supporter now says we're racist anti-Semites

By Chad D. Baus

Barack Obama had not yet locked up the nomination for his party when he revealed his true feelings about gun owners to attendees of a private fund raiser in San Francisco last April:

“You go into 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,” Obama said. “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.”

The 'bitter clingers' comment continues to resonate, with John McCain regularly citing Obama's snide remarks on the campaign trail, and the NRA using the phrase in campaign materials.

Last week, an Obama supporter and U.S. Congressman from Florida took the stereo-typing of gun owners to a whole new level.

To Rep. Alcee Hastings, Democrat-FL, gun owners and hunters aren't just 'bitter clingers'. To Rep. Alcee Hastings, Democrat-FL, we are racist anti-Semites.

Last week, Rep. Hastings told black and Jewish voters they should not support Republican vice presidential nominee and Buckeye Firearms Association-endorsee Sarah Palin because "anybody toting guns and stripping moose don't care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks."

Yes, you read that right.

"Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don't care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks."

In her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Gov. Sarah Palin took the campaign to task for the kind of double-speak that has former Joyce Foundation board member Barack Obama attempting to convince gun owners that he is no threat to the Second Amendment.

"In small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening.

We tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco."

Indeed. From Hasting's hate-filled, race-baited stereotype of gun owners and hunters to Obama's own view that gun owners are just rural yokels who are bitterly clinging to our guns, the views these leftist Democrats have of Americans who choose to exercise their Second Amendment rights are clear.

Change we've been waiting for? Hardly.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Vice Chairman.