Is this how Hillary supporters in PA really feel?

I was reading our local paper, the Centre Daily Times, online. The CDT is in State College, PA, home of Penn State and an island of purple in the sea of red that is the middle of Pennsylvania. The article was a short one on the opening of the local Clinton headquarters here. It was a good, well written little story which compared the opening with that of the local Obama headquarters two nights ago.

The CDT, part of the McClatchy chain, has a comments section and so I started reading those and then came across one that really startled me.

Read it on the jump and tell me what to make of it.

And here it is.

tsk! tsk! people! the past is the past the present is coming and you better be prepared for what may happen when we get an "african-american" (politically correct) president in office. After seeing the kind of sermons his pastor (past or present) give, I can't help but think it's his way of thinking, too. How can you go to church and listen to that and not be influenced! And she still has more experience than B. Hussein Obama has. What her husband did had no impact on his presidency. We were in a lot better shape when he left than we will be when this jerk leaves. Michelle Obama certainly didn't score many points with her remarks about just NOW being proud of her country (sure, look what's in it for her IF he wins, what else is she going to say?)
GO HILLARY!
Posted by: Clinton Bound

3/20/2008 8:37 AM

What can I make of this? Is this how Hillary supporters actually feel, but won't say so in "Polite Company?"  Are they really afraid of what will happen if we elect an African America? And is there another term they'd prefer to use other than the "politically correct" one? And what is up with the "B. Hussein Obama"? Other than to imply something about a man who has a middle name which is the same as both Saddam Hussein and King Hussein of Jordan who was our ally in the Middle East. How can we ever expect to mend our reputation in that part of the world if we demonize even the names common there?

We are white, but have attended the historically African American church here in town. We also have white friends who regularly attend. We are greeted with open arms, literally. However, you should have heard some of what was said during and after Katrina. How the hell are people supposed to feel when they see thousand people who look like them being treated and mistreated in the shockingly criminal fashion that was the aftermath of Katrina? Several church members even had family there. Hell, I was furious.

We also, on occasion attend Catholic mass. My kids are baptized. And while I like with the Catholic message of social justice, the anti-abortion rants I've had to sit through were stomach turning. There are a lot of Catholics on my block and we all pretty much feel the same way. One neighbor almost died during her second pregnancy. When she delivered by c-section, she told the doctor to go ahead and tie her tubes. Then she went to confession about it. The priest really browbeat her over that decision. Needless to say, she knows that she made the right decision for her and her family. And she is still an active member of the parish, too.

A lot of Catholics leave the church over these issues. But a lot don't. In fact, let's be honest here, most of what comes out of any priest or minister's mouth, whether is it offensive or wonderful is pretty much ignored by those sitting in the pews. Sermons on such topics as "love your neighbor", "forgive your enemies," "turn the other cheek", and "feed the hungry, house the homeless, comfort the imprisoned." All ignored. Put five bucks in the collection basket, sing a few songs, and you're good to go for the week. This isn't a Christian nation. It's a nation of hypocrites, but that's another diary.

Obama calls to the best in us, to understand the anger and the pain behind it on both sides of the issue of race. The old politics of division by demonizing the perceived enemy, whether it is mocking the name, the race, the religion, or branding it part of a "vast rightwing conspiracy" is what is strangling this country. And yet it appears that message, that mindset is what Hillary's campaign is not only appealing to, but also encouraging.

I am becoming discouraged. In the media Hillary and her campaign talk about her experience, which turns out to have been greatly exaggerated. I've done the research, and their experience and records are actually rather similar. Hillary has been at it a bit longer but then she is older. In public, her supporters also talk about it being "her turn" and their desire to vote for a woman, which strike this woman as more of the politics of division. But now this ugly little comment in the local paper which the writer clearly thought would not be seen beyond the local sphere where everyone presumably feels the same, speaking the same code, as it were, suggests to me that they are also distrust Obama on the basis of his ethnicity alone, and thus support her even more passionately.  I really hesitate to accuse anyone of racism, but what else can it be?