Obama reaches out to gun owners (by lying!)

[melensdad]

This guy is a lying turd. The Brady gun control folks rank him as one of their anti-gun superstars. Every pro-gun group ranks him on their "F" list. Now he is trying to pass himself off as a pro-gun candidate.

Obama aims for pro-gun vote - Carrie Budoff Brown - Politico.com

Obama aims for pro-gun vote

By CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN | 4/5/08 4:42 PM

Neither hunter or fisher, big-city politician Barck Obama nevertheless makes a play for pro-gun voters in rural Pennsylvania.

Barack Obama did not hunt or fish as a child. He lives in a big city. And as an Illinois state legislator and a U.S. senator, he consistently backed gun control legislation. But he is nevertheless making a play for pro-gun voters in rural Pennsylvania.

By highlighting his background in constitutional law and downplaying his voting record, Obama is engaging in a quiet but targeted drive to win over an important constituency that on the surface might seem hostile to his views.

The need to craft a strategy aimed at pro-gun voters underscores the potency of the issue in Pennsylvania, which claims one of the nation’s highest per capita membership rates in the National Rifle Association.

It also could provide clues as to whether Obama, as one of the Senate’s more liberal members, can position himself as an acceptable choice to a conservative-minded demographic in later primary contests and in the general election.

“Guns are a cultural lens through which they view candidates,” said Jim Kessler, vice president for policy at Third Way, a progressive think tank. “If you are seen as way off on that issue, then you seem way off on everything. If you are seen as OK, if the lens is clearer, then they continue to look at you and size you up on other things.”

“For Obama, who is less known and is from Chicago, a city guy and an African American, the feeling is that he is anti-gun,” Kessler continued. “By handling the Second Amendment correctly, he starts to get a hearing among these folks.”

Obama aides would not discuss the campaign’s strategy. While the effort so far in Pennsylvania appears modest, it is noteworthy for a race that has largely avoided such direct engagement with gun owners. The campaign has asked gun rights advocates like state Rep. Dan Surra, a Democrat from rural Elk County with an “A+” rating from the NRA, to form a coalition of supporters who can vouch for Obama.

“It is clear out there that I am for Obama, and they have reached out to me as a sportsman and a gun owner,” Surra said Thursday. “There has been an outreach to pro-gun legislators, pro-gun people who are sympathetic to Obama’s message.”​

The campaign sent an e-mail this week to the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, saying it would “appreciate all sportsmen taking time to learn the facts: Our candidate strongly supports the right and traditions of sportsmen throughout Pennsylvania and the United States of America.”

And with an endorsement last month from Sen. Bob Casey Jr., Obama got a boost within a community that the Pennsylvania Democrat has courted assiduously. As part of an initiative to move beyond his party’s traditional bases during the 2006 Senate campaign, Casey visited stock car races, demolition derbies and gun clubs. Campaign operatives to both senators are now working closely together.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton does not appear to be making the same level of effort. She has reminded audiences in the last few months that she learned to shoot a gun during childhood vacations in Scranton and bagged a duck as an adult. But neither the state Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs nor her pro-gun Democratic supporters have heard of any specific campaign outreach.​

The pitch from Obama may prove to be a tough sell with this state, where polling shows four in 10 voters — with higher percentages in rural areas — own a firearm. But it is a requisite if he hopes to expand his appeal beyond the state’s metropolitan areas.

When gun owners organized a rally at the state Capitol in Harrisburg last year, nearly half of the 50 legislative sponsors were Democrats. And in the last six months, the General Assembly has thwarted three gun control measures, with Democratic assistance, including one this past week that would have made it mandatory to report lost and stolen handguns.

“It’s interesting that it took until Pennsylvania for really anybody to talk about the gun issues,” Kessler said. “It shows you are down to battling for a small number of votes in a small number of states that are starting to look like the interior of Pennsylvania — West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana.” ​

Obama has long backed gun-control measures, including a ban on semiautomatic weapons and concealed weapons, and a limit on handgun purchases to one a month. He has declined to take a stance on the legality of the handgun prohibition in Washington, D.C., which the U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing, although Obama has voiced support for the right of state and local governments to regulate guns.

In the Senate, he and Clinton broke on one vote, in July 2006. Siding with gun-rights advocates, Obama voted to prohibit the confiscation of firearms during an emergency or natural disaster. Clinton was one of 16 senators to oppose the amendment.

A two-page white paper on Obama’s website doesn’t mention his voting record. Instead, he introduces himself as a former constitutional law professor who “believes the Second Amendment creates an individual right, and he greatly respects the constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms.” “He will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns for the purposes of hunting and target shooting,” the paper states. “He also believes that the right is subject to reasonable and common sense regulation.”

Melody Zullinger, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs who received the Obama campaign e-mail on his gun record, said Obama sounds like he is “speaking out of both sides of his mouth.”

“I was at one of our county meetings last night and I mentioned this to [federation members],” Zullinger said Friday of the Obama outreach. “Everyone basically blew it off and weren’t buying it.”​

Obama’s approach is similar to one advocated by Third Way, which issued a seven-step blueprint in 2006 to close the “gun gap” with Republicans. In a memo on its website, the group urges progressives to avoid silence on gun issues, and instead “redefine the issue in a way that appeals to gun owning voters.”

Among the key steps, according to Third Way: “Own the Second Amendment” and “Take Your Message Directly to Gun Owners — Don’t Let Your Opponent Define You.”

The National Rifle Association posted an article on its website in February warning members against buying into Obama and Clinton, who were using the “scripted rhetorical tricks in the Third Way playbook to the letter.”

Kim Stolfer, chairman of Firearm Owners Against Crime, a political action committee that conducts a candidate questionnaire on behalf of Pennsylvania’s gun groups, said he has not heard from any of the candidates — Obama, Clinton or Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

For now, even if Obama hasn’t won over the gun ownership groups, his outreach efforts show signs of paying some dividends.

State Rep. Tim Solobay, a pro-gun Democrat who is uncommitted but leaning toward Clinton, said he began asking questions about Obama’s record after he saw Surra, one of the highest-ranking gun advocates in the General Assembly, wearing an Obama button.

“It was very surprising to me,” Solobay said. “He is a sportsman. Guys like him carried the mantle for years as pro-gun Democrats. There may be some legitimacy to it. This is what Danny said to me: ‘He has got a much more pro-gun side than what even he anticipated or thought.’ I have not read his information yet. But I take Danny's opinion very highly."

 

[esrice]

Yuck.

 

[TraderJack]

Yep. That's their boy, the obamination...

 

[rhino]

Kerry tried the same thing.

 

[bwframe]

Kerry tried the same thing.

Lets just give Obama the same thing we gave Kerry. The boot!

 

[TomN]

Good old B. Hussein Obama. This guy really scares me.

 

[4sarge]

Unfortunately, the MTV Generation, the Liberal Press along with the hordes of Social Progressives and Mis-Guided Retro-bates have decided that he (OBama) will be "Our" next President.


It's more Important than ever,

that "We Rock the Vote"​

 

[Paul]

anybody hearing his messages on tv and the radio? they make me want to puke

 

[Paul]

its sad how many people my age, college students, like obama....its really sad, and most couldnt tell you jack **** about what the guy stands for

 

[4sarge]

Our choices are not Great, VOTE for the lesser EVIL

 

[blue2golf]

All I see is another Democrat talking about gun rights through the lens of "hunting and sportsman" as if the 2nd Amend. was only about clay shooting. Just more pap.....

 

[nofear]

Yeah it makes me sic to think of Obama or Hillary getting into office. Must be why the 1500 has been so busy the last 2 times this year, everyone getting ready for the gun bans.

 

[CarmelHP]

My Barry Hussein gallery

 

[CarmelHP]

Barry has this to say about why you like guns, he's here to help you get over it:

Obama says some voters are angry, bitter

The Illinois senator's analysis of what motivates working-class voters came after chief rival Hillary Rodham Clinton accused him of looking down on such voters. Clinton rebuked Obama on Friday for similar remarks he made privately last Sunday to a group of donors in San Francisco. "People don't vote on economic issues because they don't expect anybody is going to help them," Obama told a crowd at a Terre Haute, Ind., high school Friday evening. "So people end up voting on issues like guns and are they going to have the right to bear arms. They vote on issues like gay marriage. They take refuge in their faith and their community, and their family, and the things they can count on. But they don't believe they can count on Washington." The Huffington Post Web site reported Friday that Obama, speaking of some Pennsylvanians' economic anxieties, told supporters at the San Francisco fundraiser: "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 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........"




Pure elitist claptrap. I love how this smug little socialist plays the black victimology card, but is a pure SanFran limousine leftist at heat. And Hilary, these two are the best the Democrats could do? They make John McCain look like George Washington. See, you'll all be doing so better with Barry at the helm that you won't notice when your guns or religion is taken away. Barry knows best.

 

[quicksdraw]

What scares me is that there might be enough idiots in this country that will fall for his line of B.S. to get him elected.

 

[4sarge]

What scares me is that there might be enough idiots in this country that will fall for his line of B.S. to get him elected.

I agree, He's got a line of BS that has a lot of people fooled

 

[Prometheus]

Anyone but obamma! Once he's out it'll be anyone but hitlery or mcAmnesty.

How any gun owner in their right mind could vote for any of these traitors is beyond me.

 

[Pami]

An AP post on MSN.com had this comment back from Senator Clinton about Obama's quote:

"I was raised with Midwestern values and an unshakable faith in America and its policies," she said. "Now, Americans who believe in the Second Amendment believe it's a matter of constitutional right. Americans who believe in God believe it's a matter of personal faith.

Obama hit for saying some voters 'bitter' - Barack Obama News - MSNBC.com

So just out of curiosity because I haven't really looked that much... what is HER stance on the Second Amendment?

 

[rhino]

So just out of curiosity because I haven't really looked that much... what is HER stance on the Second Amendment?

Like Obama and other socialist-statists, Hillary's view of the 2nd Amendment is that it's a "collective right" (which makes no sense either literally or in the context) for the military and police and that maybe it's okay for someone to have a single shot shotgun for a little hunting. For now.

She's voted against every pro-gun bill and for every anti-RKBA bill. She even voted against the bill to prevent government agencies from confiscating legally possessed firearms during times of emergency. Even Obama voted in favor of that (his one and only semi-pro-RKBA vote ever).

 

[bwframe]

It's great that somehow these uber liberals got to talking about guns. Hopefully, this issue will stay in the forefront through the Democratic convention. Exposure like this could make it much easier for us in November.