The quote heard ’round the country
Perhaps the last word to come to mind on the leafy outer blocks of Jackson Street is “bitter.” Yet it was here, at 3680 Jackson — during an afternoon of fund-raising in the neighborhood on April 6 that included an earlier stop at the Getty mansion on Broadway — that Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama offered his observations about embittered blue-collar workers.
“You go into some of 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. “So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them, or anti-imigrant sentiment, or anti-trade sentiment, as a way to explain their frustrations.”
His comments stoked political debate around the country and gave Obama’s critics fresh ammunition to accuse him of being an elitist — and gave the chattering classes fresh opportunity to rail against ultraliberal out-of-touch San Franciscans.
Readers Respond
- Margaret H.December 28, 1969
Wonderful piece. I remember when the jazz clubs on Fillmore stayed open past two — this brought it all back. Thank you for keeping the memory of the neighborhood alive.
- David K.December 23, 1969
We've lived on Pine near Steiner for thirty-one years and it still surprises us how much this paper notices. Please keep going.
- Yuki T.December 15, 1969
A small correction — the mochi shop on Post opened in 1982, not 1985. My grandfather was there for the ribbon cutting. Love the coverage otherwise.
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