reveal media bias!

Let's go through a few points here:
1. The reaction to this whole affair proves the point...again. The "Obama is an elitist" mantra is predictable. Politicians are pulling together a few classic mantras: San Francisco, Elite, Liberal, Obama, Religion-Hating, Anti-Christian, Anti-Rural, Anti-Gun...etc. What do these mantras mean? They are essentially divisive politics. The reaction to Obama's comments proves his very point, but our media is unable to parse the obvious. Obama's points are that when people get frustrated they cling to things they can control and they are more susceptible to us-versus-them politics. The them in this case are "San Francisco elitist liberals." Just as in other parts of the world the United States is pitched as the source of all a third-world country's woes, in our own country the populations on the coasts are portrayed in the same way. Obama's point was that unless you have some concrete benefits to communicate to people, these other forces become tempting...like they have for a very long time and in many places. Isn't economic frustration one of the reasons we gave for why people turn to Islamic terrorism? Now, nothing like that level of emotional weirdness is going on in the heartland, but people look to find answers to their frustrations and they look for the easiest things to blame. That's not rocket science. Obama was cautioning that the canvassers should be focused on delivering real messages that cut through this temptation. If you listen to the whole speech you can get this. Again, the reaction to his speech essentially makes this argument. The very people who are telling him he's out of touch with rural PA are the ones that are essentially telling rural PA that they have nothing in common with San Francisco and that "those freaks" are the source of your problems. That's the subtext. I think it's fair to question whether people any where would understand how they are being pitted against one another by politicians. Obama's point is that you guys are the beneficiaries of globalization (the SF freaks that is) and that they should give two sh!ts about what happens in rural PA.
2. The reaction to Obama's speech on race proved his point in that case as well. "Bitter whites" on the right reacted the way he essentially predicted. "This guy is pandering and making things about race and wants a break for everything that has to do with race. He's using race as an excuse for making crazy statements. He's using living during segregation as an excuse for crazy talk." That was the mantra. Now, if you listen to his speech he essentially says this is where a segment of the population (the one most offended by his speech) would come from. He predicted their reaction quite well. They on the other hand focused on the part of his speech that provided the hint of a "victim" mantra they were so desperately looking for. Ironically, they failed to look in the mirror when it came to him sizing them up pretty darn well.
Based on his statements, I think he understands America quite well.