Well, surely if Novak thinks that saying that bitter people clinging to the Bible and guns means Obama thinks that the Second Amendment doesn't guarantee an individual right to bear arms, doesn't it follow that Novak thinks Obama doesn't believe the First Amendment guarantees an individual freedom of religion?  On the other hand, intellectual consistency isn't a hallmark of some people.

I sort of see what Novak is saying, but it's a stretch. He's making the case that Obama believes there's something wrong with citizens "clinging" to gun rights as an issue, and that the reason they do that is because they are bitter and impoverished. Far from an airtight case, obviously.

As with many issues, there's a tendency here to conflate several separate questions in order to pigeonhole candidates as pro-gun or anti-gun.  "Was the D.C. gun ban constitutional?" and "Was the D.C. gun ban a good idea?" are separate questions.  Novak tosses in "Why do people care about gun rights?" for good measure.

Modern-day politics just doesn't handle nuance very well.  There's an unstated assumption that a candidate's *real* position must be pro-X or anti-X, and if his statements don't uniformly fall into one of those categories, it's because he's flip-flopping or pandering, and we get hand-wringing commentary saying that we don't know what his real views are.  We saw the same thing happen with Obama on trade agreements.

Obama: We need to renegotiate NAFTA and we shouldn't make trade deals with places like Colombia where labor leaders have to fear for their lives.

Pundits: What's that? You hate free trade?

Obama: I support trade agreements with appropriate environmental, safety, and labor standards, like the agreements we have with Peru and Oman.

Pundits: But you said you hated free trade.  Which is it?

and so on.

I think reading the tea leaves in Obama's 'cling' comment to demonstrate his REAL position on the second amendment is ridiculous.  Obama said in hard times people cling to guns and the Bible.  He could have just as easily said home and kids.  He was not making a value judgment.  The media has filled that in. When people feel pushed around by events outside their control (job loss, globalization, $4 gasoline), he said, they tend to seek refuge in family, friends,  church and hobbies, like hunting.  Why would Obama, the Christian Democrat, be dissing the Bible.  How could Obama have won rural community after rural community in dowstate Illinois dissing hunters.

This is a man who is not busy enough.  Get a job Bob!

Ah, if only Obama had said, "... and so they get bitter and cling to hobbies."

Because truth to tell, I know some very bitter hobbyists.

Noam, I don't think you have to read too hard between the lines to take from Obama's line that gun ownership is in his eyes pathetic.  As is, a sincere belief in Christianity, would be a reasonable interpretation of the bible-clinging part.

Which might also raise questions about the sincerity of Obama's professed Christianity.  Which, I normally would care little about, except that he's made it a centerpiece of his political career.

Lost in all this is how "cling" is such a cool verb. It's short yet expressive.

When I hear it, I envision a praying mantis, clinging to some hapless beetle, perhaps, chewing frenziedly at the beetle's head as it clings. I tend to eat a burrito in similar fashion; I have clung to lovers similarly, as we both tried to eat each other's mind. The verb connotes fear, as if a larger mantis is just around the corner, ready to wrest the beetle from the mantis currently doing the clinging.

In times of stress we do indeed cling to one another and find some comfort there, as Paul Simon's boxer did amongst the whores on Seventh Avenue, or as couples who cling and claw, as Simon (Carly) said.

Conservatives jumped on "cling" in part because it implies cowardice. Its body language is unflattering. It's Jimmy Stewart clinging in abject terror to that rain gutter at the beginning of "Vertigo." Who you callin' a clinger, Obama?

Obama revealed that he does not see anything wrong in clinging, in contrast to his opponents, who are truly afraid of a scary future, as we all have good reason to be, and would prefer not to admit such by admitting their clinging. Obama would like us to think that he can see past our fears. However, when we say we want the doctor to give it to us straight, often we're lying.

Cling away, Middle America. I for one will not think less of you. In fact, scoot over so I can cling a little at your side.

I am willing to cling to Scarlet Scarlett Johansson, BillyYard.

CAM2, you're rationalizing.  Obama happens to be an excellent writer and speaker with a firm graps on  the nuance of the English language.

If you say to a bunch of San Francisco chardonnay drinkers that those people in rural PA "cling to their guns and their Bibles" the intent of the word choice is clear to any educated speaker of the English language.

And God knows are plenty of educated (meaning indoctrinated) people in the Bay Area.

"Cling" in this instance quite clearly meant that the clingers were somewhat pathetic in their grasping desperation.

If a girl says, "that guy is a clinger" do you think she means she just loves being hugged by him?

Boy, you guys tie yourselves in knots to deny the clear meaning of words.  Hence the way Leftist judges "interpret" the Constitution.

I like that poetic redundancy redundancy, BillyYard.  But, it was inadvertent.

William - a humanitarian post of the first order.  Cling *can* be a sweet and gentle word and I thank you for reminding me of that.  

Channy - I noticed today in Obama's beautiful speech that he mentioned in passing his own carelessness (what politician does that?).  I assume he was refering to the bitter comment.  He throws those little thoughtful asides in there every now and then that remind us that he's not soley the cool, confident golden child, there is a guy who can grow and learn in there.  He's has no fear of growing right in front of God and the whole world.

I guess at 46, he'd better.

(No one in the Bay area drinks chardonnay - in my experience, that is a big DC choice of wine.  As a matter of fact, Bay Area folk would most likely balk at the very idea of drinking chardonnay).

I think they would be drinking an ice cold Sierra Nevada, or at least I would.

I'm sorry, Wandrey, you're right.  The folks in Obama's SF audience were drinking Jet Malt Liquor.

As to, "...He throws those little thoughtful asides in there every now and then that remind us that he's not soley the cool, confident golden child, there is a guy who can grow and learn in there. "

Nicely put, Wandrey.  And, I'd be touched.  If the guy were the new head of accounting.  Not a man with 2.5 years in the U.S. Senate seeking the presidency of the United States.

My God.