Bill Clinton on Rural Culture: 'All They’ve Got Is Their Hunting and Their Fishing'

It's hardly news to those who have followed Bill Clinton for the past two decades, and it's probably even more of the same-old, same-old for those who had to endure having him as governor during the 1980s in Arkansas.

Nonetheless, something Mr. Clinton said in a speech at "a joint meeting of the Obama National Finance Committee and a group of business leaders," which was captured without even being deemed possibly offensive by Byron Tau at the Politico, should be noted as exemplifying the deep contempt this man -- and, it would appear, his audience, which had no reported negative reaction -- has for everday Americans (seen in bold after the jump; HT Instapundit):

Bill Clinton to Democrats: Don’t trivialize gun culture

Former President Bill Clinton warned a group of top Democratic donors at a private Saturday meeting not to underestimate the passions that gun control stirs among many Americans.

“Do not patronize the passionate supporters of your opponents by looking down your nose at them,” Clinton said.

“A lot of these people live in a world very different from the world lived in by the people proposing these things,” Clinton said. “I know because I come from this world."

... he said that he understands the culture that permeates a state like Arkansas — where guns are a longstanding part of local culture.

“A lot of these people … all they’ve got is their hunting and their fishing,” he told the Democratic financiers. “Or they’re living in a place where they don’t have much police presence. Or they’ve been listening to this stuff for so long that they believe it all.”

Yes indeed, millions of Americans, depending on how you want to parse Clinton's quote, either find their only meaning in life in hunting and fishing, or literally have no other interests.

Really? Do you mind if we take a look at those involved with the government and national media in Washington for a moment, especially those on the left? Would it be fair to say that the percentage of people there where "all they’ve got is their obsessions over poltics and power trips" is exponentially higher than the percentage of rural Americans who think about nothing but hunting and fishing? The overhelmingly likely answer is "yes."  CNN correspondent Tom Foreman.

On a personal level, I would ask the political elites, if they can drop their sneering condescension for just a few moments, to get into real conversations sometime with people who they believe would fit the stereotype Bill Clinton worked to advance on Saturday. They would learn how interesting the vast majority of these supposedly boring, one-dimensional people really are. I have. I promise that you'll learn a lot of things you didn't know, and gain a greater appreciation of those for whom you're supposed to be working.

It will surprise almost no one here that a search at the Associated Press's national web site on Clinton's full name (not in quotes) returns nothing relevant.

The press and the left usually have to accuse Republicans and conservatves of "speaking in code" to conjure up accusations of elitism, racism, etc. Clinton's speech shows how no such creativity is necessary. Yet the press consistently finds such utterances on the left not newsworthy.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.