California-based Hugh Hewitt caught claiming he lives in ‘middle America.’
California-based Hugh Hewitt caught claiming he lives in ‘middle America.’
On his radio show last night, right-winger Hugh Hewitt accused Time’s Joe Klein of giving “the Manhattan-Beltway media elite view of what are the big issues,” adding that to “a lot of folks out here in middle America, big issues come in different sizes.” When Klein asked Hewitt if he’d been “spending an awful lot of time out in middle America,” Hewitt replied “you’ve got to live here. You’ve got to be from Ohio, Joe, to understand middle America like me.” Klein responded by pointing out that Hewitt actually lives in California. Listen here:
According to Wikipedia, Hewitt was born in Ohio, but since then he’s hardly lived the “middle America” life he claimed on the radio. In fact, Hewitt graduated from Harvard and spent many years working in both Los Angeles and Washington, DC.
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The Right Wing… redefining the universe to suit their own ends…..
April 8th, 2008 at 9:54 pmWhen one lies so routinely about everything from the situation in Iraq to Social Security I guess one’s grasp of concrete reality slowly starts to slip.
Ahh, California, truly America’s heartland. Sandwiched between the sands of the Pacific and popular Eastern seaboard destinations Las Vegas and Reno.
April 8th, 2008 at 9:58 pmWell sheeeit, Bush is just a good old boy who can’t speechify right, why can’t Hewitt be ordinary folk?
April 8th, 2008 at 9:58 pmAnother republican, another lie. Tomorrow, another republican, another lie. Same shit, different day.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:02 pmDamn,all the good lines are already gone-if they’re breathing and they’re rethugs, you know they’re gonna use that air to spew out a lie. Best I can do.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:13 pmThey can’t help but lie, can they? It’s second nature to them.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:42 pmZooey Says:
April 8th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
They can’t help but lie, can they? It’s second nature to them.
Except, Zooey, with these guys, it’s become first nature.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:46 pmThis is probably difficult to understand, but parts of SoCal are definitely close to Middle America. And, by “close”, I mean that figuratively. I’m surprised they haven’t covered the figuratively/literally concept yet, but I guess that’s because who ever posted this was held back. Maybe next year.
As for Joe Klein, he’s a liar and an explicit supporter of illegal immigration.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:48 pmYou’ve got to be from Ohio, Joe, to understand middle America like me.
He understands so well he couldn’t stay, like so many others.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:50 pmWayne A. Schneider Says:
April 8th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Except, Zooey, with these guys, it’s become first nature.
Then there really is no hope for them.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:51 pmparts of SoCal are definitely close to Middle America.
Immigrationblahblahblog
I’m guessing you meant Middle Earth
April 8th, 2008 at 10:52 pmThere, I’m back, I had to go delete the cookie implanted from my accidental split second clicking on the Immigration 2008 Dot Con screen name link.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:57 pmImmigration2008DotCom Says:
April 8th, 2008 at 11:08 pmApril 8th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
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and some part of SoCal are also part of the Beleriand subcontinent
The new definition of “pathetic”, anyone who gets slamdunked by Joe Klein, of all people.
April 8th, 2008 at 11:19 pmDamn it Nevar! You got there first. Still mine was more obscure
April 8th, 2008 at 11:20 pmcheers-
OT
For those who missed todays trollfest, it seems that the stakes are going up. Multiple threats of violence, porn links and plenty of other despicable shenanigans. I strongly urge you all to be VERY selective about links from “non-regulars”. There’s no telling what kind of infections the punks might try to unleash.
G’night good people.
April 8th, 2008 at 11:39 pmYou too trolls.
Excellent advice, pete.
Things are going ugly around here again. I hope TP gets ahead of the curve…
April 8th, 2008 at 11:50 pmLet’s see. Expensive private university, served in the Reagan administration in the White House Counsel’s office, author of several books, and a high-paying job as a nationally-syndicated talk radio show… all these are sure signs Hewitt is “Middle-America”. Right. Sure.
April 9th, 2008 at 12:38 amYet, Liberals are the elitists who patronize Middle America and use them for their own purposes. So sayeth the men who use gay marriage and abortion as wedge issues to distract Middle America from the fact that they screw over Middle America through their economic policies.
April 9th, 2008 at 4:48 amDidn’t Bill Clinton say he was from Hope? How long did he live in Hope?
April 9th, 2008 at 7:05 amIt only took 20 post to get a Clinton did it too from a troll.
What a miserable existance it must be.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:25 am#18 Gregor Samsa Says:
April 9th, 2008 at 12:38 am
Come on Gregor, he said he was going to visit with his brother in Ohio this weekend. I guess he will be bonding with Middle America then.. YEA RIGHT!!!
April 9th, 2008 at 7:34 amI’ll have to admit that this barely crosses the threshold of what should be a Think Progress item: I don’t give two shits about where that halfwit comes from; he and his hardcore listeners are dead to both me and America.
April 9th, 2008 at 8:25 am“Hewitt graduated from Harvard…”
So much for Harvard’s admission standards.
April 9th, 2008 at 8:45 amI MIGHT cut Hewitt a little slack on this one. I don’t know how long ago he left Ohio, or how old he was when he did, but I assume it was probably about the time he left for college. Many of us retain the values we received where we grew up, and we remember the culture of the place where we spent our formative years.
I grew up in Seattle, a veritable hotbed of progressivism. I moved away as a young adult (29 years ago), but the values that shaped me there have more or less stayed with me ever since, even though I have lived since then in Orange County, CA and currently reside in a Bible Belt red state. Because my family still lives there, I’ve never really lost touch, although one could not call me a Seattle resident by any stretch of the imagination.
Because of my own experience, I believe it’s possible that Hewitt still has enough Ohio left in him that he knows of what he speaks. Of course, it’s just as possible that he is saying whatever is necessary to catapult his propaganda.
April 9th, 2008 at 8:57 amIt doesn’t make any sense, Molly.
Either he’s saying that coastal, more liberal areas and states have such different issues than middle America and the people living there that there is a problem and disconnect, or the issues of a place like California has enough diversity in issues, etc. that he can join into middle America with some Ohio background.
If the beltway is caught up in “abstract” issues like the economy (can I see it?) and Constitutional freedom, then California is too more than the “true issues” for the Heartland like abortion and gay marriage.
Notice that agriculture is never too much of an issue.
April 9th, 2008 at 11:23 amIn the clip Hewitt says he lives in Bakersfield, CA:
http://votingresearch.org/USAconservativecities.pdf
Bakersfield differs from many California cities in that it is overwhelmingly conservative. According to the Bay Area Center for Research, Bakersfield is ranked as the 8th most conservative city in the United States, and the most conservative city in California.
In 2004, the city cast 65.9% of its votes for George W. Bush, and 33.5% for Kerry.
April 9th, 2008 at 2:51 pm