In case you’re just tuning in to the controversy over Barack Obama’s “bitter” remark, here is what he said last Sunday in San Francisco:
It will be harder for Republicans to pin the elitist label on Obama, who is a Harvard grad who chose to be a community organizer rather than taking a cushy corporate job, than it was on John Kerry or Michael Dukakis.
“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… It’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
Obama’s critics have interpreted his comment as saying yahoos “cling” to God and guns because they’re desperate and can’t think for themselves — that conservative values are delusions that are by-products of stress.
On Saturday, Obama made a clarification:
“Obviously, if I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that,†Obama said in a phone interview with the Winston-Salem Journal. “But the underlying truth of what I said remains, which is simply that people who have seen their way of life upended because of economic distress are frustrated and rightfully so.â€
Judging by the way Hillary Clinton came out swinging yesterday, exhaustive focus-grouping revealed that the “yahoo” interpretation of Obama’s statement is resonating.
The fact that odds makers have taken note provides more evidence that the controversy has legs:
The infamous “bitter” comments made by the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will likely cost him the primary in Pennsylvania on April 22nd… According to the odds makers, Hillary Clinton is now -270 favorite to win the upcoming Democratic primary, while the odds on Barack Obama to recover and come out victorious are slim +180…
Still, in a long run, the odds makers continue to put their money on Barack Obama to win the Democratic nomination, listed with odds 2/11 at BodogSports, compared to the long odds on Hillary Clinton at 23/4.
The charge of liberal out-of-touch elitism helped sink the Michael Dukakis campaign in 1988 and John Kerry’s 2004 bid. It will be harder to pin the elitist label on Obama, who is a Harvard grad who chose to be a community organizer rather than taking a cushy corporate job — unless Obama were to allow himself to be filmed riding in a tank or windsurfing.
- Topic: News & Comment
- Topics: Congress, Fox News
I am sorry for Obama’s choice of words, but if you look closely at today’s voters…it resonates because he was speaking the truth.
The middle class is under seige. I have never known so many middle class people out of work. In my circle of friends there are at least four young professionals out of work and have been out of work for close to a year. It is time to set aside our religious beliefs and old prejudices to applaud a politician who is brave enough to speak the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts and when it does it sticks to us like Velcro. Consider, we only get mad at people who point out our weaknesses. We only respond to something when it hits a nerve. Obama did exactly this.
I am suprised at the “controversy” surrounding Obama’s “bitter remark”. Why is it that if a politician says anything outside of the traditional political blather, it seems it becomes big news no matter how insignificant it is. I don’t see the big deal AT ALL, as voters ARE BITTER. It’s rediculous the press this has received and the way that both McCain and Hillary are exploiting it, or should I say TRYING to exploit it. They can go right ahead and hammer away at it as it will probably only HELP Obama, in my opinion. Keep at it John and Hillary!
This controversy has two parts. The main problem is, Obama is referring openly to the GOP’s secret recipe for winning elections. Without hot buttons about guns, God and gays to push, Republicans have nothing to excite the base of their party. Without the base of Christian nationalists and gun-lovers, all they have are country-clubbers and tax-haters — and there simply aren’t enough of them to win. Republicans cannot allow a Democrat like Obama to unmask their cynical manipulation.
Clinton’s objective is different. At this point in the primary season, the campaigns seize on any gaffe, no matter how inconsequential, and pummel each other with it. Obama is using surrogates — and fawning media types — to go after Hillary so that he can stay above the fray and because he does not want to upset Clinton’s mostly middle-aged female supporters, whose support he must have in November in order to win.
Republicans will add the “bitter” comment to their portfolio of lines of attack against Obama in the fall that already includes his and Michelle’s patriotism and the Jeremiah Wright controversies. But the “bitter” comment plays into their most effective narrative which is to label the Democrat a “liberal, liberal, liberal” — a tactic that has worked amazingly well for them in the past.
Jon, what surrogates is Obama using? That got past me. Can you give us some names?
Tom Daschle, Claire McCaskill, David Axelrod and many others are all over the cable shows. They both use surrogates but Hillary can better afford to attack on her own since she is positioned as a fighter. On the Bosnia thing, Obama had Jay Leno batting for him.