Obama: Alienating voters? (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
What ‘bitter-gate’ costs Obama
What happenedBarack Obama has a 10-percentage-point lead over Hillary Clinton among Democrats asked who should be their party’s presidential nominee, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. (The Washington Post, free registration) But Obama appears to have lost momentum in Pennsylvania, where he was chipping away at Clinton’s lead until around the time of his remarks about bitter small town voters clinging to guns and religion. A new Quinnipiac University survey showed Clinton with a 6-point lead—the same as a week earlier but down from 20 percent earlier—in the state, which holds its primary on Tuesday. (The Boston Globe, free registration)
What the commentators said
Most polls show Obama is no longer gaining ground in Pennsylvania, said Daniel Nichanian in The Huffington Post, but it’s impossible to say whether “bitter-gate” is to blame. The Quinnipiac survey probably has the best reputation of several polls out there confirming the trend, but many of the interviews took place before Obama’s remarks were made public. But Clinton is trying to capitalize on all the coverage, nonetheless, by “adding hype to bitter-gate” with an event trumpeting the “collective endorsement” of 100 Pennsylvania mayors.
Establishment Democrats are split on whether Obama’s comments will matter, said Kirsten Powers in the New York Post (free registration). “But voters need more time to absorb the comments.” It may not be enough to derail his quest for the party’s nomination, but he certainly has given Republicans ammunition for November. “Obama may or may not be an elitist, but he inherits the legacy of a party that has fought the label since Adlai Stevenson.”
The truth is there is no significant difference between Obama and Clinton on guns and religion, said The New York Times in an editorial (free registration). But “there are many big problems to discuss and not enough discussion of them.” Iraq and Afghanistan, anyone? Or how about “the trashing of America’s global image, inequitable taxes, a flagging economy, epidemic home foreclosures, lost jobs, soaring health care costs and struggling schools”? Let’s hope the Democrats start talking about things that really matter at Wednesday’s debate in Pennsylvania.
You’re kidding yourself if you think these comments don’t matter, said Kathleen Parker in National Review Online. His remarks were deeply offensive to “too many generations of Americans who have enriched the sod of flyover country and elsewhere with their blood, sweat, and toil—precisely so that a Barack Obama might some day aim for the White House—to dismiss them so glibly.” The more Obama tries to brush away his careless “elitist” words, the more they burn into the psyche of “regular folk.”
Comment on this article
Recent comments | 3 total
I have to disagree with Miss Parker - Obama does not come off to me as elitist, and he merely spoke the truth. Our problem here in the US is that we\'ve taken political correctness so far that any word or phrase can be misconstrued to be an insult. Obama\'s intention was clearly not to insult anyone, but rather to explain the people who likely haven\'t been exposed to such conditions what the other side is living and feeling. He did not come up with this interpretation of people in forgotten cities being bitter out of thin air - he had just come from a forgotten city. The memory of it was obviously still fresh in his mind. The way Obama\'s opponents are twisting it, it seems as though they are treating the American public like we are idiots. I long to see their faces when they realize that we are not.
Please! he merely spoke the truth to whom and about whom? This is as a general statement as \"all men are a----s. And the bigger picture isn\'t about his stupid words but his stupid actions. Oh! great \"The first Black President, or the first Woman President! What about the first President who can unite the country and address the :REAL ISSUES!!!!!
What is the big surprise? Obama was pandering to a roomfull of Starbuck\'s liberals what they already believe about the people of \"flyover country\".
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