Barack Obama's comm. dir. Robert Gibbs was on "Morning Joe" this a.m. discussing the impact of "bittergate":
Gibbs: "If you look at the recent polling, the race has stayed mostly the same over the past week despite a lot of coverage about those comments. ... There was a woman who told Barack Obama the other day in Pennsylvania, you misspoke but you didn't lie."
MSNBC's Scarborough: "Now, Barack Obama quoted that woman, talking about I misspoke but I didn't lie. Is that a reference to Hillary Clinton lying?"
Gibbs: "I don't believe so, no, she was talking about the fact that his statement about people being angry and bitter was true" (MSNBC, 4/16).
Play It Again
More on how reaction to the comments is unfolding:
Newsweek's Alter: "Well, it's obviously very anecdotal but at the sense, it seems to be that it was a dumb remark, ill-conceived -- shouldn't have used that word bitter, should have said frustrated or angry, shouldn't have brought guns, but that too much is being made of it."
Alter, on whether these bitter comments could haunt Obama in Nov. against McCain: "I think that's a possible problem, although a lot them will end up back in the Democratic column. It's the independence that Obama and McCain will be fighting over. And we don't really know what their reaction is, because many of them aren't going to vote in these Democratic primaries. So, if the Republicans can try to get this elitist theme going, and they don't really have anything else to go on because they're so out of touch on the issues, which favor Democrats, they've got to use it. They don't have anything else. And so, you will hear a lot about this over the next several months. It's not a dead issue" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 4/15).
Oh, No You Didn't
Top strategists for Al Gore and John Kerry "are questioning" Clinton's "assertion" that their candidates were viewed as too "elitist and out of touch" by voters. They even suggest "that it was Bill Clinton who did more to hurt the party while he was in the" WH. Ex-Gore/Kerry adviser Bob Shrum: "First of all, Gore won, but secondly, the greatest burden we had was the disillusion people had -- not with the record of the Clinton administration, but with their personal feelings toward the president. ... And the unspoken assumption here seems to be that she's the answer to this supposed problem, but neither she nor the president have lived in the real world for 25 years. They're surrounded by aides and staff, and they're moved from one mansion to another."
Ex-Gore mgr. Donna Brazile said Clinton's criticism was "too simplistic." Brazile: "Part of the problem the party has faced over the past few cycles is that our coalition has been narrowly tailored [to] voters in certain states. Every election cycle, we were giving Republicans upwards of 25 states by focusing on the East and West coasts and some places in Middle America. That's not being out of touch; it's just that there was a significant but limited set of states we were competing in. That's changed now. There is a 50-state strategy" (Rushing, The Hill, 4/15).
Laughing It Off
Senator Maj. Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) offered this reaction to the "intramural tension" between Obama and Clinton: "It makes me bitter." The "sometimes droll" Reid got a laugh from reporters, but he went on to downplay "the possible party fallout and pointed out how interest in" the Dem primary is driving up Dem registration in NV. Reid: "This is all going to be over very soon. ... I think it's been healthy for our country, healthy for our party" (Hulse, "The Caucus," New York Times, 4/15).
Still, the "battle" over whether Obama "belittled voters in small towns" appears to have "hardened the views of both candidates' supporters and stirred anxiety among many" Dems about the prospects for success in the fall. Obama advisers "concede" that his job "has been made that much more complicated by his remarks about bitterness among small-town voters;" although it remains unclear "what effect the episode will have in the long run" (Zeleny, New York Times, 4/16).
And We're Not Going To Take It
Salon's Madden reports from PA, "Shawn Erfman lives in a trailer park, listens to Rush Limbaugh and voted for George W. Bush -- twice. Over the weekend, he heard all about what Barack Obama had to say about 'bitter' Pennsylvanians like himself. And he's mad as hell." Erfman: "Everybody's bitter for one reason or another. So they're crucifying him because he spoke the truth? Cause he's not saying something that's going to suck up to people and kiss ass? Because, what, he slipped and accidentally spoke the truth, instead of kissing butt?"
White working-class voters "are, without a doubt, the key to winning" the 4/22 PA primary. If Clinton "holds on to a big share of the blue-collar" Dem vote "she'll win" (4/16).
Her 15 Minutes
Blogger Mayhill Fowler, who broke the "bitter" comments story on the Huffington Post, has torn "the curtain from the front window of a longtime political refuge -- the high-end fundraiser -- and the ensuing tumult from her story" show how "coverage of campaigns continues to be rewritten in the digital age." Huffington Post editor Marc Cooper: "This effect of this goes beyond what Mayhill did." The Obama camp "did not say the event was off the record," so Fowler didn't "violate any ethical agreement." Media Bloggers Association President Robert Cox: "When there are no rules of engagement defined, then everything is on the record" (Garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle, 4/16).
In an with the New York Times' Seelye, Fowler said "that she was initially reluctant to write about" what Obama had said because she "supports him." Fowler also "said the Obama campaign had never objected before to her having written about fund-raisers." Fowler: "We had a fundamental misunderstanding of my priorities. Mine were as a reporter, not as a supporter. They thought I would put the role of supporter first" (4/14).
The Conventional Wisdom
Here's the evolving take of newspaper columnists on the Obama "bitterness" controversy.
•Kirsten Powers writes in the New York Post, "Many liberal commentators scoff at the idea of someone as pedigreed as McCain gaining any ground on Obama over the elitism issue." But remember how Bush, "son of a US president, grandson of a senator, Yale and Harvard graduate," was transformed "into a wood-chopping common man?" Obama "may or may not be an elitist, but he inherits the legacy of a party that has fought the label since Adlai Stevenson" (4/16).
•New York Daily News' Goodwin writes, at the Dem debate 4/16, Clinton and Obama will be fighting a "growing belief that neither can win the general election." Clinton started "with half of America's voters saying they would never support her for President, and the number hasn't budged." Obama, on the other hand, "it closing in on her dubious distinction" (4/16).
•Philadelphia Inquirer's Polman writes, Clinton "will take it to" Obama during the 4/16 debate, "probably in the first 10 minutes." Obama "has to turn this flap to his advantage, reframe the issue in a broader context, make the case for an economic populism" that connects with PA's working-class voters and force Clinton "to explain why those same voters, long ignored and taken for granted, received so little help from the Bill Clinton administration" (4/16).
•AL's Decatur Daily editorializes, Obama's words "showed a depth of understanding for lower and middle-class Americans." On the other hand, Clinton made $109M "in the last seven years, removing her from the economic pangs many of her constituents feel. If she wants to be president, though, she would do well to get a grasp on the bitterness that economic downturns cause of many Americans" (4/15).
•Chicago Tribune's Page writes, Obama has "joked" that Clinton "must think she is 'doing me a favor' by toughening him up with her attacks for his fall race against McCain. Maybe she is. In the meantime, Obama should avoid thinking aloud in so-called private meetings" (4/16).
•Arkansas News Bureau's Brummett writes, "The better general election candidate is the more overt and shameless panderer, the more dishonest, the one cynically and brazenly redefining herself to seize any and all opportunities, the one who agrees with Obama, but has entirely too much discipline ever to get caught revealing the sentiment." In other words: Clinton, (4/16).
•Arkansas News Bureau's Sanders writes, Obama "isn't who he pretends to be, and now it appears" that Dems -- at least in PA -- "are catching on" (4/16).
More Conventional Wisdom
From TV, this time:
Mitt Romney: "I heard Senator McCain on this topic today, and he said that he couldn't tell whether Barack Obama would be an elitist or not, but he said what he said was an elitist statement. And that, I think, is absolutely accurate. He showed a disdain for people who have values that are different than his own. And that's something which I think will ring true in peoples' ears that have been watching this race. I'm frankly glad you're seeing the Democrats have a good, long primary so that we get a chance to know Barack Obama better. We've known Hillary Clinton for some time, but Barack Obama's been kind of an unknown commodity, and now we're getting a better sense of who the man is" ("Election Center," CNN, 4/15).
More Romney: "He's doing his best to spin it as something else ... but the truth is what he said is pretty plain on its face. ... I know Barack Obama shows great concern that Hillary is being critical of him, but you know, it ain't nothing compared to what he's going to receive from John McCain and from others who care about our country and the direction of the country" ("Hannity & Colmes," FNC, 4/15).
Philadelphia Daily News' Colgan: "I think, ironically, 'bittergate' might end up helping Obama in terms of it's really about expectations and perception. ... A lot of these polls coming out right now, despite her pummeling him, despite the negative ad out, despite the media saying that this was sort of a death knell to him ... it really hasn't resonated or made an impact at all. So I think if he does lose only by a small margin, which I think will happen, he could almost spin it as a win" ("LKL," CNN, 4/15).
Newsweek's Alter, on the Clinton camp's expectation that the bitter comment would help in PA: "I think more likely, what's going to happen is that if Obama loses by six or seven points in Pennsylvania ... is, before, it would have been seen as a pretty decent victory for Hillary Clinton, kind of like Ohio. Now, it will be, oh, we only lost by six or seven points? We thought he was going to get blown out after that incident. So, in some ways, the expectations game maybe shifting a little bit in his favor" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 4/15). Obama supporter/Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA): "I don't think voters in Pennsylvania are going to hold one or two sentences or even a paragraph against Senator Obama. I think they'll look at the totality of his record" ("Lou Dobbs Tonight," CNN, 4/15).
Ex-Speaker Newt Gingrich (R): "Here's the real hypocrisy behind Barack Obama's statement. He goes to Pittsburgh yesterday. And he gives a speech on the economy, which is an attack on international trade that fits exactly one of the fears he described as irrational, which is fear of international trade. If you go back and read what he said in San Francisco, he, himself, personified yesterday the very trade bashing, unionism that he implied was part of the irrationality when he was in San Francisco" ("O'Reilly Factor," FNC, 4/15).
The Homefront
While Obama "hasn't served" at the IL Capitol since '04, GOPers there "chose to turn their attention" to his "bitter" remarks 4/15. State Rep. Ron Stephens (R) "took to the microphone on the House floor to offer a different view of his rural constituents." State Rep. Monique Davis (D) "then came to Obama's defense." Davis: "Barack Obama was doing what many of us do as we campaign, and that's speaking from the heart" (Shields, Arlington Heights Daily Herald , 4/16).
A Laboring Effort
An attempt to organize 8K nurses at nine Catholic Healthcare Partners hospitals in OH "is pitting" the Service Employees International Union against California Nurses Association. Recently, "a scuffle broke out between members of the SEIU and participants in a labor solidarity conference in Detroit" at which the exec. dir. of the California Nurses Association "was scheduled to speak." The confrontation "underscores divisions within the labor movement just as unions are trying to coordinate efforts to help elect" a Dem to the WH. Labor expert Kate Bronfenbrenner "said such disputes are hurting unions' ability to attract young people. Bronfenbrenner: "It could have huge repercussions" (Maher, Wall Street Journal, 4/16).
They've Lost McCormick
Speaking to reporters after a city council meeting 4/15, Williamson, WV, Mayor Darrin McCormick told reporters he "felt" that Obama's San Francisco remarks "were demeaning to all small town residents." McCormick: "This is just my opinion, but I feel like all Americans will feel the same way" (Christian, Williamson Daily News, 4/16).
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