Who's bitter now?

Gosh, I took the weekend off from reading any political news, a now there’s another fully erupted battle in the Democratic camp, with McCain on the sidelines echoing Hillary as best he can.

This time Obama is being “elitist” because he said small town Americans were “bitter” and clinging to “guns and religion.” Hillary apparently believes that this is the gaffe she’s been waiting for, or at least she can make it into one.

Meanwhile, according to the buzz on the internet, and at least one town where Hillary tried to bash Obama (link) , some small town people actually agree, saying that yes, they are bitter and angry – over lost jobs, high gas and food prices, indifferent politicians. And being the non-elitist candidate is kind of a hard sell for wealthy, privileged HRC.

I just wish that the Pennsylvania voters will get to it already, and vote Hillary out of the contest. This is getting ridiculous and it’s certainly not helpful to anyone.

Hillary might have been a great president, but this is not her time, and she needs to realize it. Trying so hard to make Obama look unelectable is absurd.

And the worst part of it is that now they’re both at each other’s throats, with Obama accusing Hillary of playing Annie Oakley, pretending to be a beer-drinking, gun-slinging, down-to-earth gal. I just wish Obama would stay above the fray, but I guess that’s not realistic if he wants to win.

I also wish he wouldn’t keep apologizing for this statements. It’s nice and refreshing with a politician who can admit that he makes mistakes, but it shouldn’t be to the point that whenever someone takes issue with something he says, he immediately retracts. He should own up to his statements, even if they rub some people the wrong way. “Bitter” is not a bad choice of a word, and it probably reflects perfectly fine what he meant to say, and what many people across America feel about the current state of affairs. It’s great that he tries to clarify and elaborate, but there’s no need to claim that he “misspoke,” the current preferred vernacular for “I’m stupid/lying/didn’t mean for other people to hear that”.

Seriously, these three people speak all the time to all sorts of crowds. And every word they utter is instantly available to the world on the Internet. If they never made a statement that could potentially be offensive to someone in their vast audience, they would never be able to say anything of substance. I do think there is a difference, however, between Obama’s comment and Hillary’s and McCain’s recent “misspeaks”. You can argue endlessly over whether Obama’s comment shows that he understands small-town Americans and empathize with them, or whether he understands small-town Americans and patronize them. (Either way, the comment shows that he understand them).

Hillary’s “misspeak” about sniper fire, on the other hand, was repeated multiple times and reveals an attempt to misrepresent and over-dramatize her life experiences. McCains multiple “misspeaks” about shia and sunni muslims reveal that he does not have a firm grasp on the situation in Iraq, which is serious because his primary claim to the presidency is his expertise regarding foreign policy.

There is a big difference between getting the facts wrong, about your own life or a political situation, and getting a point across by using a description that may rub some people the wrong way. Making such a big deal out of such a small thing really shows that there are no major issues for Hillary and Obama to discuss, underscoring the point that it’s time to stop fighting and unite behind one candidate.