I was feeling down about the drumbeat of attacks on Obama's "bitter" comments from both John McCain and Hillary Clinton (interestingly, and maybe predictably, their responses were nearly identical, except McCain didn't go on about how he shot ducks as a kid). Here's the actual quote:
"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. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And 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."
but one of the great things about Obama is his ability to cut through political noise, and he responded ably and truthfully. Andrew Sullivan, as usual, says it better than me:
"I'm not betting against him. You know why? He's not afraid. And by jettisoning fear as the lodestar of liberalism, he is doing us all a favor, right and left. Man, he cheers me up."
Hear, hear. And here's the actual response:
I have just spent the last hour and a half reading various political blogs, and the comments that go with them, to get my head around what's going on with what they're now calling Bittergate. Good lord. I'm too angry and saddened and bitter! to attempt to summarise everything I've just read. That, and it's way past midnight here in Australia. Wake me up when Hillary's thrown in the towel, will ya? Cheers.
Posted by: Trish | April 14, 2008 at 07:37 AM