Hillary says she was "taken aback" by the comments? In truth perhaps taken aback by an opportunity to pounce on a mistaken word or two, but certainly she could not have been 'taken aback' by the substance of what Obama was saying - that working-class voters who don't vote on economic issues avoid it because of a trail of broken promises. She knows and in truth I'm sure agrees with what Obama meant. That's why she can go nowhere but further into the gutter of shamless lying by pretending to be offended by Obama's comment. I am getting so sick of her manipulations!!

Well, I disagree.

Hillary's reputation can get worse. It can always get worse.

And Obama's reputation can get better.

It's over for Hillary.

ARRRRRGH!

(sorry.)

Obama supporters are once again being forced to say that his remarks are being taken out of context. The problem with that argument is first, they are not being taken out of context. Secondly, there is an emerging pattern. We are getting to glimpse how Obama thinks, and it totally undercuts the "uniter" image he has tried to cultivate. A very conflicted, resentful persona is emerging on issues that touch on race and economic status. And there is no way anyone can reasonably argue that these issues should not be examined by the American public. It is vital that we know the candidates.

She's like a rat, and the opportunity to distort and attack Senator Obama is her cheese. I really think she doesn't know any better.

Again she proves that her criticism of Obama is really self-hate. "People don't want a president who looks down on them..." Mrs. $109 million says Obama is elitist!

The nerve of this LADY!

Apparently Bill Clinton understood what Obama was saying:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYi_qNWdjgw&eurl=http://www.obamaiswinning.com/

Obama should respond to these criticisms with an ad aimed at every Pennsylvanian. The message: My opponents call me elitist, but the truth is I hear you! He could play a portion of his speech where he says he didn't quite say it right, but what he was saying is still true.

To run such an ad would allow him to respond directly to the mischaracterizations of Clinton and McCain while simultaneously repeating his core message to the voters that his bus trip and his many visits to PA's local bars and restaurants and bowling alleys were not in vain...that he has is really listening and will not forget these folks when he becomes President.

This would turn the issue on its head!

Does Hillary disagree with her husband on this too?

From Bill Clinton's December 15 interview with Charlie Rose:

So I think that the rise of this is sort of crystallized for a lot of people, that I think doubling healthcare premiums has had a lot to do with this -- the further loss of health insurance coverage in America. So there's a lot of economic anxiety.

In the Republican Party, it expresses itself as this sort of very hard line against immigration. In the Democratic Party, it expresses itself in a very hard line against trade. But the real problem is we haven't created enough good new jobs.

http://www.jedreport.com/2008/04/december-2007-b.html

Let me see if I've got this straight -- her new campaign manager is telling us that Clinton's reputation can't get any worse than it already is, and that's why she should be the nominee? This is an improvement over Penn???

If this is the brain trust that's supposed to get her elected, what kind of yahoos can we expect her to appoint to her Cabinet?

I wonder how the Mayor of Philadelphia is feeling today. He must have a sinking feeling as he hears his candidate, Hillary, trying to create racial tension in Pennsylvania. How long before many of his supporters turn on him for staying silent in the face of all the Clinton race baiting tactics.

Maybe Hillary can steal the nomination with her Rovian campaign style, but each time she smears Senator Obama, the more she ensures that she will get wiped out in the general election.

Hillary has now turned into such a megalomaniac that she has morphed into a Robert Mugabe in Pantsuits.

No, Hillary being a pathological liar is what would be damaging to Democrats in the GE if SHE were our nominee.

LOL!

So again we get another Hillary campaign propaganda blast courtesy of Greg. Excellent!

Garin dramatically raised the stakes in the battle over Barack Obama's comments about small-town America, saying in an interview that they would be "damaging" to him in a general election

Yea its so dramatic! I've never heard anyone in Clinton's camp claim something will hurt Obama in a general election. I bet Greg can taste what Hillary had for dinner last night.

Oops forgot...

Another great Copy & Paste job, Greg!

LOL!

Hillary chief strategist Geoffrey Garin

Can't tell the players without a scorecard.
I thought he was the pollster. I hope they aren't confused in PENNsylvania Greg

Bitter yes
Confused hell no

The media has already accepted Hillary's narrative.

I am beginning to think this is going to be bad.

Few are asking the question, "Is he right?"

Rather, they are saying, "How bad will this be for Obama?"

Objective reporting would phrase the question like so, "Will this help or hurt Obama?"

They are looking at his 'inartful' statement as being an admission that he was wrong.

Hillary is winning this one, despite the fact that Obama is right. The media are her enablers.

Here is Obama's pathetic apology for disrespecting the voters:

"I didn't say it as well as I should have," he said at Ball State University.

Drop out Obama!

The Clinton campaign is attempting to make this into a big issue to draw attention away from not only being caught in lies but having them re-introduced by Bill Clinton in another set of fabrications.

Clinton had a very bad week with not only the Bosnia incident reappearing, but will Colombia free trade. If former Chief strategist now advisor Mark Penn wasn't enough, there was Hillary's own family benefitting in the tune of $800,000 for advocating free trade policies with Colombia. One has to wonder if Hillary's stance isn't just politically motivated. One thing is certain, her choice in those she surrounds herself with shows lack of leadership.

I am appalled by attempts by both multimillionaires, Clinton and McCain, to spin Sen Obama as the elitist. How ironic and sad that they sold out their largest constituencies (McCain -the military and Clinton-the working class) to the highest bidder. They both are hoping that their base will not delve into facts, but will accept their word as did the sheeple who blindly supported George Bush.

"These are the kinds of attitudes that have created a gulf between Democrats and lots of small-town and heartland voters that we've been working very, very hard to bridge," Garin told me today in his first public comments about the flap.

"I saw Senator Obama's comments as a step backward to building those kinds of bridges," Garin continued...

Gee, coming from the campaign that insists that over half of the states - and one presumes the people living in them - do not count, this has got to leave a mark...

Obama needs to shift his language and get back on the offensive, fast. He needs to give examples of voters who have told him they are angry at politicians who come to their communities during elections and promise help, and then go to the White House and push unfettered trade or bankruptcy bills that hurt regular Americans.

Obama should say it is "good that all of us can count on our church and our neighbors when hard times hit -- but government should be there, too. Every American has right to expect politicians and government to listen to them and help. Not just say everything is rosy and make promises they won't keep. "If Senator Clinton hasn't heard that many of our fellow citizens feel no one is listening -- then she isn't really paying attention!"

He just has to go back on the offensive, stop apologizing, say what he has "heard" from "many Americans" and stop trying to explain remarks from the fundraiser.

Well, you certainly live up to your website's name when it comes to bringing us the latest from the Clinton camp Greg.

In other news, Clinton chief strategist Geoffrey Garin warns that the sky is falling. More at 11.

What's up? I respect you all at TPM tremendously. Since when is interviewing the press representative of a campaign considered journalism? At least you aren't doing this kind of thing with the Bush administration as the rest of the MSM does; however, that doesn't make "journalism via interview with one biased source" anymore credible.

I wouldn't like it if you did this sort of thing with Obama's people either, but you don't, not ever,which is only disconcerting in that it implies some sort of bias beyond shoddy journalism, journalism below your excellent standards.

Anyway, I hope everything is okay. I'm a little concerned.

All the best,

L.

to the commenters who call this a "propaganda" job:

as the text above shows, I asked him multiple questions that you all would have asked, too, if you were interviewing him --

1) "I asked Garin why we should assume that Hillary would make this connection, when she's been getting branded as elitist by the GOP for 15 years and would face a similar onslaught in a general election."

2)"On electability, I asked Garin why we shouldn't be judging it by looking at general election polls showing Obama performing as well or better than Hillary in key states. Garin conceded that it was a "completely fair question.""

3)"When I suggested that Hillary's denunciation of Obama's comments as "elitist" and "out-of-touch" was overstated, and argued that Obama had merely made the "What's the Matter With Kansas" argument in a clumsy way, Garin said..."

those who keep repeating the "bias" idiocy like robots are just making themselves look foolish. could anyone possibly argue that these comments by Garin aren't news?

to the commenters who call this a "propaganda" job:

as the text above shows, I asked him multiple questions that you all would have asked, too, if you were interviewing him --

1) "I asked Garin why we should assume that Hillary would make this connection, when she's been getting branded as elitist by the GOP for 15 years and would face a similar onslaught in a general election."

2)"On electability, I asked Garin why we shouldn't be judging it by looking at general election polls showing Obama performing as well or better than Hillary in key states. Garin conceded that it was a "completely fair question.""

3)"When I suggested that Hillary's denunciation of Obama's comments as "elitist" and "out-of-touch" was overstated, and argued that Obama had merely made the "What's the Matter With Kansas" argument in a clumsy way, Garin said..."

those who keep repeating the "bias" idiocy like robots are just making themselves look foolish. could anyone possibly argue that these comments by Garin aren't news?

what's "demeaning" is that Hillary Clinton thinks people are stupid -
that she will become president and the clock will go back to before 9/11, to before the internet boom and to before she was an exceptionally wealthy out of touch washington insider

when the Clinton campaign is sending around talking points and literature from the Republican National Commitee and John McCain's campaign you know this democratic nominating contest has gone on far too long –

"What's the Matter with Kansas?" by Thomas Frank questioned why citizens constantly vote against their own best interests - and that is exactly what Sen Obama was saying –

What;'s the Matter with America?

The Ciintons and the McCain are in the top 1% of wealth in this country; the Clintons are the champions of free trade, McCain believes in all those tax cuts for the wealthy and the media is going to allow them to portray Obama as an "elitist"??

What the matter with this country—

Ditto wow. Clinton managed to replace Penn with a mini-me. Hellooo. We're not stupid out here in "too ignorant to be bitter land!"!!!! Give us credit. We know whose husband pays for the fancy jewelry and St. John suits with $800,000 checks from lobbying for union busting-trade agreements and whose "my mom is the best friend the working class ever had" daughter works for a hedge fund.

Obama is sympathetic and understanding. Unlike nearly every TV pundit, he was not being patronizing. He was responding to the condescending picture that the media is constantly painting of Pennsylvania, a picture initially created and fueled by Clinton goon James Carville's wisecracks. His point is that he understands why a variety of people are frustrated, distrustful and resentful. They should be! They've been ignored and ripped off and haven't been able to count on outside help (past administrations), so they're very protective of what remains of their own resources and their families and communities. Obama understands this. He's defending them! If Clinton and McCain aren't aware that people are bitter and angry about the sorry state of our Union, then they're is totally out of touch with human spirit.
"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell

This is yet another perfect example of TERRIBLE reporting by MSM.

Obama's comments are taken completely out of context and make for an easy headline. Yet once AGAIN, when you examine what was said, his argument is nuanced and complex.

Proves that the people reporting are either (A) out to lunch or (B) searching for an easy story.

I love the fact that Obama isn't afraid to stray from the well-worn path of safe cudgels, and will be blunt and honest when discussing some of the real problems that we have.

Translation:
"These are the kinds of attitudes that have created a gulf between *Obama* and lots of small-town and heartland voters that we've been working very, very hard to *exploit*....

Paging Karl Rove, you have a new disciple!

"These are the kinds of attitudes that have created a gulf between Democrats and lots of small-town and heartland voters that we've been working very, very hard to bridge," Garin told me today in his first public comments about the flap.

"I saw Senator Obama's comments as a step backward to building those kinds of bridges," Garin continued... saying the following of the impact that the comments could have in a general election:

"They will be damaging. And they could be significantly so...I don't think that the kinds of attitudes that Senator Obama expressed are consistent with Democrats doing what we need to do to win a general election."

Yes, the gulf between Democrats and small-town voters...that the Hillary campaign has worked very very hard to bridge by not even campaigning in their states and saying things like "those states don't matter"....what Democrats really need to do to win this election is the same thing they've been doing in every election for the past 30 years. Never mind that they've lost 2/3 of them by doing it...this time, it will work!!!

It's been such a fun morning I hate to have to go to work today, but I must. I hope I don't miss Obama's next attempt to define me. Lolol.

Oh, and although I'm just a "bitter" working class stiff, I have no intention of joining an al Qaeda training camp as Obama defender Jack Cafferty said today on the Obama damage control video. LOLOLOLOL!

I do hope that Obama gets his surrogates out on teevee working hard on his behalf. Clinton's flailing it hard today, bringing out Vilsack and mayors and whatnot, and even handing out stickers at events that say "I'm not bitter!" (ooo-snap!). Give me a frickin' break. And of course, the media laps it all up and calls it "explosive." Cuz they just love these phony flaps. I just hope people see through it for the crap that it is.

We call it riding the gravy traaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiin, yeah, yeeeeaaaain!

Ladle it up, Josh. Once this primary's over the traffic here will drop quicker than Bill Clinton's pants in a laundromat full of divorcees.

Why trash TPM? What does this gain you?

I just re-read all the comments and have been reading and commenting on other threads about this last night and today (good way to procrastinate on completing my taxes). It is remarkable the insults and disparaging comments offered by Obama supporters over this. Shooting the messenger for Obama's self-inflicted problems is almost too predictable. It reflects as poorly on Obama and his supporters as do Obama's comments themselves.

Obama has taken another step in self-defining himself. Let's take a moment to thank Obama since we do not need to wait for the Republican 527s to vet him.

And specifically regarding TPM's interview with Garin. Good, please do more.

Matthew
http://www.TheIndependentView.com

Once again Hillary is willing to step on the needed Democratic message to try to stop Obama. Those working and middle class voters who the Democrats want to win back have not been voting their economic interests. Why? They have been conditioned by years of neglect and free market economic theory to believe government cannot help them. They have taken out their frustration by voting on the hot button issues offered by the Republicans. Democrats need to restore Keynesian theories about the absolute need for government regulation to restore balance to our economic system. For way too long the well-being of the American worker has been secondary to the needs of the market.
Hillary is willing to destroy this message because Obama has plainly put it before the voters.

I laugh out loud when Hillary and her troops try to make it sound like only Obama will get attacked by the GOP in the general election. As if the GOP and the wingnut 527s won't bring up:

The Obama comment is another in a string of comments that offends the constituency. And then he once again has to explain it. When he was question the Generals on Iraq and they couldn't understand him he had to try again to explain it.

There are thwo things here:
1. We don't know what Obama's thought really are. Often when he's off script he says things that offend people and have to be explained. He is unknown.

2. He cannot clearly explain what he is thinking. A sign of a confused mind.

Obama repeatedly offends people when speaking extemporaneously and even in his scripted speeches (typical White people). The reason he should not be the nominee or president have nothing to do with polls and primaries. It has to do with his Manchurian candidate/Chauncy Gardner quality.

Who is this guy? I still feel we don't really know who he is or what he really believes.

Freaktown,

Money is a poor measure to determine middle class or middle America. It is a mindset, values, and character. Consider Clinton's statement:

"I grew up in a church-going family, a family that believed in the importance of living out and expressing our faith.

"The people of faith I know don't "cling to" religion because they're bitter. People embrace faith not because they are materially poor, but because they are spiritually rich. Our faith is the faith of our parents and our grandparents. It is a fundamental expression of who we are and what we believe.

"I also disagree with Senator Obama's assertion that people in this country "cling to guns" and have certain attitudes about immigration or trade simply out of frustration. People of all walks of life hunt - and they enjoy doing so because it's an important part of their life, not because they are bitter."

Matthew
http://www.TheProblemWithObama.com

I feel sorry for you Obama folk......cause right now you all must feel played by Obama.....you all are suckers. All day suckers.

This just in: The Coca-Cola Co's ad agency claims Coke tastes better than Pepsi.

The agency is clearly mistaken. Maybe if we debate the issue on the internet they'll admit their error.

This is a good, thoughtful piece. It's
a shame the Obama crowd is such a shallow
bunch they can't do much more than try to
drown it out.

The have done almost as much damage to
Obama than he has to himself.

has anyone seen axlerod i think he is obamas penn

Even pro-Obama Olbertwitt tool WaPost Cillizza has two pages on this: Assessing the Fallout: Obama and 'Bitter' Pa. Voters

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/04/assessing_the_fallout_obama_an.html#more

"Republicans, not surprisingly, sought to draw a comparison between Obama's comment and Sen.John Kerry's (Mass.) infamous "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it" remark about Iraq war funding -- a verbal gaffe that played no small part in his defeat at the hands of George W. Bush in 2004.

Democratic consultants were more divided. Some admitted the potential political peril in Obama's remarks; others said it was much ado about nothing."

Like the Rev Wright, Super Delegates should look at Senator Empty Suit with a view toward November. McCain will clean Obama's clock in the General if Democrats are stupid enough to nominate the manufactured image of Senator Obama. At least Obama should add the Reverend Wright as Veep.

Oh Sargent,

Why does it not surprise me that you are so willing to post on a "Saturday" comments by this new strategist of HRC's.

Very predictably you are indeed.

The remarks certainly would be damaging.

IF they were what the Clinton camp is trying to spin them as. Sadly (if you're the Clinton camp), they're not.

Note to Obama camp: don't sweat it. By "November", the other head of that hydra, the McCain camp, will seamlessly take up the smearing duties and have trotted-out six more "Rev. Wrights" and 35 more "fatal" instances of "OUTRAGE!"

Hell, by this time next month, the whole country will be three degrees warmer, as a result of everyone's emitting a collective "YAWN!"

You critics of Garin are all non-normal people, such as college students and people of color. You are un-American.

Small town people who are true Americans are not bitter, because:

*They realize that good Americans do not complain about falling further behind other Americans.

*They realize that their children do not deserve the opportunities that that children of Clinton and McCain get, or the children of our media pundits.

*They realize that they don't deserve tax breaks that the rich get, or subsidies that the large farmers or sports franchises get.

*They don't want to watch the media covering issues, because issues are un-American. Good Americans want to watch stories about cleavage, bowling, the flag, and how Al Gore invented the Internet.

*They realize that their children should be the ones fighting and dying in Iraq to avenge the 9/11 attacks, and that McCain and Clinton were correct in voting for Bush's effort to fight terrorism.

Small town people who are bitter are phony Americans. They need to fall into line, whether it be for McCain or Clinton. We don't need bitter people in America - we need happy people, damn it!

WOW! A Clinton campaign official has critical words for Obama? He wants to push the meme that Obama is unelectable? Stop the presses!

Jesus, Greg, this isn't noteworthy.

Obama didn't say anything that wasn't said in "What's the Matter With Kansas?"--except Obama, IMO, had more empathy for why people vote on wedge issues. Whereas the WTMWK guy thought they were basically gullible, Obama opines that those voters don't feel that either party truly cares about their economic interests, so they cling to traditional issues and vote morals instead of pragmatism. DUH!!!

* They realize Americans only need one political party, and one unitary executive to represent the one truth faith, the one true color and the one true military industrial complex and there are none better to lead that party than McCain/Clinton in 2008!

Obama misspoke.

It was an omission of a word, or bad choice of phrase, but when taken as a whole the meaning is clear. Hillary attempted to mangle the meaning of that word to cover her own shortcomings, her lie. A misspoken phase can be clarified as Obama has done. A lie can be apologized for, which Hillary has not.

The manufactured uproar over Obama's statement is exactly what he was decrying. No one is talking about the issues that would help a factory worker laid off from his job, or a mother without insurance caring for sick children. Funny how it is that the distractive comments seem to benefit those making them, not the people they claim they fight for.

Too many in America have been voting against their economic self interest for too long. Over time the economic weight of those choices becomes too great to ignore. That is the real motivator of change this election.

Those candidates with markers to repay to special interest lobbyist who funded and managed their campaigns will try everything in their power to prevent the public from seeing that truth. They'll say they are fighting for the people, while trying to steal their votes. They'll claim the status quo establishment they protect gives them the experience to lead, and boast of foreign policy daring based on a lie.

But the pain of the economic truth will always be there. And the people are watching. Finally.

Hillary chief strategist Geoffrey Garin dramatically raised the stakes in the battle over Barack Obama's comments about small-town America, saying in an interview that they would be "damaging" to him in a general election, could set back the Democratic Party's efforts to reach heartland voters, and should be something that super-delegates consider when deciding whom to support.

Geoffrey? Couldn't they find somebody named Billy Bob Smith to deliver the NRA talking points?
~

We have turned to Satan. Come join us, no hope, no despair. In delicto flagrante.

I would also like to add the one thing that Obama might have meant but didn't quite say: the reason why people vote their values (God, guns, gays) is because there really hasn't been much perception of differentiation between economic policies of the two parties that would tempt them to vote any other way. And so far as the Clinton and Bush administrations are concerned, they would be mostly although not totally correct. And even more so, what have the Clintons done in the last 8 years to fight against Bush's extreme policies? Not much.

This is the ongoing never ending trash politics of Clinton. Both opponents and the super delegets know that the point OBama is making is true! How can Clinton say this is dividing the Democratic voter towards Republican when the truth is that her trash politics is doing that. Does anyone think it is good for the Democratic Party when the Clinton's ally themselves with McCain against OBama? How divisive is that. It is obvious that the Clinton's now believe they cannot win on the merits of their platform. They have to sling mud to succeed. This is not really fighting but more closely being a monster.

As for Cnn, they have been pounding and pounding away at this trash all day. The skewed coverage is 90% Clinton with only 10% Obama. THIS IS NOT RESPONSIBLE JOUNALISM!

The Clintonistas grasp at more straws.
Sorry Clintonistas, the HRC Titanic is already sinking...and it's not a pretty sight.

**Oh Hunter. You always make me want to pinch your cheeks. HARD.

Clinton praises the voters and will fight for them to give them hope for their future.

Her economic policies will do just that.

Obama calls them bitter and disrespects them in front of a elitist group of large donors in S.F.

Then refuses to apologize.

This is a trend and the real Obama.

He will lose PA by 20 and the supers will go to Clinton.

Then we will unite to crush mcwar and get our country back in the right direction.

Lets not lose three in a row, lets win our country back.

Because of what she's done to the Democratic Party and our chances in November, I'm staying in shape and hope to live at least one day longer than Hillary Clinton so I can dance on her grave.