Is the Clinton campaign really so out-of-touch that they couldn't have seen this coming?

By the time this is all over, I expect PA to be within 5 points. Perhaps in Obama's favor.

Those are the key moments for the MSM to take soundbites to repeat, for America the entire thing was important.

I can understand John McCain saying those words, ...but Senator Clinton....I am disappointed..... Shame on you, Hillary, Shame on you.(/i>

Yessss, Call her out, on her Repug ways. That's the way to hit her and tell the super delegates. Enough with being polite to your democratic colleague when she has proved anything but in this campaign .

Recommended, and thanks for the link. I really enjoyed Obama having some fun with this, getting really angry at this, and doing the whole thing without once looking down at prepared comments!

The joshing about Hillary in a duck blind... that was a masterful piece of teasing her without going over the edge; it's the sort of thing a sibling could say about another sibling, ya' know? And "shame on you" is most certainly fair game, because she used it first.

I know this Wednesday's upcoming debate will be 21st, but I'm really looking forward to it, nevertheless.

"I was shocked when I learned Iowa and Mississippi have never elected a woman governor, senator or member of Congress. There has got to be something at work here," she said, theorizing it may be the risk-averse nature of a state built around agriculture.

"I think not only do I have to bring people to me, I have to maybe reassure people here maybe more than I do in New Hampshire, which has had a woman governor," she said.

"I think Iowa poses a special burden, or a special obstacle to me because when you look at the numbers, how can Iowa be ranked with Mississippi? That's not what I see. That's not the quality. That's not the communitarianism, that's not the openness I see in Iowa."

gotta love the guy. I give him major style points for this one =^D

I think this is just the fire he needs to be showing.

Her Royal Clinton is gonna have trouble being elected to water boy after this nomination cycle.

I had to laugh at the Annie Oakley image! And he's very engaging when he's joking and smiling like that.

What I think is great is how he keeps hammering home that this is political gamesmanship. People get that. I mean, honestly, if there had been any real news on the campaign trail the last few days, these comments would have disappeared. But Clinton is the one keeping it alive, and that's obvious.

I also really like how he points out that McCain and Clinton are using the same talking points. Really emphasizes the politicking.

I'm going to bed now, I'll leave you fine members of The Obama Cult to amuse yourself with your self-congratulatory comments about Obama.

Humor yourself now because he's dug a very deep hole for himself. Do you really think small town America, those 'typical White persons', will like Obama's dismissive comments about them clinging to their religion and guns, accusing them of being racist, anti-immigrant, and all? And don't think for a moment that lots of folks, myself included, won't pass on the opportunity to make sure they hear what Obama really thinks of them.

Matthew
http://www.TheProblemWithObama.com

OH SNAP!

"And jump onto a racist, elitist, and arrogant campaign?"

Sounds like Clinton's campaign to me....

Quiz timeout:

What's an "Annie Oakley" in baseball terms?

HINT: it has nothing to do with the Bosnian baseball leagues.

I found a picture of Hillary Clinton with a gun in a duck blind!

I thought Obama was amazing tonite. Hillary started off rambling but closed okay. She just talks goes on about "me" and "I" way too much and it becomes boring. And she just loves to hear herself talk. But Obama was so personal and direct. He showed me again that he is the best candidate that we have seen in about four decades. He knocked it out of the park. The audience loved him.

"If [Republicans] could cut funding for Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the environment, middle-class Americans would see fewer benefits from their tax dollars, feel more resentful paying taxes, and become even more receptive to their appeals for tax cuts and their strategy of waging campaigns on divisive social and cultural issues like abortion, gay rights, and guns."

-- Bill Clinton, in his 2004 memoirs, My Life, making the same argument as Sen. Barack Obama.

Posted by http://politicalwire.com/

I speak for gourmet greens everywhere when I say it's about time he got ticked off!

Wabbit Season!!
Duck Season!!
Wabbit Season!!
I say it's Duck Season and I say FIRE!!!

Kablooey. I say happy hunting Senator Oakley!!!

Obama didn't ask him to the prom, and Matthew hasn't gotten over it yet.

Hey Senator Obama...Two words: Grow up. Its thebig time. If you can't play with the big kids without the whining maybe the Illinois legislature could use you again.

What. A. Punk.

Game. Set. Match.

What a beautiful thing to watch!

Wooo!!! He needed the opening to deliver the political KO to Hillary and she provided it!! :) I was afraid when he started to apologize that he'll miss this chance to cast into sharper relief the differences between himself and Hillary/McCain, but he did it here. It would be hard to introduce Colombiagate without going on a negative attack, but this is just perfect, tying in the anger and bitterness with NAFTA and the Clintons. Hope this gets played over and over in Penn, though I already suspect the small town folks weren't falling for the political pandering and ass-kissing in the first place.

After getting hounded for three days over his remarks Obama decides to try to change subjects by calling Hillary Annie Oakley? Now, that's nasty. So it's ok to make fun of a woman running for president? Does that mean that Hillary can make fun of Obama by calling him the name of some black caricature? I'm getting to really dislike this guy a lot.

BARACKY: THE MOVIE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyhIBXNfqMA

I think it's time for master idiotic to step in and give closure to Matthew and to the whole thread. Let us all join hands and call on him.
Paging idiotic.

How many of the people currently beating up on Obama for this supposedly "elitist" remark are trying to give any context for the remark? How many do you think have actually read or heard the remarks beyond a snippet - or even a paraphrase? More importantly, how many of the people getting so worked up about Obama's "elitism" and accusing him of being "out of touch" really come from small towns themselves? How many are middle or working class? How many politicians or people in the media can authentically relate to life in middle America?

Well, I grew up in Kentucky, and I live in North Carolina now. I've spent a lot of time living and teaching and working in small towns. I think Obama is pretty dead on in the content of his remarks, even if his words could have been better chosen.

Most of my relatives still live in KY, and most of them are also accurately described in what Obama said about people in PA small towns. And you wouldn't get much argument from them, either. My uncle, who is the epitome of a gun-totin, ferner-hatin, bible-clingin' tobacco farmer, is a seriously bitter old man who drops the N word unapologetically and recently said to my mom about Obama "once a Muslim, always a Muslim."

My bitter, racist, anti-immigrant, homophobic, pro-gun, "values voting" uncle is an Obama supporter. Has been since last fall. I nearly fell out of my chair when I found this out, because I would never have believed such a thing possible. I don't know if he's ever voted for a Dem in a Presidential race before, but I know that he hasn't since Reagan at least. He just feels like Obama "gets it," and he's said on more than one occasion that he thinks Obama is "exactly what this country needs right now" - even if he is a N..... and a Muslim.

So I guess what I'm saying is that there's something more going on in this campaign than "the media loves Obama" or a "cult of Obama" or any of the other b.s. lines that Obama-haters use to console themselves because they really don't "get it" like my "bitter" uncle does. It's not about *Obama*. He just happens to be the guy running at the top of the ticket.

He's going to win, and this latest flack over some stupid press-driven foofarah won't matter any more than the last one or the next one because it misses the real importance of his candidacy. The reason the Obama campaign matters is that it's *not* about "guns, god, and gays." It's about government - of, by, and for the people. And so, for the first time in our lives, I share a common political goal with my uncle - whom I love deeply, but with whom I agree on almost no "issue" except that it's time for a change.

I loved it, haha. And he is right to point out how "disappointing" that she is joining in with McCain (actually I'd say McCain was joining in with her) in attacking Obama for this stupid crap.

He is the funniest president, me gusta.

It's not about bitterness or hurting; that does exist extensively within our country. The stupidity of Obama's remarks is the comment: "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."

Obama is just an empty suit speaking what he truly believes to his rich Frisco supporters.

Too good! Another $100 for you, Obama. You keep this up and I'll be maxed out in another week.

The question is not if, but how many times, your mother dropped you on your head.

Freakin' hilarious, and precisely what she's been asking for. She's such a phony. It's great to see him throw a few good-natured spitballs her way.

I wonder if John Cleese is already working for him, or if Obama wrote this material himself.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/08/wcleese108.xml

Awesome. I gotta swing by Barak's website and contribute my $25.

Oh yeah, but Hillary took a shot of real whiskey! In a real bar! Her and her $100 million are just like us!

I just got paid Friday. I'm off to donate to the condescending elitist. Again.

I just watched the clip - he is a pleasure to watch in a way that no Presidential candidate has been since - geez, I don't know. Some of Kennedy's speeches are better to read than to hear. It almost reminds me - and this may be a stretch - of FDR's speech where he defends his "little dog Fala." Or Truman when he beat Dewey. Beautiful.

I just wish he had hammered her more - IMO, he pulled back more than he should have. But he's the genius, not me (and I know I'm going to hear about that last characterization. But he is, you know.)

The crowd seemed a bit tepid, too...it seemed that maybe they were pretty far from the stage, and so they weren't heard as well. But I was a bit surprised. Any thoughts on why that may have been?

I'm heading over to the website w/$25 too, and up to the campaign HQ later today. Just 8 more days...

Just watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rulSnAM6gmM

Hillary's use of 'shame on you' was delivered with such haughtiness, the intent being to pump up righteous anger toward Obama.

Obama's use of 'shame on you' was delivered with such humor, the intent being to evoke awareness of wedge politicking.

Way to go, Barack!

He will truly get the best of this dust up.

The truly sad thing here is that not one of you can see just how ludicrous you all are, sitting around agreeing with each other, snorting, giggling, and stomping on anybody who dares to come along and disagree.

The main difference between Obama's cult and Rush's Ditto-Heads? Nothing; least of all, the intellectual level of discourse.

"Yep. Yep. Ditto. Mega dittoes! You disagree? You must be the anti-Christ. Yep. Ditto!"

Chumps.

I think Obama made the mistake of offending people with his first comments. But to me, he just digs himself a deeper hole with his attempt at humor in once again having to defend his own comments.

In front of a bunch of men (Steelworkers Union) he make the Annie Oakley comment which can only be interpreted as "isn't that cute, a girl with a gun".

This guy is completely tone deaf and seems to harbor a lot of offensive opinions of "other" people.

Obama is an obamination. He must be defeated for the good of the party and the country.

yes, I agree. We just need to be patient. Obama will be Nobama because Hillary Clinton can and will get the job done.

This is only one of the many reasons I will not vote for Obama: He is arrogant, misogynistic, and condescending. God only knows, he is not a person who should ever condescend to Senator Clinton. She has restrained herself from MANY personal comments she could have made about his lack of character and lack of good judgement, but for the good of the Party has not said many things that point up his weaknesses and poor judgement. His "Annie Oakley" remarks is so obviously misogynistic it is digusting. He like to say "Shame on Senator Clinton"? WELL SHAME WHERE IT BELONGS, ON OBAMA.

I'm from a small town in the middle of Illinois. Population 1200. Was I offended? No. Does my senator seem like an elitist to me? No. Actually, I thought how wonderful it was that someone has finally noticed that there is more to us besides the fried chicken, NASCAR, and "heartland" analogies. (We hate the term "heartland".) Finally there is someone who sees and understands. I met my Senator O in this same small town back in 2004 -- before he became known the world over. Even then I could sense his sencerity; I could tell that here was the real deal.