This Michigan poll is revealing. Clinton can't win with out Michigan. Obama can win without Florida.

April 14, 2008, 1:50 a.m. Off-the-Record Obama The Politics of Meaning on steroids.

By Peter Wehner

Senator Barack Obama finds himself in the midst of a controversy in the aftermath of comments that he made at a private fundraiser in San Francisco on April 6, during which he explained his difficulty appealing to working-class voters in Pennsylvania. He said, “It’s not surprising that 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. . . .”

Senator Obama’s words are significant because they were said off-the-record, meaning they provided a more authentic glimpse into the attitudes of Obama than a carefully scripted event. Nonetheless, his words were not merely careless; his comments were based on a carefully constructed, if deeply condescending, explanation.

Beneath the enormous charm and cool persona of Obama beats the heart of an arrogant man. With increasing frequency, the 46-year-old one-term senator from Illinois orates as though he resides at Olympian Heights. By his presumptuous demeanor, he suggests that he sees what no one else sees, and can do what no other person can do; he is America’s healing balm.

Even his efforts at damage control radiate arrogance. Speaking in Muncie, Indiana, after the story broke, Obama said “Lately, there has been a little, typical sort of political flare-up because I said something that everybody knows is true, which is that there are a whole bunch of folks in small towns in Pennsylvania, in towns right here in Indiana, in my home town in Illinois who are bitter.”

The flare-up, you see, happened because Obama is the Great Truth-Teller amidst the masses, many of whom can’t handle the truth. Once it dawned on Obama’s aides that expediency demanded an apology, the Senator offered a qualified mea culpa: “Obviously, if I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that.”

So if Senator Obama worded things in a way that made people feel offended (rather than worded things in a way that is offensive), well, he regrets that.

And at last night’s “Compassion Forum,” hosted by CNN, Obama accused his critics of “misconstruing . . . [his] words” effectively turning the tables on those who take issue with his comments. In Obama’s construal, he is the offended party, and any criticism directed at him is a mere “distraction” from the real issues of the campaign. This method of damage control, as that displayed in the Reverend Wright controversy, implies that simply by questioning the candidate, one is out of line, unfashionable, and uncouth.

I suspect these comments will be quite damaging to Obama because they reinforce (in spite of his efforts to equivocate during this campaign) his conventional liberalism. In this case, though, it’s not simply a matter of him being liberal on economic or domestic issues; it demonstrates that he is a cultural liberal, which has been a particularly lethal charge in presidential elections. It is another brush stroke on the canvas of a man who burst onto the national scene less than four years ago and about whom we know very little. But with every passing week, it seems, we are learning more about the Man of Hope.

On a deeper level, what we saw in Obama’s comments is a glimpse into a particular worldview, one that animates his political philosophy (contemporary liberalism). Senator Obama seems to view ordinary Americans as bitter, often broken, small-minded objects of pity rather than anger, ostensibly in need of instruction from — you guessed it — Barack Obama. The words of Michelle Obama are worth recalling in this context. She has spoken about her husband pushing us out of our “comfort zones,” saying “Barack knows at some level there is a hole in our souls” and “Barack is the only person in this race who understands that before we can work on the problems as a nation, we have to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation.”

This is the Politics of Meaning on steroids. If one views Americans as fundamentally needy children rather than competent citizens, one embraces the precepts of the nanny state — the state that (in Margaret Thatcher’s memorable phrase) takes too much from you in order to do too much for you. This provides an enormous opening for Senator McCain, who can frame this election as pitting a candidate who believes in self-government, against a candidate who believes in the nanny state.

Increasingly, Barack Obama appears to be the Candidate of Illusion. He presents himself as post-racial — which is harder to accept than it once was, given his intimate, longtime relationship with a pastor and church that harbor deep and obvious racial anger toward whites. Obama presents himself as post-partisan — even though in his time in the Senate he has done nothing to bridge the partisan divide, which explains why he has been endorsed by the rabidly partisan MoveOn.org. Obama presents himself as post-ideological — even though he was named the Senate’s most liberal member in 2007 by the respected National Journal. Obama is a public critic of free trade — yet his chief economic adviser is quoted by a Canadian official as saying that Obama’s position on NAFTA is politically motivated and insincere. Obama speaks about the importance of religious faith in his life and the life of the nation — yet when speaking to a group of rich liberals, he implicitly denigrates people of faith, pairing them with people who have “antipathy to people who aren’t like them” and who harbor “anti-immigrant sentiment[s].” He paints religious believers as folks clinging to crutches to better deal with their desperate lives — only to insist last night that his words were actually a tribute to people of religious faith. So sayeth Barack Obama, “healer of broken souls.”

Early on in this campaign I was impressed with Barack Obama as a thoughtful, inspiring, and admirable (if far too liberal) political figure. As the months have worn on, it’s become increasingly apparent that the candidate is projecting mere shadows on the wall. Our Republic deserves better.

— Peter Wehner, former deputy assistant to the president, is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Well said!!

I totally agree.

This is a provocative thesis for which I have no evidence save the anecdotal, but I will go so far as to postulate that Clinton's pushing of the issue has actually hurt her in Michigan. More than a few Michiganders on the Democratic side perceived their primary vote to have been badly flawed and thus feel that it would be a disservice to their own interests to have its results taken at face value. By working this issue so aggressively, Sen Clinton has made herself an easy target for those who were irked at Gov Granholm (a rather prominent Clinton backer) for getting the state into this mess in the first place.

Also, while this is a Drudge 'scoop', it is telling. Is anyone else picking this up?

Guess who McCain wants to run against? Hillary!

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash1jm.htm

The only way to settle this is to give Florida back to Cuba, and to give Texas back to Mexico.

I think Obama's lack of support compared to Hillary has to do with the fact he never campaigned there. FL will probably go for McCain whoever is the nominee but the numbers showing Obama much further down probably has to do with her being a better known entity.
And to those who wanna say "Campaign has been going on for months... people know Obama" I will point out to you the polls in PA. Whatever happens in Bittergate the model was working. As soon as he started to campaign there, things started to tighten

Otto, I typically read your posts and think, "well, he has a right to think that..." and go on. Of course you have a right to think this:

"Hillary is perceived (correctly) as the one who won both those states..."

But it is an insult to your own intelligence to think that she "won" these states fairly. Yes, I would be saying the same thing about Obama had he gone against his own pledge and competed in those states. It would be like telling your buddy that you can't show up to play a game of Horse because you disagree with the rules, and then going outside and sinking 5 layups and calling yourself the winner. Or something like that...

By November:

The economy will have sunken into A Great Depression.
McCain has the same policies as Herbert Hoover.

If people are not bitter now, they will be after McCain has fed them a steady diet of his Grapes of Wrath.

Thanks for the scroll troll from the former Bush staffer who now works for Bill Bennett.

Stunning to know that Republicans don't like Obama.

Absolutely.

I don't want a candidate the Republicans like and they sure seem to like Hillary Clinton at the moment.

Obama problem in FL is much more about age demographics.

Obama problem in FL is much more about age demographics.

The entire state of Florida reminds me of Waco, Texas. There are 14 state courts of appeal in Texas and one of them is in Waco. When I worked for the Dallas Court of Appeals, we always got every court's opinions every week and read them because some consistency is expected among the courts. Waco never ever ever did what everyone else was doing. They really are Wacko there because you just never know with them.

And that's what Florida reminds me of.

I want some one who is among the best and the brightest to lead the nation. In other words; someone with Elite qualifications. Hillary says that she does not meet those requirements, so you should only hire her if you crave more of the same:

"Some one you would like to have a beer with"

Well you got him folks, for the past seven years. How has that worked out for you.

Hillary, Shot and a Beer, Clinton is running for Bush's third term.

Hillary thinks that the American Voters are so stupid that they will keep falling for the same Bullshit over and over.

Will you? Hillary believes that you will.

Are you really craving for George W. Bush in a Kevlar, sniper defying, Pantsuit!!!!

Obama's about 20 years too young for Florida voters.

Doesn't Florida have an anti-gay marriage measure on the ballot this year? I dont' think Florida has ever been in the cards for the Dems this year.

The Clintons have no shot unless they have a series of polls in other states that show her to have a SIGNIFICANT advantage. I don't think those polls will be there at the end of the day. On the contrary, I think the polls will all be in Obama's favor. All this hand-wringing will end in June - if not sooner.

Floridians really don't care that much about the delegate thing. Clinton people claim we are bitter about it, but we really aren't. It's McCain country: lots of Southern rednecks, Cuban-Americans, Lieberman Dems, and old people. Make it a 49-state strategy.