A Bitter Pill

Hillary Clinton has been running a campaign exploiting the angst of blue collar folks, and when Barack Obama acknowledges that this angst -- using the word bitterness -- he's lambasted for being elitist and out of touch. Indeed, Hillary is passing out bumper stickers saying "I'm not bitter." But if she's not exploiting bitterness and if everything is okay, then why is she using nostalgia as her focal point? Now, Barack has admitted that he didn't phrase the statement well, but he was asked a question and he gave an answer.
The real problem here isn't Obama's statement, but Clinton's attempts to create divisions where there aren't any. What really got me is her attempt to use "faith" and "midwest values" in her attempts to draw votes. So, what is she trying to say here? That Obama's upbringing didn't involve church? Or perhaps even more sinister, building on that whisper campaign about his "days in the madrassa"?
Clinton is very good at manipulating statements to her own advantage and then crying foul when anyone criticizes her. What I see in all of this is another sign of desperation -- especially as polls show that Obama is gaining in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.
Hopefully tomorrow night, at the Compassion Forum, she can stay on message -- a message of compassion.

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