So I’m reading back through the old stories, looking at the soundbites. At first I thought maybe he had tried to do what I was suggesting above when he initially responded like this:

“Here’s what’s rich,” Mr. Obama said. “Senator Clinton said, ‘Well I don’t think people are bitter in Pennsylvania. I think Barack is being condescending.’ John McCain said, ‘How could he say that? How could he say that people are bitter? He obviously is out of touch with people.’ Out of touch? Out of touch? John McCain — it took him three times to finally figure out that home foreclosure was a problem and to come up with a plan for it, and he’s saying I’m out of touch?”

Which went over well with his primary audience:

The audience, made up largely of Democratic voters, rose and applauded as Mr. Obama delivered his defense. Late Friday evening, the Clinton and McCain campaigns criticized Mr. Obama once again for failing to express regret for his remark.

But then what follows shows how easy it is for the opponents to practically trademark a phrase and repeat it enough times until it’s believed. In this case, they’re obviously going to market the “out of touch” line until it sticks:

“Instead of apologizing for offending small town America, Senator Obama chose to repeat and embrace the comments he made earlier this week,” said Phil Singer, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton. He added, “Americans are tired of a President who looks down on them, they want a President who will stand up for them for a change.”

“Instead of apologizing to small town Americans for dismissing their values, Barack Obama arrogantly tried to spin his way out of his outrageous San Francisco remarks,” Mr. Bounds said, adding: “You can’t be more out of touch than that.”

I don’t have any solutions. This just kind of makes me sick. It feels like sinking John Kerry all over again, or watching Gore flounder. The apparent problem is that it’s dangerous for a smart person to open his mouth on the campaign trail unless he’s mouthing pre-scripted pablum. Or maybe he just has to be as slick as slick Willie. This is so depressing. Were they right about the Clintons all along or have they just been slimed by spending too many years defending themselves in this game?

does anyone have something to say about this “bitter” nonsense? i think it’s a perfect example of what Elizabeth Drew was calling “molehill politics” in the first article I linked to in this post.

Can someone explain to me why Obama shouldn’t say, in addition to making whatever apologies he’s being forced to make, “This is a perfect example of how the other campaigns — and the media — can jump on a soundbite out of context and use it to raise a ruckus to distract us from the real issues — including the fact of economic depression in rural areas and former manufacturing centers? Let’s talk about some real issues and real solutions here!” Doesn’t it seem like playing their game, apologizing too much, begging forgiveness, only stokes the fire? When the RNC demands that Democrats in Congress publicly denounce the remarks, shouldn’t people just be saying, “Sure, if you denounce the Reagan Bush years that put us in this mess in the first place?” Or something like that?

So I guess she’s started to turn the stomachs of even the loyal core.

For what that’s worth.