Obama Dug A Hole, But Clinton and McCain May Fall In It

Senator Obama made as usual a phopah on his way to the eve of the Pennsylvania election, saying to a chic crowd in San Francisco, in explaining his still slightly lagging lead behind Senator Clinton, that Pennsylvania voters in small towns may be bitter, and resentful of those not like themselves in look or feel, turn to gun or religious rights for soul food. As has been the case this eventful but actually short primary season, Clinton stands a chance to live another day by tearing into these remarks and branding Obama unelectable because the GOP will barbeque him. Hey, he's already braised medium already on the grill. I think he's ready.

The Republicans of course seized on this, and branded his remarks as elitist and not mindful of the lives of middle America, as they struggle with job loss and cultural encroachment. They did the same with John Kerry in 2004, and it worked on his Massachusetts narrow assz. It may work on Obama's, as his world traveler, Harvard-educated and sinceforth upper middle class African American urbane persona is the anthesesis of their lives. In tune, the Clinton campaign, expecting this GOP response, rolled up alongside and made a sweep with its surrogates like Evan Bayh, who in Indiana sent a message to the superdelegates that they should be careful who they choose to run in November against McCain. We even heard from our favorite east coast pot-belly, Fast Eddie Rendell, former mayor and DA of Philadelphia, former DNC chairman (who made a couple of verbal gaffs that embarrased the Dems in 2000) and current governor/Clinton supporter/hoping to get his judge wife a Supreme Court appointment-or-himself a job in the Clinton administration, who had his two cents to say:

“People in rural Pennsylvania don’t turn to guns and religion as an escape,” Mr. Rendell said. “Hunting and sportsmanship are long-established traditions here, and people of faith founded the commonwealth and continue to live here. What the senator has done is essentially misread what is actually happening in Pennsylvania.”

But in response, J. Richard Gray, the mayor of Lancaster PA and an Obama supporter, said that this is not what Mr. Obama meant. In his view, Mr. Obama was trying to say that Republicans take emotional matters like guns and religion and try to use them to divide people. “He’s saying the use of those issues as wedge issues plays on the bitterness that people have and diverts attention from the real economic issues, like the disparity between the wage earner and the rich.”

And that, my friends, is the bottom line issue: whether or not to allow the political extremists, who are more interested in holding onto power than they are about you and me, to control the electorate with fears of differences that has been the road to the White House for so long.

Mr. Gray also said Mr. Obama was right that voters are bitter. He pointed to a recent poll that found 81 percent of voters believe the country is on the wrong track, and said that Mrs. Clinton sounded like “a Pollyanna” in saying that workers were optimistic. “I don’t know who she’s been talking to,” Mr. Gray said.

Gray may have taken the lead in redirecting the energy of an Obama gaff, like he himself did with the Rev. Wright scandal, into another opportunity to talk real straight talk about what is going wrong in this country. The wrong track we're on is one of fear, not hatred, one of ever-significant economic disparity and fraud by our leaders both in business and government, not fear of the economic engine of China which our leaders are feeding everyday.

It's time for Straight Talk, Folks; Straight Truth.