Barack Obama's "Bitter" comments ignited a firestorm when they became public. But Obama has mentioned Bitterness previously and was praised for doing so.
The week before the Pennsylvania primaries, Barack Obama was caught on tape at a fundraiser in California saying the following about small towns. The comments were endlessly discussed and criticized after they became public. Hillary Clinton responded by drinking a beer and supporting gun rights, despite a public career spent advocating gun control. Here is the full quote (emphasis added):
"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them...And it's not surprising, then, 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 as a way to explain their frustrations."
CNN, Bob Shrum and others defended the comments as, while having words that had been ill-chosen, true. Jeffrey Toobin said that people who have economic problems do indeed "lash-out against various others," as Obama had said.
Obama was asked about it in the much-criticized ABC debate a few days after the controversy erupted. It was widely written that Obama lost votes both in Pennsylvania's primary and later contests because of them.
But earlier, Obama had used the word bitter to describe another group of people. From his now famous speech "A More Perfect Union" he gave in Philadelphia on March 18, 2008 (again emphasis added):
"[Trinity United Church of Christ] contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America."
The speech as a whole was commended as a landmark speech on race. The New York Times compared it to the inaguration speeches of Lincoln and FDR.
But the "bitter comments", no matter how true they may have been, are considered a blot on the campaign.
Does anyone else see the hypocrisy in this? Obama being commended for detailing the bitterness of African-Americans but criticized for pointing out the bitterness of small-town Americans for being left behind in this economy?
Obama has apologized for what he said, saying it was poorly worded. But even after he apologized, the controversy dragged on, with Hillary Clinton saying that apologizing was not enough. He had to "own up" on what he said and "be held accountable."
Because pointing out what's the matter with Kansas is wrong, while pointing out what's the matter with Black America is right, apparently
