Opinion: A Hillary Clinton supporter defends Barack Obama, sort of
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Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana is a staunch supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton‘s presidential campaign, but even he seems to think that Sen. Barack Obama is getting a bum rap over those controversial comments the Illinois senator made in San Francisco -- you know, the ones where he described many people in small-town America as ‘bitter’ people who ‘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.’
These remarks, Bayh told host Wolf Blitzer on CNN’s ‘Late Edition,’ ‘have given the Republicans a stick to beat us with.’
‘I like Barack Obama,’ Bayh said. ‘I think he’s a good person. But ...
... these comments are subject to misinterpretation.’
Bayh recalled how in 2004 the GOP focused on a characterization of Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats’ presidential candidate, as a flip-flopper. ‘I don’t think John Kerry was a chronic flip-flopper,’ he said. ‘But you remember when he said he voted against the $87 billion before he voted for the $87 billion? And they took that one soundbite and just beat it and beat it and beat it.’
That, he said, is happening now to Obama: ‘Look at what the Republicans did here in the last 48 hours. They’re calling on everyone who’s received contributions from Sen. Obama’s political committee to give the money back. They’re calling upon people to disavow his remarks all across red-state America. ... I’m afraid that this gives the Republicans a stick to beat us with.’
One thing Bayh didn’t say: His candidate’s campaign has been on the attack concerning these statements almost as much as the Republicans have. Today, Clinton herself went on the offensive in Scranton, Pa., where her father was born and where she spent summers as a child.
During a day of door-to-door campaigning in a working-class area of the city, she described Obama’s comments as ‘elitist and divisive.’
‘I think what’s important about this is that Sen. Obama has not owned up to what he said and taken accountability for it,’ she said, adding: ‘You don’t have to psychoanalyze or patronize people to conclude that we have problems.”
Obama, who has already attempted to explain what he meant by his remarks, is expected to address the issue again in tonight’s Compassion Forum at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa. The forum will be broadcast on CNN, starting at 8 p.m. EDT/5 p.m. PDT.
-- Leslie Hoffecker