The blow up over Sen. Barack Obama's "bitter" comments continued unabated in the latest media cycle, remaining the dominant theme in the presidential contest. Though much coverage is devoted to Obama's counterpunch yesterday, in which he mocked Sen. Hillary Clinton as "Annie Oakley" for her recent comments on her experience with firearms, he is nevertheless widely seen as badly wounded by the episode.
The issue led all three nightly newscasts last night. According to NBC Nightly News, "Obama says he is only sorry for a poor choice of words. But Hillary Clinton and John McCain both seized on his comments as the three candidates accused each other of not connecting to blue-collar voters. Obama today took on Hillary Clinton and John McCain for calling him an elitist." Obama said, "When I hear my opponents both of whom have spent decades in Washington saying I'm out of touch, it is time to cut through the rhetoric and look at the reality."
The CBS Evening News reported Obama's comments "gave Hillary Clinton some much-needed ammunition heading into next week's Pennsylvania primary." CBS added, "Obama's admittedly ill-chosen words have plagued him for days, left him labeled as out of touch, and forced him to defend himself today in Pittsburgh from two foes." CBS added that Obama "is in a political pickle." ABC World News adds that Hillary Clinton "is not missing a single opportunity to contend to voters that Obama is out of touch." ABC noted that Obama "is now suggesting Clinton's populism is all show. When the former first lady reminisced about learning to hunt with her dad, Obama mocked her as Annie Oakley."
The AP reports that "after days on the campaign defensive," Obama accused Clinton of "leveling criticism straight from the Republican playbook," though he admitted that he "may have made a mistake last week in the words that I chose." Obama's "focus turned to Clinton...reflecting what aides say is a rising anger after days of criticism of his comments. Asked about the impact of the long nominating battle on the party's chances of winning the White House, he said, 'I have tried to figure out how to show restraint and make sure that, during this primary contest, we're not damaging each other so badly that it's hard for us to run in November.'" Obama said Clinton "may not feel that she can afford to be so constrained." The Washington Post quotes Obama as saying, "I'm sure that Senator Clinton feels like she's doing me a great favor, because she's been deploying most of the arguments that the Republican Party will be using against me in November, and so, it's toughening me up. And I'm getting a run through the paces here."
Obama Says He "Mangled" Comments The Philadelphia Inquirer reports this morning that in an interview with their editorial board yesterday, Obama "said he had let several thoughts run together when he said nine days ago that people were 'bitter' about lost jobs and 'cling to guns or religion.' 'The problem was that I just mangled it, which happens sometimes,' he said. The thoughts that ran together, he said, were that people who feel abandoned find stability in their traditions but also are vulnerable to politicians exploiting wedge issues."
McCain Calls Obama's Comments "Elitist" Fox News' Special Report reported Sen. John McCain "went directly after" Obama's "suggestion that when economic times get tough, rural and working class Americans get bitter and cling to guns and religion in order to cope." McCain said, "Hope in America is not based on delusion, but in the faith that everything is possible in America." McCain added, "I think the comments are elitist. ... I can only look at his remarks and I have seen them now several times and say that those are certainly not the vision that I have of America and its strength and its greatness and what its fundamentals values and beliefs are." The New York Times says McCain "threw himself into the culture war," saying that Obama's comments were "a fundamental contradiction of what I believe America's all about."
Clinton Airs New Ad On "Bitter" Remark Clinton is now up on the air with an ad in Pennsylvania highlighting Obama's comments. Fox News' Hannity and Colmes aired a portion of an ad the Clinton campaign is running in Pennsylvania. In the ad a narrator says: "Barack Obama said people in small towns cling to guns or religion as a way to explain their frustrations." The ad then shows unidentified people on the street making the following comments, "I was very insulted by Barack Obama. ... It shows how out of touch Barack Obama is. ... I'm not clinging to my faith out of frustration and bitterness. My faith is very uplifting. ... The good people of Pennsylvania deserve a lot better than what Barack Obama said." The Politico provides a full transcript of the ad.
In Fundraising Email, Obama Camp Slams Foes' "Fake Outrage" The Hill reports that the Obama camp "sent a fundraising e-mail to supporters Monday afternoon, accusing" Clinton and McCain "of being the candidates who are 'out of touch.' ... 'Both our opponents have been spinning the media and peddling fake outrage around the clock,'" campaign manager David Plouffe "wrote. In response, he said, the campaign is making a fundraising push with a goal of lining up 1.5 million donors by May 6."
Clinton Comments On "Bitter" Remark Received Poorly The Washington Post reports in a front-page story that at a trade debate, Clinton "encountered a flash of resistance." Clinton "declared: 'Many of you, like me, were disappointed by recent remarks he made.' Some audience members shouted 'No!' When she suggested that voters in Pennsylvania...might find Obama's remarks 'offensive,' loud cries of 'No!' could be heard again."
Opinion Pieces Critical Of Clinton's Handling Of Issue While some editorials today see the affair as harming Obama, such as pieces in the Chicago Tribune and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, a number of liberal columnists in big papers are highly critical of Clinton's attacks on Obama, portraying her as hypocritical for portraying Obama as elitist, led by a trio of pieces from the Washington Post this morning. The Washington Post's E. J. Dionne writes, "Something doesn't parse when a Wellesley and Yale Law School graduate whose family made $109 million since 2001 relentlessly assails a former community organizer on the grounds that he is an elitist." The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson says Clinton "made a show of demonstrating that she's actually just a regular gal. The point wasn't really to convince anyone that she, Bill and Chelsea commute between their two lavish mansions in a five-year-old Ford F-150 pickup with a gun rack and a 'Jesus Rocks!' bumper sticker. Her aim was to prove to the nation -- or at least to Democratic primary voters in Pennsylvania and Indiana -- that she's better at feigning regularness than Obama." The Washington Post's Richard Cohen writes, "Since when is Hillary Clinton a gun lover, a hunter or even a weekend skeet shooter? She is apparently none of the above -- at least she will not say when she last fired a gun. The truth, if a guess is allowed, is that she does not give a damn about guns and hunting, and when she brings up her 'churchgoing family' and 'Our Town' values, they are expressions of treacly nostalgia and not the life of incredible affluence and situational morality she now enjoys."
In a story that is getting only light coverage this morning, USA Today reports Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton "exchanged barbs Monday about trade and who best can lift up the middle class in separate appearances before steelworkers and industry executives" in Pittsburgh. Obama said, "You can't spend the better part of two decades campaigning for NAFTA and PNTR for China and then come here to Pennsylvania and tell the workers that you've been with them all along." The AP adds that Clinton "told manufacturers and union workers...that her husband made mistakes related to" NAFTA "that she plans to fix." Clinton said, "As smart as my husband is, he does make mistakes." The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review adds that Clinton and Obama "promised to tighten rules on trade with China."
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A new poll out this morning from Quinnipiac University shows Sen. Hillary Clinton maintaining her six-point lead over Sen. Barack Obama in Pennsylvania as the Democratic primary in the state heads into its final week. Clinton leads Obama 50%-44%, identical to her lead in a similar poll released April 8. The poll surveyed 2,103 likely Pennsylvania Democratic primary voters from April 9-13. Quinnipiac says there was no noticeable difference in Obama's numbers in the returns from April 12-13, which came after the disclosure of his "bitter" comment. Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said this morning that "a bigger problem for Democrats looms in Pennsylvania. One out of four Clinton voters, including a third of men, say they will vote for Republican Sen. John McCain in November if Obama is the Democratic candidate."
Allentown Mayor Backs Clinton The Allentown Morning Call reports this morning that Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski (D) yesterday endorsed Clinton, saying she "has solutions to problems facing urban areas like Allentown" and she "has proven herself to be a very capable legislator, extremely knowledgeable on the issues, adept at getting things done, and aware of the needs of our inner city residents and middle class."
Fox Special Report reported last night that former President Jimmy Carter and former Vice President Al Gore "reportedly are planning to team up in a call to Hillary Clinton to end her presidential race. The Scotsman newspaper published in Scotland says the two men have been in discussions and are said to believe the prolonged battle is hurting the Democratic Party." The paper "claims that they may ask Senator Clinton in private to bow out or they may publicly endorse Barack Obama in hopes that other super delegates will follow."
The Washington Post's Dana Milbank notes both John McCain and Barack Obama "appeared before the nation's newspaper editors yesterday" at the American Society of Newspaper Editors annual meeting hosted by the Associated Press. Milbank adds, "On the same day, the two media darlings of the presidential election cycle came to address their base -- and McCain easily bested his likely opponent." According to Milbank, "The dueling appearances by McCain and Obama nicely captured the current dynamic in the presidential cycle. McCain, his nomination secure, had the luxury to joke and pander. Obama, wounded by the Democrats' internecine fighting, was defensive and somber. ... McCain got a standing ovation -- an honor Obama did not receive when his turn came two hours later."
Sen. John McCain is set to make a major economic address today. The Washington Post reports McCain will propose "that affluent seniors pay more for government-provided drug benefits as a way to control health-care spending, aides said during a preview of a major speech on economics that the senator will deliver in Pittsburgh." The proposal is "similar to a controversial one put forth last fall by President Bush, in which married retirees who make more than $160,000 a year would pay increasingly higher costs for the newly established Medicare prescription drug plans."
The Washington Times reports McCain will also call "for a freeze on discretionary spending in order to get the federal budget in better shape, his advisers said yesterday evening." The Wall Street Journal adds that McCain "will also acknowledge economic distress among students and families." McCain "plans to aid students caught in the credit crunch who may have trouble obtaining college loans and to call for another big tax cut -- this one helping families with children." The proposals, "combined with those he has already put on the table, show the Arizona senator's mixed approach to economics. He pushes tax cuts, a traditional Republican favorite; government reforms, such as an end to pork-barrel projects; and new spending for those he sees as deserving, such as students looking for loans and homeowners who need to refinance their troubled mortgages."
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In what's being described as an attempt to turn up pressure on Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a sign of the strained relations between her and the White House President Bush yesterday said the Speaker's move to forestall a vote on the Colombia trade deal hurts America's interests and amounts to a rebuff to a key ally. The New York Times says the President "intensified an increasingly personal fight" with Pelosi over the deal, "trading accusations over who was best protecting the interests of American workers." Bush, the AP reports, "stepped up pressure" on Congress, saying "it's not in America's interest to 'stiff an ally' like Colombia."
Under the headline "Bush Concedes Defeat On Colombia Trade Pact," the Washington Post reports Bush said that a trade agreement with Colombia "is 'dead' unless House Democrats agree to hold a vote on the pact, effectively admitting defeat on a White House priority." After meeting with his Cabinet, Bush "lashed out" at Pelosi for putting off a vote on the pact, a move he said "stiffs" Colombia. The Hill notes Pelosi replied, "For the past seven years, the president's economic policy has stiffed the American people."
The Washington Times reports that "in her statement," Pelosi also "reiterated that she is blocking the Colombia trade vote to obtain 'leverage' in negotiations over further government action to spur the economy. In particular, Democrats want to pass more economic stimulus legislation to supplement the $157 billion deal that was passed in February." Fox News' Special Report noted "the President isn't buying Pelosi's argument." Bush was shown saying, "Congress recently has been working on legislation for beach monitoring and landscape conservation." UPI also reports on Pelosi's statement.
The Washington Post reports, "For House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the connection between the Iraq conflict and the U.S. economic downturn is simple: 'The president has taken us into a failed war,' the California Democrat said recently. 'He's taken us deeply into debt, and that debt is taking us into recession.'" While the "logic may have more political salience than economic validity, according to many economists," the link "between Iraq and the downturn reflects a growing public perception that individual economic anxieties must stem somehow from the unpopular war -- a unified theory of political misery, said Peter D. Hart, a Democratic pollster." And "Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist who wrote the new book 'The Three Trillion Dollar War,' contends that the connection is real." In fact, says Roll Call, in "Democratic talking points distributed to Members" yesterday, "lawmakers are being urged to highlight the $44 billion spent on Iraq reconstruction to date and to tie it to the tax burden. 'In fact, the typical American taxpayer's entire federal tax bill pays for less than one half of one second of what we're spending on the war in Iraq,' the memo reads."
Bill Would Restrict Iraq Aid To Loans The AP reports that after five years, congressional Republicans and Democrats "seem to have found common ground on at least one aspect of the war. From the fiercest foes of the war to the most steadfast Bush supporters, they are looking at Iraq's surging oil income and saying Baghdad should start picking up more of the tab, particularly for rebuilding hospitals, roads, power lines and the rest of the shattered country." Meanwhile, the Washington Times reports, "The Iraqi government is pumping $350 million into three of the war-torn nation's most embattled areas in an effort to stem violence by producing jobs and reinvigorating social programs, as US lawmakers are pushing for the oil-rich country to pick up its reconstruction tab."
The Los Angeles Times reports on its front page this morning that a "series of conflicts with insurgent groups along Iran's borders may be impelling Tehran to back its own allies in Iraq in what it regards as a proxy war with the US, according to security experts and officials in the US, Iran and Iraq." Dozens of "Iranian officials, members of the security forces and insurgents belonging to Kurdish, Arab Iranian and Baluch groups have died in the fighting in recent years." While "none of the groups appear to pose a serious threat to Iran," Tehran "regards them as Washington's allies in an effort to pressure it to scale back its nuclear program and withhold support for militant groups fighting Israel."
Meanwhile, the Washington Times reports the State Department "said yesterday that it encourages contacts between Americans -- including former U.S. officials -- and Iranians, but denied reports that it had opened back-channel talks with the Islamic republic."
ABC World News reported, "This afternoon President Bush took steps to help countries in crisis because of soaring food prices." The President "is now ordering another $200 million in emergency food aid for struggling nations." Fox News' Special Report noted "the rising cost of grain and especially rice has been hitting poor people hard in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and elsewhere."
The AP notes the move "comes one day after the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, called on the international community to act urgently in helping needy people and 'put our money where our mouth is.'" But the Washington Times reports, "Hunger caused by high food prices is likely to get worse before it eases, senior UN officials warned yesterday." Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes told reporters, "The global rise in food prices...is not a temporary blip in prices caused by a crop failure here or there."
Biofuels Push Draws Fire In a front-page analysis, the New York Times reports that "a reaction is building against" US and European policies to promote biofuels, "with political leaders from poor countries contending that these fuels are driving up food prices and starving poor people."
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Jay Leno: "Barack Obama got himself into a little hot water in Pennsylvania when he said small town people become bitter and cling to guns or religion because of economic problems. Well, sure, you pray your house doesn't get repossessed, and when they take it, you pull out your gun. Makes perfect sense."
Jay Leno: "Hillary Clinton attacked Barack Obama, called him 'elitist,' and said he was out of touch with poor people. Later, Bill Clinton gave a speech on the subject and charged a million bucks for it."
Jay Leno: "In an effort to try and connect with some of the rural voters in Pennsylvania, Hillary said she has gone hunting, and once shot a duck. ... Don't confuse that with Barack. He shot himself in the foot."
Jay Leno: "The Pope will be here tomorrow. ... You know who's picking him up at the airport? President Bush. This is true. It's the first time the President has ever picked up a visiting leader at the airport. See, that's when you know your presidency is winding down, when you're picking up people at the airport."
Craig Ferguson: "A new survey that came out today says that 98% of historians consider the Bush Presidency a failure. ... On the upside, those are Bush's highest poll numbers in years."
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