We've had an interesting week here in San Francisco.
It began with the Olympic Torch making it's only appearance in the U.S. on its way to China for the 2008 Summer Games. The torch has been surrounded by controversy in recent days and its arrival in San Francisco ignited protests and caused the Torch Relay to be partially re-routed in an attempt to evade protesters.
The other story we brewed here in San Francisco this was unexpected. The event that led to the breaking news was supposed to be a routine private fund raising event for Barack Obama. Sen. Obama's remarks were only meant to be heard by the 250 people in attendance at the gathering just a couple miles from where I report to you from here in the Haight-Ashbury.
Of course these are the days of The Blog and YouTube, so Obama's remarks eventually leaked out.
If you don't already know this story you're probably expecting me to tell you about some sort of massive gaff that Obama made, but this supposed gaff wasn't very obvious at first. In fact Mayhill Fowler, the blogger at the Huffington Post who posted it didn't even mention the comment at issue in her original article attached to the audio clip.
Fowler produced this content and she was the one who made it available to the world, yet she didn't even get her own story right. She missed it.
Fowler has displayed an anti-Obama bias, but she thought the real story to come out of her audio were the clues that Obama provided regarding his vice presidential pick.
The quote that has now become explosive actually took a few days to simmer before it was ready to be taken out of context, blown out of proportion and then constantly repeated by every McCain/Clinton talking head from Guam to Wilkes-Barre.
This explosive comment came as the result of a question asked by a couple of Obama supporters who were about to head to Pennsylvania to campaign for him. They wanted to get an idea of the types of questions people in Pennsylvania might throw their way. Obama responded by first discussing the cultural and geographic diversity in the Keystone State and then went on to talk about some areas of the state where many people have become cynical and angry about politics.
In other words he was saying that the Obama message of hope might be a tough sell to some people who have been struggling for the past two or three decades, so be prepared.
During his answer Sen. Obama said "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."
Team McCain/Clinton jumped all over the word "bitter" and the "guns and religion" comment. The talking heads have not let up on this issue since this little snippet was finally extracted from a 51-minute piece of audio on Friday afternoon.
Clinton in particular, who has been desperate for any tiny crack in Obama's campaign, has exploited this issue to it's fullest extent.
Her goal has been to paint Barack Obama as an elitist, and out of touch with the working class. McCain, who has struggled with his grasp of reality much the same way Clinton has recently, also chimed in.
It is amusing to watch as the man who has been a U.S. Senator for almost three decades and the woman who has teamed up with her husband to make hundreds of millions of dollars since they left the White House team up and call a man who only recently paid off his student loans an out-of-touch elitist. Are you kidding?
What's more is that the campaign apparatuses clearly had to scour every second of the 51 minutes of audio to find this little nugget which they used to make the case that Obama doesn't know, understand or even like the people of rural Pennsylvania.
Of course they failed to mention the beginning of Obama's talk where he discussed the amazing energy and enthusiasm he experienced recently in Missoula, Montana and Boise, Idaho.
Surely if Barack Obama had such disdain for common rural folk, he would have lumped the good people of Idaho and Montana in with rural Pennsylvanians. But that piece of information is inconvenient to Team McCain/Clinton, so it will be ignored.
One of the highlights of the McCain/Clinton punditocracy, however, came from Indiana Democrat Evan Bayh. Sen. Bayh told reporters that Obama's words should serve as a warning to superdelegates that he would be a weak general election candidate.
Give me a break Mr. Bayh. I don't know what is worse, this comment or when you implied that Hillary Clinton was winning an imaginary election.
Obama's statement, which was taken out of context and twisted pales in comparison to Clinton's lies about sniper fire, delegate counts and lies about the lies about sniper fire.
As I mentioned earlier, Clinton has been desperate to find any tiny crack in Barack Obama's armor. Her last hope is to wedge herself into that crack and attempt to pry it open by any means necessary. It is clear that her surrogates are all on that page as well, and they know that this hairline fracture may be their last, best chance.
We are watching a Clinton Campaign that is on the ropes and this is the last flurry of punches she'll throw before getting knocked out. She's tired, she has been outmaneuvered and unlike her opponent, she is not equipped to go all 12 rounds.
Barack's knock out punch is coming and it's coming soon.
Special Note: Many of my readers have already read this blog entry from an Obama supporter who was actually at the event. The post was a source for this post and if you haven't already read it, you should check it out.
