Hillary's unimaginative responses to Pastor- and Bitter-Gates show why we needed Obama all along

In the past month, Hillary Clinton has been handed two golden opportunities to rise above the muck of primary politics. In both cases, she has instead played a small-minded, Republican-style game of gotcha that will prove to have done nothing to change the nature of this race.

Her responses have also shown why there was always an opportunity for someone like Obama to win over those Democrats who were looking for something more than a predictable politician who thinks sound-bites and a take-no-prisoners daily media strategy is more important than connecting with the hearts and minds of voters. If there's anyone who "looks down" on people and thinks we can't rise above media manipulation, it's Hillary.

On Rev. Wright, the proper response for her would have been to call bullshit on the whole "scandal," and take the media to task for playing guilt by association on Obama and reducing one man's work of 30-plus years to a single 30-second soundbite loop. This should have been done the weekend before Obama's speech.

Would this have helped Obama? Sure. But it also would have been gutsy, principled and endeared her to all but the most anti-Hillary Democrats and, most importantly, started to re-build a much needed bridge to black voters, whose support she would need in the event that she somehow made it to the convention with a hope of winning the nomination.

Instead, she sat paralyzed for a few days and, once Obama turned the tide with his speech on race, tried to keep the story alive by saying, "that wouldn't have been my pastor." That was a Republican response. Also, her initial silence left open a void that was completely filled by Obama.

She played Republican again when Obama was shown to have made a clumsily-worded, although accurate statements about working class resistance to Democrats in general and him in particular. BitterGate basically revolves around the whole "What's the Matter with Kansas" problem that plagues the entire party, not just Obama.

Obama said in his comments in San Francisco that he has the extra challenge of being a black guy with a strange name, but the problems he faces in winning over rural white voters are there for every Democrat. There are 67 counties in Pennsylvania, and Ed Rendell lost 57 of them when he won the governorship. Obama is getting to heart of a matter that all Democrats should be working on, but that's risky, and it doesn't conform with the known and narrow path to dysfunctional political victory, where we "win" but we have difficulty governing, so most don't go there.

Instead of addressing the real substance of what Obama said, our Hillary predictably used the occasion score a night-time political point. She used bland, insincere, Disney-style language about the "hard-working, roll-up-your-sleeves, optimistic" people of Pennsylvania. She again left the rhetorical field wide open for Obama to address the real issues at hand.

In this, as in the larger question of this contest, advantage Obama.

She spent half of her time campaigning on why we should get out of Iraq and was the best person to do it, and then asked all of TWO questions of the general. In both cases, both her tone and words were accusatory. Of course he had to answer, but Obama got much better answers out of him and moved the discussion forward, whereas she was just trying to score points.

which means not necessarily Obama, whereas Hillary was choking up in New Hampshire at the thought of America going backward if SHE didn't become President, because, apparently, Richardson, Dodd and Biden were not ready to be President as she followed up with "some people are ready and some are not". Which begs the whole question "ready for what?" Not everybody can drive my car. If I am picking a driver, I don't just want the best and most experienced driver. I want a driver who will take me in the direction I want to go.

The OP is spot on in that Hillary had two chances to hold the M$M to account for hyping non-issues, particularly aimed at Democrats and she chose to pile on instead.

Although, to be fair, I am not remembering his campaign being any better in responding to snipergate or Ferrarogate or the comparing of Bill Clinton to Joseph McCarthy, etc.

despise Hillary Clinton.

But I must say, he handed her a whopper (and the GOP as well) by making an issue of guns and religion.

Talking about bitterness toward the government is one thing; I just wish Obama had not tied it into guns and religion. He is RIGHT about what he said; but any reference to guns and religion is not going to be taken in complexity.

they use god,gays, guns and abortion in every election to win over the non thinking people because these are things they will never change. So everytime their base follows along and the country goes farther down the hill.

God: they can't make anyone believe in him in the way they want, and their are many religions in this country so they need to shut up. Gays: they will not change anyone from gay to straight they use this issue for people who hate gays or so they claim, and the ones who are making the laws are gay themselves these one issue voters who have other issues that really matter but they are worried about who is f-------who Gun: they will never take everyone's guns away so why is this a issue but, they need to put some regulations on who can get a gun. Abortion their will always be a way to get one, just like Drugs, there is no war on Drugs if I wanted some I could get some.

A lot of young people know this is bullshit and that is why they are following Obama, it seems as though some of the older people are spouting this garbage about things they can't change. Another problem they are looking at statistics from former elections not realizing that this country has changed in so many ways that those statistics don't mean squat... At this point hillary will say or do anything.

The smell of D-E-S-P-E-R-A-T-I-O-N is...

getting stronger...

Strike that. Reverse it.

and just work harder, etc., etc., reminded me of the time Dubya congratulated the old lady who told him she had to work 3 jobs, 7 days a week to survive. "Good for you" he said, totally missing the fact the woman has paid her dues and should be enjoying a couple of years of retirement before she dies.

Whens the last time you heard her sit an Obama-gate out, or even be positively honest about it all. Every time, she gets her nose right in the middle of the mess. Where is her version of "she should stay in it as long as she wants to".