Down to the 'bitter' end

No one can say the “Battle for Pennsylvania” is not going down to the “bitter” end.

Everywhere you turned yesterday, the conversation was about Sen. Barack Obama’s comments about small-town Pennsylvanians.

Here’s what Obama said. The Illinois senator characterized many Pennsylvanians as being “bitter” about their plight, and in the process “clinging to guns or religion.”

I grew up in a small town. Oxford, Pa., is about as small as it gets. Religion is pretty important to me. I’m Roman Catholic. That doesn’t mean I agree with everything the church does or believes. Far from it.

I don’t own a gun. Never have, unless you count a Daisy BB-gun that is about the best Christmas present I ever received. I haven’t fired a gun since.

Am I bitter? Not really. I have it pretty good.

But does it aggravate me to no end every time I fill up my gas tank? Sure. Does it boggle my mind now that I am about to have a second child walk onto the campus of one of our local universities just how outrageous the price tag that accompanies that trip has become? Absolutely. The truth is what they charge for those first two years of college is almost like stealing. I don’t know how they justify it.

I believe Sen. Obama got it half right. Yes, I think there are a lot of bitter people around, but I don’t think it has anything to do with clinging to guns or religion.

I think people are worried about their jobs. They’re worried about how they’re going to pay for their kids’ college. They’re trying to figure out how to make ends meet, when the cost of gas is going through the roof, driving the cost of everything else sky-high as well, except your paycheck. People are desperately trying to stay healthy, fearing what would happen to them – and their shaky health care – should they get seriously sick. People are worrying about how they are going to retire, and what kind of life they can expect when they get there. If they get there.

Yesterday Obama seemed to agree that he botched his “bitter” reference. Not helping matters is the fact that he made it not in Scranton, or Pittsburgh, or Erie, or Allentown, or Marcus Hook, or Philly. He made it in San Francisco.

Immediately he was branded as an elitist, looking down his nose at us poor, backward Pennsylvanians. It’s not the first time he’s been branded a snob.

Obama met with the editorial boards of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News yesterday and admitted he botched the reference by linking those “bitter” feelings with those about guns and religion.

Pennsylvania goes to the polls one week from today. Sen. Obama might learn just how bitter we really are. Then again, maybe voters will back his comments, and excoriate Sen. Clinton for trying to use them to her advantage.

The two have been battling for the heart and soul of blue-collar workers. You don’t think that visit by Clinton to Drexel Hill was just a spur-of-the-moment thing, do you?

The best guess here is that “bitter” does not begin to describe the hand-to-hand fighting we’ll see over the next seven days.

Here’s your Tuesday morning update on the road to the Pennsylvania Primary:

* 7 days until Pennsylvania goes to the polls on April 22.

* Both Chelsea and Bill Clinton will be all over the state today stumping for their mom/spouse. Chelsea has events at Waynesburg University, then an event in Johnstown and winds up tonight in Mechanicsburg. The ex-president will be in Chester County, with events in Coatesville, Phoenixville, then Quakertown and Easton.

* Two former governors will be in the state for Barack Obama today. Ray Mabus and Jim Hodges headed Mississippi and South Carolina respectively. Obama’s wife Michelle will hold a rally this afternoon at Haverford College.

* All this leads to a crucial debate in Philadelphia tomorrow night.

* Hey, let’s not forget John McCain. The presumptive GOP nominee will be in Delco this afternoon, taping an episode of MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews” at Villanova University.

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