Obama Was Right About Pennsylvanian Bitterness

Barack Obama was “basically right on target” about Pennsylvania bitterness, the product of one small-town household says: John Baer, in the Philadelphia Daily News, writes that the people he grew up around were, and still are, angry. And they have a right to be, Baer adds: Blue-collar Pennsylvanians see their interests ignored by gutless politicians beholden to special interests.

And their anger is redirected toward religion or guns or race—exactly the point Obama was making when he stumbled upon the word “bitter.” Baer is only offended that Clintonites suggest he’d be injured by Obama’s words. Looking ahead to next week’s vote, he says of his fellow Pennsylvanians, deluged with false shots at an elitist Obama, “I hope they don’t cling to stupidity.” (More Bittergate stories.)