If I were advising him, I would tell him to confront the matter head-on, meeting as often as possible with skeptical, and even hostile, working people in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Let the questions rip, and answer them honestly.
No one has an obligation to vote for Mr. Obama, and it’s certainly not racist to vote against him. But the senator can make it clear that it is wrong to dismiss a candidacy out of hand solely because of the race or ethnicity or gender of the candidate.
that's what "bittergate" (it now has a cute name) is all about. obama was trying to explain why fewer white working class voters were supporting him. pennsylvania apparently has a large number of people (we will see) who wouldn't vote for a black person. pennsylvania's governor and clinton backer ed rendell has said as much.
obama's words were misinterpreted because obama didn't say, well, they won't vote for me because i'm black. i'm sure that would've rocked the media world. obama has a deeper understanding as to why working class voters feel the way they do and he tried to explain. obama doesn't blanket anything in racism. that's not his message. he wants to win the heart and minds of even the racists because that's the kind of person he is.
hillary, the cunning politician that she is, pounced on elitism as a way to have more sway with the voters who wouldn't vote for a black person. it's all part of her distort, distract and exploit politics. mccain piled on. he's been saying how much strength working class voters give him and of course, he's using the issue to solicit donations. ick.
nyt: There is no mystery here. Except for people who have been hiding in caves or living in denial, it’s pretty widely understood that a substantial number of those voters — in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and elsewhere — will not vote for a black candidate for president.
Pennsylvanians themselves will tell you that racial attitudes in some parts of the state are, to be kind, less than enlightened. Gov. Ed Rendell, Hillary Clinton’s most powerful advocate in the state, put it bluntly last February: “I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate.”
This toxic issue is at the core of the Clinton camp’s relentless effort to persuade superdelegates that Senator Obama “can’t win” the White House. It’s the only weapon left in the Clintons’ depleted armory.
obama explains it well to the philadelphia inquirer:
