The Note: Bitter Tastes

April 14, 2008 -- We had our clues back in the arugula-wilting Iowa sun (and one does have to wonder whether his lanky frame is better suited for windsurfing than bowling).

Maybe Sen. Barack Obama's biggest fear should never have been becoming Jesse Jackson. Maybe it should have been becoming John Kerry.

With just a few sentences that emerged Friday and marinated over the weekend, Obama made himself into Mike Dukakis, Al Gore, and Kerry, all rolled into one effete, aloof, unelectable package. Or, at least, that's how the denizens of Camp Clinton are playing it -- and when they grab hold of a message frame, it's hard to make them give it back.

Obama's challenge this Monday is to put an end to the firestorm that's already consumed three days' worth of tone-shifting explanations -- and appears likely to burn right up to Wednesday's debate, and perhaps next Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary.

Obama, D-Ill., on Monday launches a new ad featuring his most important Pennsylvania supporter, Sen. Bob Casey. "He's tired of the political games and division that stops anything from getting done," Casey, D-Pa., says in the ad. "Barack Obama knows Pennsylvania's hurting."

And Obama plans to use an appearance at the Associated Press' annual meeting "to turn the table on the question of who is most in touch with the American people," per his campaign. (Obama watchers have seen this play before -- using a miscue to build a bridge back to his core message.)

Obama wants to talk about the general election (and who can blame him?): "John McCain's 26 years in Washington have not left him in touch with what America needs to lift its workers right now, and if he wants a debate this fall about who's out of touch with the hopes and struggles of working America, that's a debate Barack Obama's happy to have," Obama spokesman Bill Burton says in previewing Monday's speech.

Obama is pushing back at Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, too. On Sunday, "Sen. Obama accused Sen. Clinton of playing politics, and his campaign said she would say or do anything to get elected," Amy Chozick and Nick Timiraos write in The Wall Street Journal.

Said Obama, dialing up the sarcasm while speaking to steelworkers in Pennsylvania: "I expected this out of John McCain, but . . . I'm a little disappointed when I start hearing the exact same talking points coming out of my Democratic colleague, Hillary Clinton. She knows better. Shame on her."

"She's talking like she's Annie Oakley!" Obama added, per ABC's Sunlen Miller. "I want to see that picture of her out there in the duck blinds."

We're more likely to see Dick Cheney in native tribal dress -- though the whiskey shot was a nice touch.

Asked Sunday to pinpoint the last time she fired a gun or attended church, Clinton "seemed frustrated," per Shailagh Murray and Perry Bacon Jr. of The Washington Post (and may have helped Obama change the subject -- will Clinton as woman-of-the-people fly?). "That is not a relevant question for this debate," Clinton said. "We can answer that some other time. I went to church on Easter, so . . . but that is not what this is about."

Still Clinton, D-N.Y., is honing her argument -- hitting Democrats where they're bruised: "We had two very good men and men of faith run for president in 2000 and 2004, but large segments of the electorate concluded that they did not really understand or relate to or frankly respect their ways of life and I think that has been an issue for voters," she said at Sunday night's CNN-televised "Compassion Forum."

"Elitist and divisive" was the tag she used -- paging Al Gore and John Kerry. (And those "I'm Not Bitter" buttons were quick-thinking -- but will they do anything more than fire up those who were already supporting Clinton?)

(Didn't Clinton and Obama look absolutely thrilled to see each other at the "Compassion Forum"? Should make Wednesday's debate an interesting study in body language.)

"The next few days will tell the tale of whether Barack Obama's comments about the people of small-town Pennsylvania wind up dooming his chances of winning the state's Democratic presidential primary," Larry Eichel, Thomas Fitzgerald and Angela Couloumbis write in the Philadelphia Inquirer. "And so will the reaction to the counteroffensive that he launched last night."

"Anyone who hasn't heard about the word 'bitter' by now will know about it when the candidates debate Wednesday night in Philadelphia," they add

"This has done some damage," ABC's George Stephanopoulos said on "Good Morning America" Monday. "I think the other question right now is, did Sen. Clinton go a little bit too far?"

This remains a storyline that favors Clinton on basically all levels -- defining Obama in a negative light, giving her an opening to draw a contrast, and practically by itself making an argument that's ready for superdelegate consumption.

"In a message clearly intended for undecided superdelegates, whose votes could still go to her favor, Mrs. Clinton said that she believed that she is more electable than Mr. Obama and that Republicans could use his comments against him," Julie Bosman writes in The New York Times.

Superdelegates need very big reasons to be convinced that Democrats should shun democracy. "It remains to be seen whether the reaction to the statements will actually [affect] the polls or simply serve as fodder for the punditocracy," Time's Jay Newton-Small writes.

"But the comments could potentially help Clinton not only in Pennsylvania, but also with winning over undecided super delegates who might otherwise be reluctant to go against the popular will of the voters."

It put Clinton on offense again -- providing a psychological boost to a campaign that couldn't buy a break. As if Clinton needed a reason to stay in the race, Obama found it for her.

"Some friends describe Clinton as seeing herself on a mission to save Democrats from themselves," Politico's John F. Harris and Jim VandeHei write. "Her candidacy may be a long shot, but no one should expect she will end it unless or until every last door has been shut."

ABC's Jake Tapper points out that Obama backers have "attempted to focus their pushback away from the most controversial part of his remarks to an elite crowd at a San Francisco fundraiser. . . . While the description of small town Pennsylvanians as 'bitter' is certainly impolitic, many political analysts say it's what follows that adjective that is potentially so alienating -- the notion that small town folks 'get bitter' after which '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.' "

New York Daily News columnist Michael Goodwin is looking for more contrition: "He should get off his Ivy League horse and apologize to the millions of Americans he insulted," Goodwin writes. "As it stands, he has confirmed he doesn't understand or respect them."