With respect to PA, I'm bitter... about the coverage!

Folks from Pennsylvania might say they are not bitter, but I certainly am.

I'm not bitter about the economic conditions that spawned the latest controversy. I'm bitter at the way it is being covered.

Let's review in the off chance you missed the theatrics. On Friday, Mayhill Fowler posted an article on the Huffington Post that was critical of Barack Obama. Six long paragraphs into her article she quoted Obama:

"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them," Obama said. "And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, 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."

Still wincing from an inopportune statement Bill Clinton just made about Hillary Clinton's Bosnia recollections, the Clinton campaign sprung into full exploitation mode.

As CNN reports, Hillary Clinton said:

"Sen. Obama's remarks are elitist and out of touch," she said. "they are not reflective of the values and beliefs of Americans, certainly not the Americans I know, not the Americans I grew up with, not the Americans I lived with in Arkansas or represent in New York."

Clinton aides said they planned to make Obama's comments central to their message on the campaign trail this weekend. The New York senator will campaign across Indiana Saturday, and will return to Pennsylvania on Sunday.

And this ran in full hype cycle until Obama had to clarify his remarks and then deeply regret if anyone was offended.

Now I'm offended and bitter.

How dare someone who has lived her entire life in a political bubble and has now earned $109 million accuse anyone of being out of touch or elitist? Even worse, accuse a candidate who is the product of a single mother and is the product of a meager lifestyle? Up until a few years ago, Barack Obama was still buried in student loans. Elite?

The man got a good education and built himself up by his own talents. Throughout his two books and hosts of speeches, he speaks with the voice of understanding and empathy. So much so, that Mayhill Fowler, in the same post that caused the uproar, conceded Obama's decency:

To give Obama his due, he spoke about working class Pennsylvanians likely because he had been thinking about them a great deal. And he spoke, as he often does away from large rallies, in a calm, even, matter-of-fact way. Every town hall meeting I've observed, from California to Iowa, Nevada to Texas, has showcased Senator Obama's core decency and high measure of regard for each individual.

Of course this little nugget doesn't get picked up, which leads to why I am bitter with this coverage. I am sick of stories that replay every charge without consideration to the source or the substance.

If there is any bright spot, it is the knowledge that she will eventually overreach. She always does. The woman doesn't know when to stop. It's the reason that she repeated the flawed Bosnia story not one, not two but three times. She could have gotten away with in once or twice, but she kept pushing it.

Just like the red phone commercials, which got her a bit of publicity. Then she had to rerun the same commercial and force fit the economy into an already shaky premise. Of course that one tanked because it was so implausible. She could have stopped after the first red phone, but she lacks restraint.

Now we see the beginnings of her overreaching. Here's what she told a crowd in Indiana yesterday:

“You know, my dad took me out behind the cottage that my grandfather built on a little lake called Lake Winola outside of Scranton and taught me how to shoot when I was a little girl,” she said.

“You know, some people now continue to teach their children and their grandchildren. It’s part of culture. It’s part of a way of life. People enjoy hunting and shooting because it’s an important part of who they are. Not because they are bitter.”

Ah yes... fondly remembering her dad taking her shooting. Didn't even take YouTube to expose her hypocrisy. Just a simple question, 'when was the last time you've shot a gun or gone to church?'

Here's what CNN reported today:

After a weekend spent making direct appeals to gun owners and church goers, Hillary Clinton said Sunday a query about the last time she fired a gun or attended church services "is not a relevant question in this debate” over Barack Obama’s recent comments on small town Americans.

“We can answer that some other time,” Clinton said at a press conference held in a working class neighborhood here. “This is about what people feel is being said about them. I went to church on Easter. I mean, so?”

We can answer that some other time?! Give her some more rope and wait. Maybe she can help cure my bitter mood.