These days there is no such thing as a quiet talk amongst friends. If your a politician, someone in the crowd always has a ready recording instrument. See here.
Teri, a Clinton supporter, is gloating. Yet she agrees with what he said. Think about that.
Curiously, Obama is not backtracking. He is just saying he could have said it better.
Barack Obama admitted Saturday that he chose his words poorly when he told a group of California donors that small-town Americans “cling” to guns and religion and xenophobia out of bitterness over lost jobs, but for the second day in a row stood by the comments and weathered pointed criticism from Hillary Clinton.
“I didn’t say it as well as I should have, because the truth is these traditions that are passed on from generation to generation, those are important,” Obama said in Muncie, Ind., minutes before Clinton jumped in and called his remarks “elitist.”
“But what is absolutely true is that people want to feel like they’re being listened to. And so they pray, and they count on each other and they count on their families,” Obama continued.
The original remarks, made a week ago and reported in The Huffington Post Friday, drew charges of classism from the campaigns of John McCain and Clinton. (from here)
I find it hard to condemn Obama for this gaff. It comes from listening to people talk and contemplating my own words. Humility is rare and priceless. That, I suspect, is particularly true in those who lead. How many of you know anyone, particularly a competent soul, who looks upon his fellows and thinks everybody else is smarter and better?
