From The Road
April 12, 2008 8:15 PM

Clinton Campaign Hopes "Bitter" Comments Stick

By
Fernando Suarez
Topics
Hillary Clinton
(CBS)

From CBS News' Fernando Suarez:


GOLDSBORO, N.C. -- Just hours after the now infamous "bitter" comments made by Barak Obama surfaced in news reports, Hillary Clinton's campaign retooled their message from top to bottom. She slammed Obama on the stump and her campaign has been pushing Obama's comments behind the scenes.

Her husband is getting in on the act as well. At a rally in rural North Carolina hosted by President Bill Clinton, a few dozen people were seen wearing stickers that read "I'm Not Bitter!" When asked about the stickers, a Clinton campaign spokesman said they were printed up by the campaign's North Carolina team and distributed. Clinton staffers initially denied having printed them up.

Obama's comments have attracted copious media attention, and they are being interpreted by many in political circles as a serious gaffe. Obama said today he regretted the comments, but stopped short of apologizing for them.

It is clear that the Clinton campaign sees Obama's comments as an opportunity to make some headway in the race. A campaign aide said Obama's comments are powerful because they came out of his own mouth. Similarly, the media attention given to Clinton's Bosnia blunder hurt her in the polls in Pennsylvania, and with the primary now 10 days away, the Clinton campaign hopes the same will happen to their opponent.

It may be just a matter of time before the campaign starts mass producing "I'm Not Bitter!" signs to be handed out at rallies.

Add a Comment See all 22 Comments
by Lai K W April 13, 2008 9:08 PM EDT
Factcheck shows that Obama''s father came to this country one year before Kennedy provided the funding. He lied about that too.
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by Lai K W April 13, 2008 9:05 PM EDT
I got better things of the Obama. He filled up a survey form with his own handwriting on it and he puts the blame on his staff. Go to Factcheck to see his oil spill. The fundraising with the billionaires contradicts his ad of taking money from grass roots not the lobbylists. He has people in that column working for him now. He is too good at using words to hide the truth. The false ad he put up in order to show NAFTA takes away jobs for a guy who is later found to get a huge compensation from the closing of the company. Employees of that company claims the leave package was the best thing they had in life. He claims that Kennedy has anything to do with his father''s sponsorship to this country and he use the Kennedy''s connection to boost his campaign. Staying in a church for 20 years that preach hatred and rasism, he claims that it is the black culture, nothing special about it. So electing him implies these all will change. It won''t. It will get worse. Look at who is being discriminated against! Not Obama for sure.

The title of this article is presumptuous. I call this a loaded heading which is a shame of journalism who is supposed to give the facts and let the readers make their decisions. Reporting like this tries to dictate the decisions of the readers.
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by snarlah April 13, 2008 5:39 PM EDT
Lottobee''s poem seems racist to me. Not that racism in America surprises me at all. I heard on PBS that racism had ended at a certain point, maybe when Johnson was President--but it never ended because when people aren''t busy hating Obama for being half black they''re busy hating Mexicans and building the new Berlin wall to keep them out. Or killing them, which we''ve been doing ever since these poor, desperate people started trying to cross the border so they wouldn''t starve to death in their crummy country.
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by gaiaschild-2009 April 13, 2008 4:14 PM EDT
okay i admit a bias, i prefer obama. if this is the best the clinton campaign has got, hacking and slashing reactivity, no wonder the campaign is failing.
Reply to this comment
by fourthsign April 13, 2008 4:07 PM EDT
obama needs to answer to the allegations made by Larry Sinclair; which say obama smoked crack and let larry perform mouth to you know WHAT ***... This is not going away and it is getting a lot of attention on the web but news media will not touch this... whitehouse.com did a polygraph on larry and whitehouse.com said they would publish results but they NEVER did..hmmm; all they said was that larry failed it??? if larry failed it then WHY haven''t they published results?????? FISHY, FISHY!
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by karela33 April 13, 2008 2:41 PM EDT
Can we trust Obama to speak for America? Well, let''s see; a compassionate man who listens to what voters say to him versus a woman who gets caught lying on video on the world news on a regular basis----hmmm, which one plays better? Hillary is a bitter pill.
Reply to this comment
by boston481 April 13, 2008 1:23 PM EDT
Why don''t we focus on the important issues of the candidates. So, what if the candidates make comments or express there true feelings. Let''s keep the spinning of these unimportant issues for the spiders.
Reply to this comment
by lottobee April 13, 2008 12:45 PM EDT
If Obama cannot be trusted to say the right thing at something as trivial as a fundraiser ---- do you trust him to represent the entire country when he deals with foreign leaders? Apparently his brain has been affected by the cocaine of his youthful adventures. We''ve already had a former alcoholic in office and look at the mess he made. Now you want someone who used cocaine to run the country. Is that why all the college kids are ga-ga over him? That''s some example for the youth of this country. Where are the adults and where is the common sense?
Reply to this comment
by lottobee April 13, 2008 12:37 PM EDT
Obama has revealed himself with his comments to the elitist audience at the fundraiser in CA. The charade is over. Now we know that he looks down on the working class. If you look at the full quote from the beginning -- he is identifying himself with the elitists with "Our challenge is to persuade" (referring to those gun toting, religion clinging working class people). Is this the kind of president you want? The one who identifies with the latte drinking elitists and shows you a different face when it comes time to get your votes. I prefer someone who has already proven their loyalty to me with results. This country is in serious trouble and we have no time for someone whose mouth is not connected to his brain.
Reply to this comment
by truth-hurts April 13, 2008 9:01 AM EDT
OBAMA HAS DIVIDED THE BLACKS

AND THE WHITES.

OBAMA HAS DIVIDED THE RICH

AND THE POOR.

OBAMA HAS DIVIDED RURAL AMERICA

AND THE CITIES.


I THINK THIS MAN HAS A SICKNESS

THAT COMES FROM HAVING A WHITE

MOTHER AND A BLACK FATHER. BECAUSE

OF HIS OWN DIVISION, HE SEES ALL OF

LIFE AS BEING DIVIDED, AND WHAT

ISN''T, HE DIVIDES SO IT WILL FIT

INTO HIS WORLD.
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