Going Too Far

While I don't blame the Clinton camp for trying to capitalize on Obama's poorly-considered remarks in San Francisco last week, this is going too far:

Clinton said she'd seen in the media that "my opponent said that the people of Pennsylvania who faced hard times are bitter."

"Well, that’s not my experience," she continued. "As I travel around Pennsylvania, I meet people who are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive, who are rolling up their sleeves. They’re working hard every day for a better future for themselves and their children."

"Pennsylvanians don’t need a president who looks down on them. They need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, and your families," she said, implicitly casting Obama as an elitist.

That's an incredibly reckless thing to say about the person who will, in all likelihood, end up being the Democratic nominee. There is no question that in the general election, Republicans will try to paint Obama as an elitist liberal snob who is out of touch with "regular people." This is what the GOP has tried to do--with considerable success--to every Democratic nominee in my lifetime. It's their favorite, most treasured line of attack. They'll do the same thing if Clinton is the nominee.

So to have as prominent a Democrat as Clinton go out of her way to reinforce that theme is incredibly damaging to the party, much more so than the remarks themselves.

When Rush Limbaugh and Hillary Clinton are engaged in the exact same kind of character attack, and it's directed at the likely Democratic nominee, then we have a real problem.