WP: For Obama and McCain, the Bitter and the Sweet
By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, April 15, 2008; Page A03
Associated Press Chairman Dean Singleton, seated, was very sorry for commingling the names of the candidate and the terrorist. (Charles Dharapak/AP)
So much for the liberal media.
John McCain and Barack Obama both appeared before the nation's newspaper editors yesterday. The putative Republican presidential nominee was given a box of doughnuts and a standing ovation. The likely Democratic nominee was likened to a terrorist. At a luncheon for the editors hosted by the Associated Press, AP Chairman Dean Singleton quizzed Obama about whether he would send more troops to Afghanistan, where "Obama bin Laden is still at large?"
"I think that was Osama bin Laden," the candidate answered.
"If I did that, I'm so sorry!" Singleton said.
"This," Obama told the editors, is "part of the exercise that I've been going through over the last 15 months."
Bitter, are we?
The past few days have left a bad taste in the mouth of the Democratic front-runner. In his worst gaffe of the campaign, he asserted (in San Francisco!) that Middle Americans have turned to God and guns and against immigrants because they are "bitter" about their economic lot....To shed the elitist label and regain his common-man credentials, Obama picked an inauspicious venue -- the annual gathering of the media elite, the American Society of Newspaper Editors. The result is likely to make the Democrat even more bitter. On the same day, the two media darlings of the presidential election cycle came to address their base -- and McCain easily bested his likely opponent.
McCain's moderators, the AP's Ron Fournier and Liz Sidoti, greeted McCain with a box of Dunkin' Donuts. "We spend quite a bit of time with you on the back of the Straight Talk Express asking you questions, and what we've decided to do today was invite everyone else along on the ride," Sidoti explained. "We even brought you your favorite treat." McCain opened the offering. "Oh, yes, with sprinkles!" he said....
The dueling appearances by McCain and Obama nicely captured the current dynamic in the presidential cycle. McCain, his nomination secure, had the luxury to joke and pander. Obama, wounded by the Democrats' internecine fighting, was defensive and somber....
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McCain got a standing ovation -- an honor Obama did not receive when his turn came two hours later.
The room and crowd were larger for Obama. The atmosphere was colder (this time, editors had to pass through metal detectors) and more formal (wine on each table and flowers on the dais). And the candidate was uncharacteristically flat. "I know that I've kept a lot of you guys busy this weekend with the comments I made last week. Some of you might even be a little bitter about that," he joked, before plodding his way through an earnest apology ("I regret some of the words I chose"), an angry countercharge ("If I had to carry the banner for eight years of George Bush's failures, I'd be looking for something else to talk about, too") and a recitation of his commoner bona fides ("My mother had to use food stamps at one point").
But the combination failed to change the subject. The first question: "Can a Democrat talk about guns, God and immigration without getting in trouble?"...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/14/AR2008041402633.html?hpid=topnews