April 22, 2008 6:05 AM
Clinging to Mellencamp: 'Ain't that America'
Sen. Barack Obama apparently has decided not to be "bitter" about the way some of his recent comments about rural America have been perceived.
Instead, he's retreating to "Little Pink Houses" and trying to win fans back.
Tonight, while Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will be in Philadelphia, celebrating what she hopes will be a big win in the Pennsylvania primary, Obama will be in Evansville, Ind., jammin' with middle American icon John Mellencamp.
You remember Mellencamp, the erstwhile "Cougar" and champion of rural America. On the night before the Iowa caucuses, he braved sub-freezing temperatures to perform an 11th hour concert for former Sen. John Edwards.
After Edwards suspended his campaign earlier this year, some folks thought he would immediately endorse Obama. He most definitely did not.
And in recent weeks, Edwards' backers like rural strategist Dave "Mudcat" Saunders heaped on the criticism of Obama after he was caught on tape (at a San Francisco fundraiser, no less) saying that folks in rural Pennsylvania are "bitter" and cling to their guns, religion and distrust of people who aren't like them because the government hasn't lived up to promises and fixed their economic woes.
"It could mean he's rendered himself unelectable," Saunders told the New York Times. "This is a perfect example of why Democrats lose elections."
And so, what's an alleged "elitist" (and son of a single mother from Kansas) to do?
Obama asks Mellencamp, a beloved figure in small-town America and his home state of Indiana, to help him build a fire wall in the Hoosier State.
Ain't that America...
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