Maybe not.  Hillary Clinton knows she’s onto an issue that can get her mojo back with the supers by depicting opponent Barack Obama as an “out-of-touch elitist” who doesn’t understand small town and blue-collar Americans. Anybody who smacks of an out-of-touch elitist is the kiss of death for Democrats who want no repeat of the failure of recent nominees. Remember John Kerry? Or Al Gore?  Hillary is taking some power shots at Obama, implying that his arrogance won't play well in November  -- this and more, portraying herself as a woman of God and guns. So why wouldn't he paint her as a latter day Annie Oakley?

 Hillary knows that she stands a better chance of sealing the nomination with the super delegates if she's able to convince them that Obama is not electable because he can’t connect with small town Americans. It also gives her a reason to press the battle all the way to the convention.

So Sen. Clinton suggested at the “compassion forum” Sunday night that Americans rejected Democrats in 2000 and 2004 who were “men of faith” but who voters saw as elitist. And even before, looking back at 1988, Michael Dukakis appeared to be out-of-touch with his cerebral approach and his coldblooded answer to a death penalty question that ignored the hypothetical that his wife was the victim of the crime.

           Above all, Democrats – particularly those who are party leaders and officeholders—want to win the election in November.  And even with a primary victory in Pennsylvania, Clinton can’t catch Obama in the delegate count without winning over the super delegates.

            That’s why Obama’s comments about bitter voters in small towns, made at a closed fundraiser among some elites in San Francisco, is reverberating and could turn out to be a big deal in this nomination fight.  That’s why Hillary is making it such an issue.  (Her supporters handed out “I’m not bitter” stickers in North Carolina, and the issue was the talk of the Sunday TV chatter class).

            Obama’s comments, posted Friday on the Huffington Post Web site, set off criticism not just from Clinton but also from apparent GOP nominee John McCain.  The comments pointed to Obama’s potential flaws as a nominee – that he comes across as an aloof, Harvard-educated lawyer, and that his comments resulted from inexperience.

            For the record, what he said was that working-class voters (in Pennsylvania) have become frustrated with economic conditions.  “It’s not surprising then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

            That set off not just Clinton’s “out-of-touch” label of Obama but a whole lot of Democratic God-and-gun talk. Sen. Clinton started talking about hunting expeditions as a kid with her dad and her own religious life.

 So now it’s silly season. Obama taunts Clinton for “talking like she’s Annie Oakley” and says he wants to see a picture of her out in the duck blinds.

            I can’t wait to see this week’s Saturday Night Live.  I have visions of Hillary-Annie with her shotgun in a duck blind reading her Bible as Obama is depicted sipping Chardonnay with San Fran fat cats. (This week’s SNL episode blistered her for smilingly portraying herself at the Petraeus hearings as always having been opposed to the war in Iraq.)

            The irony is that, for the first time, there is a viable black candidate, and he gets pigeonholed as being too “privileged” and out-of-touch with average folks.  Adding to the irony is that his “coolness” – which some may interpret as aloofness – is what has attracted millions of young people, along with his honesty and idealism.

            The timing of Obama’s snafu couldn’t have been better for Sen. Clinton – taking the heat off of her and her embellished “sniper fire” landing in Bosnia, which hubby Bill strangely had reprised even as she was trying put it behind her.  Another instance when she had to tell the former president to zip it.

            Will the “bitter” Americans comment become a major factor in this campaign?  Stranger things have happened since the Internet exploded on the scene with videos of candidate mistakes such as George Allen’s killer “Macaca” statement and the Howard Dean scream – both replayed ad nausium online and on 24-7 cable TV.

            Republicans must be getting a big chortle over this whole episode.  This sort of interplay between the two Democratic hopefuls only makes John McCain look better in November. 

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