The frame from the traditional media has been that Obama's "bitter, cling" comments will draw a, "yeah, and..?" response from his supporters. Put me firmly in that column and bear in mind that I'm someone who has found faith extremely useful in getting through hard times. My thing is this... he backed off a bit by saying that he wished he had phrased his comments differently, but what he really should do is go all in, like...
"I was wrong when I said that people are bitter because they have fallen through two administrations and been ignored for 25 years. Honestly, that doesn't capture it. People aren't bitter. They're pissed, and they should be. When you lose your job, your way of life and nobody comes to help, what else can we expect? People are pissed, and that makes it easy for 'straight-talkers' who own eight homes and have lobbyists running their campaigns to step in and say, 'the Democrats are elitists who hate your church' or 'they're gonna take your guns' and scare up enough support to bring on four more years of the policies that gave us the economy we have right now. I said that sometimes people cling to religion, but my faith tells me that joy cometh in the morning, that tomorrow will be better than today. That's something worth hanging on to, clinging to, so long as it doesn't become a substitute for working towards that new day."
I dunno. I'm not a speech writer (as should be obvious), but... you said it, you meant it even if it wasn't phrased as well as it could have been... so own it. Now put the ball in their court. People are hurting. They're scared. Turn this in to a case where you're the straight-talker who feels people's pain and show McCain for the cheesy, out of touch showboater that he is.
