Bittergate: Day Two

The headlines:

1. Obama walks back on the phrasing, if not the content, of his remarks, telling an audience in Muncie Indiana that "I didn’t say it as well as I should have because the truth is that these traditions that are passed on from generation to generation, those are important. That’s what sustains us."



2. Clinton campaign launches surrogate shock and awe; Clinton herself will bring up the comment at each of her four events today; the campaign encourages surrogates in various Midwestern states to react. Sen. Evan Bayh: "

You're on dangerous ground when you morph [anger about economy] into suggesting that peoples cultural values whether its religion or hunting and fishing or concern about trade are premised solely upon those kinds of anxieties and don't have a legitimate foundation independent of that."

3. The chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party characterized Obama as describing "Pennsylvanians as bitter gun-toting, racist, religious fanatics."

4. Some data for the bitter...