Yesterday I wrote that Barack Obama and the Democrats tried to dodge the most offensive part of his remarks in San Francisco by defending only the “bitterness” allegation. I also said that the national media had begun to focus on the same thing rather than the condescending dismissal of religious faith and gun-rights advocacy as caused by economic turbulence, and the broad assumption of xenophobia and bigotry among small-town Midwesterners. Jake Tapper at ABC has noticed the same trend:

As Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and his allies have locked into damage control mode and attempted to explain his controversial remarks about small-town Pennsylvanians, they’ve attempted to focus their pushback away from the most controversial part of his remarks to an elite crowd at a San Francisco fundraiser. …

While the description of small town Pennsylvanians as “bitter” is certainly impolitic, many political analysts say it’s what follows that adjective that is potentially so alienating — the notion that small town folks “get bitter” after which “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.”

But Obama allies are trying to focus on the “bitter” part alone.

It’s understandable. Had he just stopped there, he would have had an arguable point. Unfortunately, he didn’t stop there — and he revealed the snobby, elitist view of middle America that is held by the hard Left. Perhaps more media outlets allow him this defense because they also don’t understand the offensive and snobbish nature of the remarks that follow.