Barack Obama tries the “I’m sorry if you were offended, but I was really right” approach. Does he not understand what he said? (Even the New York Times could figure it out, quoting a former John Edwards’ advisor: “It could mean he’s rendered himself unelectable. This is a perfect example of why Democrats lose elections.”) Apparently Obama does not, and this is starting to sound familiar.

The Washington Post reports this about Barack Obama’s team:

They described Obama as frustrated with himself for word choices such as “cling” and references to hot-button issues including religion and guns, but also stunned at the uproar over what to him seemed a fundamental fact of American life.

Well there you have it: he’s shocked, shocked to hear that people might be upset about his theory that they are bitter and psychologically dependent on guns, religion, anti-immigrant sentiment and protectionism. (Again, his own devotion to the latter is based on what exactly?) The problem was the word “cling.” Had he used “grasp” or “find irrational refuge in” instead of “cling” the fall out would have been mild.

Well, it is hard to deny that this goes to the issue of his utter cluelessness about average Americans. Why don’t they get the brilliance of Rev. Wright and how would anyone mind that he sat in Wright’s pews for so long? Ah, they are judgmental and ignorant of their country’s own racial divisions. Why is everyone in a tizzy about his sage analysis of rural America when any Harvard Ph.D would echo it virtually verbatim? Ah, once again folks are just ignorant and defensive.

Give the man his due. I think most observers would acknowledge that Obama is entirely capable of assuming the presidency of any Ivy League institution. He understands its values and ethos and speaks its language. The notion of a “dignity promotion” for despotic régimes seems entirely credible in these places. He and the academic Left have got more dimensions of compatibilty than an eHarmony convention.

But what about the presidency of the rest of the country? He still doesn’t understand what’s the matter with the darn fools. (He has managed to make Hillary Clinton seem by comparison like salt of the earth and the best friend of Middle America.) He may have even lost the mainstream media. ( Ouch, ouch, ouch and ouch.) Obama seems ever to be talking past, or over the heads of, the masses. In short, he just may be too erudite and sophisticated for the likes of us.