Barack Obama is now in full scale damage control. On Friday and again on Saturday he struggled to explain that he was merely expressing sympathy with the poor folk who have been left aggrieved and, yes, bitter by the heartless government. There really are two problems, neither of which is going to go away.

First, Mr. Hope thinks the little folk are bitter. Even Chris Matthews remarked last night “Nobody wants to be called bitter.” The little folk, Hillary Clinton says, are not bitter and don’t like being told they are. I suspect Pennsylvanians are going to side with Hillary on that one.

Second, there is no escaping his academic analysis of working class Americans: they irrationally cling to guns, religion and antiquated views because the government had done them wrong.

As to the latter even Hillary could see the problem:

You know, Americans who believe in the Second Amendment believe it’s a matter of Constitutional rights. Americans who believe in God believe it is a matter of personal faith. Americans who believe in protecting good American jobs believe it is a matter of the American Dream. . . The people of faith I know don’t “cling to” religion because they’re bitter. People embrace faith not because they are materially poor, but because they are spiritually rich. Our faith is the faith of our parents and our grandparents. It is a fundamental expression of who we are and what we believe.

That is probably the smartest thing she’s said in her entire political career.

If she wins the Keystone state next week going away she will enjoy a breath of life and the hope that superdelegates will conclude that Obama has poisoned his own well. For now, Obama is flailing away in a sea of scathing criticism.

How damaging this gaffe is may not be known until all those gun- and religion-clinging voters in Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana and North Carolina get their say. ( And by the way, this is why Hillary was right to not give up. Now she never will.)