Bitter Battle Blog

A lot of buzz has been raised over Barack Obama’s recent comments about small-town voters. The initial reaction was merely the public being called a name that they didn’t like. Voters like him to tell the truth, but start to get shifty when it pertains to them. Polls numbers show, however, that this offense didn’t take for long . His recent misstep shows how out of touch he is with the image of perfection that the media has built him up to be – and how he can relate to us normal-folk.

This is nothing new, especially to the blogosphere, mainstream media, or news sources.

The voters have moved on from this issue. Hillary never got the bump in the polls she was expecting, Obama is still gaining or holding ground in Pennsylvania (depending on what poll you look at), and the superdelegates aren’t moving. Without political gains on the issue, you would think that the story would be dead.

But it continues. We’ve had apologies before and we’ve had stories go on infinitely longer than they should have. This conversation is no longer about the content of the comment, however. It’s a game: how many entendres can we come up with “Bitter”? Now, don’t get me wrong – there have been some good ones. My favorite has been “Guns and Bitter”. They range from “Bitter Battle” to “Bitter-Sweet Symphony”. The most recent stories are how inconsequential these comments have been on the race at large.

I can’t help but feel that the continued frenzy over this issue is fueled by the plays on words that continue to plague articles. A new pun comes to mind, and someone on the tail end of the spin cycle contributes with an analogy of Obama trying to swallow a “bitter pill”. I’ve done my part to keep it going, too, with my own variation from the “Butter Battle Book”. Language has a powerful hold on this election. The level of political discourse in this country is higher than at any point in my lifetime, and I give much of the credit to Barack Obama’s powerful speeches that inspire a nation. It’s just a bit depressing to see this debasement of language by the infotainment (read: news) industry.

Now, I like puns as much as the next guy. Plays on words are the epitome of my sense of humor. But when language is stretched to the brink of uselessness merely for the sake of using another bad entendre, it creates a blasé attitude towards language in general – and I can’t afford to go through another era of “common” language.

It's not my fault. I guess the media has just made me bitter.