What Obama should have said

At the end of Wednesday's PA debate - disastrous on many fronts - Obama needed to make his own version of the following closing statement - written the day before that debate and sent to his staff at that time:

My fellow Americans, particularly those who will vote in Pennsylvania next Tuesday, this past week has been one of the most difficult of our campaign. A week ago, in confidential comments to my supporters and behind closed doors I made several remarks about the difficult if not desperate state of many in small town America. These comments were secretly recorded and without my permission illegitimately transferred to my opponent. As most of you know, using these remarks, Mrs. Clinton has directed days of savage attacks against me and our campaign. I have done my best to make it clear what I actually said. Not only have I shown every word of what I said on my web site but I have reprinted how this confidential talk was reported by Time magazine. Still, to many people it is not clear what I said but it is clear to everyone what Mrs. Clinton has said. I think it is important to emphasize that her remarks need no interpretation; they did not need to be stolen from her confidential talk to her staff or supporters. They were a transparent effort to destroy me and my campaign. She and I have agreed, on many occasions in public, that we stand for the same things in this campaign: a safe and rapid exit from Iraq, support for jobs and health care, an economy that works for all those who work not just those privileged few who now enjoy the fruits of the work of others. What differs between us is our approach. Mrs. Clinton would destroy anyone who gets in her way including me. What she is overlooking is that no matter which of us becomes president that person will need the strong support of the other to advance the objectives we both share. The destruction Mrs. Clinton is now seeking for me, my campaign and on the Democratic Party is by no means the first time she has done this. Setting aside all the fluff about Bosnia, and about foreign experience, Mrs. Clinton had only one major responsibility when she was in the White House with her husband: to get a good health care reform bill passed. Then, as now, she could not cooperate. She kept her plan secret and sought to destroy those who stood in her way. It was more her style than the content of the proposals that doomed decent health care in this country for decades. My fellow Americans, in Pennsylvania and across this great land, if you think that deceit and destruction will serve your interests in this democracy of ours then your choice is simple. If you believe openness, hopes for the future, decency to others, collaboration and genuine respect for your opponents is the way to go your choice is equally simple.