In my experience, Riginslinger, virtually everyone is bitter about something....but it should be no news to anyone that lower income Americans are bitter. I thought it was common knowledge. (?) Hell, what could be more obvious than that there's a lot of bitterness out there? People feel powerless. They feel that their governments and leaders have betrayed them. They feel that nothing they do makes any difference to the way their society is run, and that their vote ends up meaning little or nothing.

They're right!

Now, what tends to go wrong when people, quite justifiably, feel bitter about stuff like that is that a lot of their frustration ends up getting dumped on other ordinary people who are not responsible in any way for the fix that all the ordinary people are in.

Why should any of that surprise anyone? As I said, it's obvious. It happens everywhere, not just in the USA. It's a worldwide problem. Obama was stating something that is totally, utterly obvious to anyone who's not afraid to hear someone else say it in public, and silly enough to take it personally when they do.