I just had a flashback and not in a good way.
I just had a flashback of the 7th grade. I remember this little pain in the ass girl (sorry folks but she was a girl), who lived to cause trouble. For starters, she was a busy-body-know-it-all who was forever in everyone's business. I have vivid recollections (real ones not the fabricated variety) of her saying her favorite line: "Did you hear what Mary said about you?"
I was watching Hillary Clinton tell a group today what Barack Obama said about them. It suddenly hit me. Hillary is that 7th grade girl we all wanted to smack (but didn't). The whole "what she said" thing didn't even have to necessarily true. It just had to create drama. Just like Clinton, this girl knew very well that the words were not meant in a hurtful way but that did not stop her. The goal was drama and upheaval. I could never understand it when I was a kid.
When I became a classroom teacher, I would see the same behavior in adolescents. I came to the oversimplified conclusion that, during this particular age, kids tend to be a bit insecure. They want and need attention. They all want to be the center of attention. They all want their place in the pecking order. Because they have no concept of the idea that multiple powerful personalities can co-exist, they try to put each other down. Those Middle School (Junior High in most places) years are the hardest for both the students and their instructors. So many want to be part of the cool group but the only way they know how to move up the pecking order is to put down other students or, and here's our little "she said" kid, get other kids to do it to each other. Actually very underhanded and sneaky but not an entirely stupid move. If the "she said" kid repeats something to you, you take it the wrong way and get upset, you're the one who got it wrong. The listener has to be gullible for it all to work. "She said" kid is off the hook.
I got the same vibe from watching Hillary. Desperate to get to the top of the ticket, she is out of options other than telling people "He said you're bitter". She also goes one step further by implying, "He thinks he's better than you." Classic 7th grade behavior. However, for the "she said" kid to succeed, the listener has to be gullible. So what we have really here is Hillary treating voters like they're stupid 7th graders.
Now that's insulting!
Psst! Pennsylvania. Hillary thinks you're stupid!