Just a reminder that a record of insulting voters doesn’t necessarily prevent a candidate from winning his nation’s highest office.

A political storm is brewing over Sen. Barack Obama’s recent statements. Last Sunday, Obama was explaining his difficulty with winning over working-class voters in Pennsylvania and the Midwest, saying they have become frustrated with economic conditions:

“And it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,” Obama said.

That was August 2008. In November of the same year he was elected president.