Barack Obama's battle to win the soul of blue-collar America suffered a major blow Friday when he claimed small-town Pennsylvanians "cling to" God, guns and hostility toward immigrants to cope with their bitterness over the economy.
Hillary Clinton and John McCain wasted little time in blasting Harvard-educated Obama of elitism, condescension and insensitivity to the little-town blues of working-class Americans.
"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them," Obama told supporters at a San Francisco fundraiser Sunday, according to a transcript posted on the Huffington Post blog.
"It's not surprising then 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," he added.
Obama's campaign didn't deny the account, which was later verified by an audiotape provided to CNN.
Clinton, who has seen her once-commanding lead over Obama shrink ahead of the Keystone State's April 22 Democratic primary, opened her speech in Philadelphia late Friday with an anti-Obama broadside.
"My opponent said that the people of Pennsylvania who faced hard times are bitter," she said. "Pennsylvanians don't need a president who looks down on them, they need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, your families."
McCain's camp went even farther.
"It's a remarkable statement," said McCain's senior adviser, Steve Schmidt. "It shows an elitism and condescension towards hard-working Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking. It is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans."
No comments:
Post a Comment