With the Pennsylvania primary a week away and polls showing the race tightening up from Senator Clinton’s 20 point lead a few weeks ago to her current single digit lead she is back to trying to throw negative attention toward Senator Obama. Her latest tactic is calling Senator Obama elitist and divisive after remarks he made at a fundraiser in San Francisco. He said some working-class voters have grown frustrated with the economy. Duh, everybody has grown frustrated with the economy. She said that Senator Obama is out of touch with their concerns. If she doesn’t see that voters are frustrated with the economy, then she is not out of touch, but blind and deaf also. He went on to say, “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.”
However, Senator Clinton may not get as much reaction as she hoped it would judging by some remarks from Pennsylvania voters. One voter who seems like just the sort of Pennsylvanian who might have been offended by Senator Barack Obama’s comments that small-town residents “get bitter” and “cling to guns or religion” said, “we believe in God, and I own a couple of guns.” This voter says he switched his party registration from Republication to Democrat so he could back Senator Obama in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary. He says Senator Hillary Clinton’s criticisms Sunday that Senator Obama’s comments were “elitist and divisive” haven’t moved him. Even conservative Republicans didn’t muster the sort of outrage over Senator Obama’s remarks that Senator Clinton and her backers were expressing Sunday. They say that Obama’s remarks lack judgment and understanding, but that many small-town residents are indeed bitter. “Hell, yeah, they’re bitter,” said one retired resident. “George Bu$h has been a disappointment. The economy. Jobs. Immigration -- we’re being invaded.” One man with an Obama sign in his front yard, called the notion of Obama as an elitist “really hilarious.” Senator Obama, who was raised by a single mother, “had to make his own opportunities. He didn’t have anything handed to him, the way Hillary did,” he said. He said he has never before been active in a political campaign. “He is different from anybody I can remember running for president,” he said of Obama. “He’s really for the little people, not the special interests.”
Senator Obama told the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal on Saturday that he regretted his choice of words. “But the underlying truth of what I said remains, which is simply that people who have seen their way of life upended because of economic distress are frustrated and rightfully, so.”
Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania says, "In towns like yours and mine, families are struggling with bills they can't afford and jobs moving away. It has to change but it won't until we change Washington. That's why I believe in Barack Obama. I've worked with him. I've seen him stand up to the lobbyists and special interests. And like us, he's tired of the political games and division that stops anything from getting done. Barack Obama knows Pennsylvania's hurting. He can unite America and bring real change." Senator Casey, a freshman senator, is a key endorser of Senator Obama in a state whose governor and big-city mayors are backing Senator Clinton. Like his late father, a well-liked governor, Casey opposes abortion rights and is popular among many Catholics and blue-collar Democrats who are crucial to Clinton's hopes. Senators Obama and Clinton will meet Wednesday at National Constitution Center in Philadelphia for the 24th debate of the Democratic presidential campaign. It will be televised on ABC 8 to 10 p.m. ET.
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