Under fire, Obama Clarifies Small-Town Remarks

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters)

Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama tried to quell a political furor on Saturday over his comments about small-town Pennsylvanians, saying he used the wrong words to describe their mood.



Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate John McCain kept the heat on the Illinois senator for his comments that small-town residents were bitter over job losses and turned in frustration to religion, guns and anti-immigrant sentiments.

Clinton, campaigning in Indiana before the state's May 6 contest, said the comments were elitist, divisive and out of touch and did not reflect the values of Americans she met.


"I don't think it helps to divide our country into one America that is enlightened and one that is not," Clinton, a New York senator, said in Indianapolis. "If you want to be the president of all Americans, you need to respect all Americans."


Obama said he did not use the right language to describe the anger and frustration small-town residents feel about the struggling economy and the failure of government to help them.


"I said something that everybody knows is true, which is that there are a whole bunch of folks in small towns in Pennsylvania, in towns right here in Indiana, in my hometown in Illinois, who are bitter," Obama said in Muncie, Indiana.


"So I said well you know when you're bitter you turn to what you can count on. So people they vote about guns, or they take comfort from their faith and their family and their community," he said.

"Now, I didn't say it as well as I should have."


In an interview with the Winston-Salem Journal, Obama said, "If I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that.


"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," he was quoted as saying.


Obama touched off the controversy with his remarks at a closed San Francisco fundraiser earlier in the week. The remarks became public on Friday.


He said jobs had been disappearing in small towns in Pennsylvania and across the Midwest for 25 years with nothing to replace them.
"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 said.


The furor could threaten Obama's chances in Pennsylvania, which votes on April 22, the next big showdown in his fight with Clinton for the Democratic nomination to face McCain in November's presidential election.
Clinton once enjoyed a big lead in Pennsylvania polls but that has dwindled to about 4 to 6 points in a state that has struggled from job losses and has a large number of the blue-collar voters who have been Clinton's biggest backers.


Both Democratic candidates have campaigned for the support of working-class families battling a shaky job market and a home foreclosure crisis.


Clinton visited a transmission assembly plant in Indianapolis that supplies U.S. tanks to talk about her plans to rejuvenate defense industries. She later took a tour and met with employees of a plant in Mishawaka, Indiana, that manufactures Humvees for the military.


Obama's comments "are not reflective of the values and beliefs of Americans," she said.


"Americans who believe in God believe it's a matter of personal faith. People embrace faith not because they are materially poor but because they are spiritually rich."


The Obama campaign accused Clinton of supporting special interests that leave common workers behind.


"We won't be lectured on being out of touch by Sen. Clinton, who believes lobbyists represent real people and is awash in their money," said Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan.


Obama also came under fire from McCain's campaign.


"Barack Obama's elitism allows him to believe that the American traditions that have contributed to the identity and greatness of this country are actually just frustrations and bitterness," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said.


Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, a Clinton supporter, said the controversy could hurt Obama's effort to win over superdelegates, the Democratic Party insiders who are free to back any candidate at the August nominating convention and could decide the race.


Obama leads Clinton in pledged delegates won in state contests, but neither is likely to reach the 2,024 needed for nomination without support of the nearly 800 superdelegates.


"It's a real potential political problem and it's something for superdelegates and voters to think about," Bayh said.


"We have to win the election in November and the far right wing has a real good track record of using things like this against our candidates," he said.

__________________________________

I am not feeling any of the presidential hopefuls, I think Obama is a wolf in sheeps clothing, Hillary Clinton is too far left and a liar, and I think John McCain is...well, who knows, but I am not supporting much of anything this year. I'll vote of course, but it certainly isn't anything I'll be proud of.

Usually I do not even read political articles because it's the same old thing again and again, however I was bored and read this article on Obama. The more I read about this man the more I like Hillary Clinton.

I can't believe I just said that.

Her point is kind of accurate, actually. I live in such towns...

It is the case that when a man is employed and life is being kind to him, he tends to let the problems of the world wash over him as he does not feel their impact. However when he is suffering he tends to look at the reason for his suffering,... it's only common sense. However this does not suit the politicians as there is little that they are willing to do about it, so they turn on those whom they see as critical of the policies that they espouse.

Classic case of defence by "offence" (by offending those who's views don't suit you) A typical politicians move.

Yep,... If you're Rich, fat and happy, the world is a wonderful place. It is not necessarily so for others. Who in his right mind, would castigate them for taking comfort in the things that they know and trust?.

Everyone is satisfied and frustrated in their own way.
Nice move Obama.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzTysqw6_P8

It's all the fault of the Pencilneck Geeks!


Lonnie Courtney Clay

Sweet deal. Anything Obama does to hurt his chances is a good thing.

Having lived in NYC for 5 years before spending the last 5 years here in rural upstate, I have to say, I've seen far LESS frustrated people! In the city it was always way more tense and frustrated than here... especially at rush hour. I wouldn't move back there if I got paid a lot more to do so.

Also, having lived in all three types of places; suburbs first, then the city, then the countryside, I have to say I am sick of people from the city thinking they're the most enlightened people, so far ahead of everyone else. Just because you have to put up with a diverse array of annoying people swarming about all day doesn't make you better.

Here's something a friend of mine wrote that I belive sums it up quite well.

Obama’s words offensive, but no less true

The last thing Americans want to hear is a message with negative connotations that shatter their perceived bubble of comfort, especially when that message happens to be true. That is the way I see the latest reaction to Illinois Senator and Presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s comments on small towns left ‘bitter’ by a failing economy and a system that they put their trust into, only to have that system betray them and take every last penny they’ve earned.

It’s a common happening. When the Republicans were campaigning in Michigan, a state bereft of good paying jobs thanks to outsourcing and stronger competition from foreign car manufacturers, John McCain did something people often say they want politicians to do, but even more often punish for doing; he told the truth. He stated that those manufacturing jobs weren’t likely to come back and something else must be done to revitalize Detroit and cities like it. Mitt Romney pounced on that comment and it may have lead to McCain’s loss in the Michigan primary. Mr. Romney offered the utopian alternative where a little elbow grease would reverse a decade of poor business decisions and damage done by NAFTA, otherwise known as a lie, and people bought into it.

The latest buzz about Obama’s comments are no different. Could he have worded it differently? Oh, absolutely! He left himself wide open for his opponents and others critical of him to pounce, and he has no one to blame but himself. However, all it takes is a little logical thought to determine what he meant. In lean times, when nothing is sacred and jobs are leaving along with the young people who are able to leave in search of better opportunity, neighbors are left homeless by foreclosures, and retirees’ savings are destroyed or stolen by corrupt CEO’s, the small town American returns to the only things that no matter what have been bedrock and unmoving. Those things are their faith in their religion and their means of protecting themselves and their homes. And rightly so do they turn to what stabilizes them, for that may be all that they have left.

With the way things have been going the past couple decades, people are bitter and they are angry. There is a real reason that people do not trust the Government, and that is precisely the point Barack Obama was trying to make. Perhaps that isn’t the reason people ‘cling’ to their religion, to their guns, and to blaming the obvious failings of the Government such as our broken borders, but such mistrust and feelings of betrayal do renew the grip small town Americans have on the things they know are solid and reminds them of a time when the country was more stable and prosperous.

But it is at times like this, also, that people are most vulnerable to being tricked by their desire to want to be told what they want to hear, not what they need to hear. When the economy is suffering, people want to hear politicians tell them that though times are tough, they are working to fix it, and this that and the other thing is what they’re going to do fix it, and we’ll all live happily ever after, regardless of whether or not anything is truly being done. Well, I’m glad I’m not running for a high office, because I’m going to say something that folks don’t want to hear; only make-believe fairy tales end with ‘happily ever after’. John McCain told folks how it was in Michigan, and he paid the price of losing the primary. Barack Obama called it how he saw it without a sugar coating, that people are angry because of the way things are, and now he’s ensnared in a firestorm being fueled by his opponents and critics.

What is America’s obsession with presenting this Catch-22 to our politicians? We demand them to tell the truth. When they do, we call them ‘elitist and out of touch’. When they sugar coat things to make us smile then get caught in their lies, they pay the price with losing elections that results in forever branding politicians of all walks as perpetual liars and cheats. Well my fellow Americans, I have another truth for you that makes me glad I’m not running for a high office; You reap what you sew.

When Americans buy into ten second sound bites, they are inviting bad policy and politicians to wreak havoc on the political system. If Americans truly want better government, then it’s time the majority of us put down the Huffington Post and turn off Hannity’s America. Stop listening to the talking heads who have an agenda of their own. You want a better America, America? Get off your rump, do your own independent research, and realize that sometimes, somebody is going to tell you something you don’t want to hear.

I raelly don't think Obama has a clue as to what small town America is about. And he's done a fine job of P.O. ing them now.

Originally Posted by senojekips

It is the case that when a man is employed and life is being kind to him, he tends to let the problems of the world wash over him as he does not feel their impact. However when he is suffering he tends to look at the reason for his suffering,... it's only common sense. However this does not suit the politicians as there is little that they are willing to do about it, so they turn on those whom they see as critical of the policies that they espouse.

Classic case of defence by "offence" (by offending those who's views don't suit you) A typical politicians move.

Yep,... If you're Rich, fat and happy, the world is a wonderful place. It is not necessarily so for others. Who in his right mind, would castigate them for taking comfort in the things that they know and trust?.

Thank you, my thoughts exactly.