Making comments about faith, gun ownership, and rural politics should be handled delicately since it is so easy to be misunderstood. I personally find Senator Obama no more elitist or out of touch than Senator Clinton or Senator McCain, each have their opinion on how the nation could/should be ordered and governed. Nonetheless, it is hard to get the cat back back into the bag now! I wonder if the only safe venue to explore faith, gun ownership, and rural politics is pillow-talk?! I imagine the following proposition is all but insane; but, could we all try to speak the same message no matter who is present in the audience or where we are speaking? Let the truth simply be the truth...
* Obama tells paper if he offended anyone, he deeply regrets it
* Obama last week said some Pennsylvanians are bitter and cling to guns, religion
* McCain, Clinton have accused him of being elitist, out of touch
MUNCIE, Indiana (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday tried to clarify what he meant when he said some small-town Pennsylvanians are "bitter" people who "cling to guns and religion."
"I didn't say it as well as I should have," Obama admitted in Muncie, Indiana, on Saturday, the day after he first defended his comments, "because the truth is that these traditions that are passed on from generation to generation -- those are important."
The Illinois senator made the controversial comments at a California event that was closed to the media last Sunday.
Obama defended his point of view amid intensified criticism from Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain that's he's elitist and out of touch.
"Obviously, if I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that," Obama said Saturday in an interview with the Winston-Salem Journal, according to a transcript provided by his campaign. VideoWatch how the 'bitter' battle is playing out on the trail »
"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 told the North Carolina newspaper. "And I hear it all the time when I visit these communities."
Clinton, speaking in Indianapolis, said she was "taken back" by what she referred as "demeaning remarks" about "small-town" Americans.
"Sen. Obama's remarks are elitist and out of touch. They are not reflective of values and beliefs of Americans, certainly not the Americans I know, not the Americans I grew up with, not the Americans I lived with in Arkansas or represent in New York," the senator from New York said.
She said Americans who believe in the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, "believe it's a matter of constitutional right." And she said "Americans who believe in God believe it's a matter of personal faith."
Tucker Bounds -- spokesman for McCain, the senator from Arizona -- also said that the reverence for faith and the Second Amendment in the United States are "cornerstone customs" and that Obama's "dismissal of those values is revealing."
"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."
Obama told the Muncie audience that the back-and-forth between him and his rivals is "typical."
His campaign emphasized that the "traditions" Obama referred to in his remarks are those of gun ownership and religion. Obama added that those traditions are "what sustains us."
Obama also labeled the dust-up that's developed as "a little typical sort of political flare-up" because, as he contends, he said something that "everybody knows is true."
The Democratic candidate continued to maintain -- as he did Friday night after the initial story began to circulate -- that people are frustrated because Washington isn't listening to the average American. VideoWatch a Pennsylvania senator defend Obama »
"There are a whole bunch of folks in small towns in Pennsylvania, in towns right here in Indiana, in my home town in Illinois who are bitter. They are angry."
"When you're bitter, you turn to what you can count on," Obama said, adding that they then turn to voting "about guns" and "taking comfort" in their faith and family.
"That's a natural response."
Obama's original comments were posted Friday on the Web site Huffingtonpost.com. VideoWatch how the firestorm started »
"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. ...
"And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are going to regenerate and they have not," he said.
"And 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 also said.
CNN's Dana Bash, Peter Hamby and Chris Welch contributed to this report.
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/13/obama.clinton/index.html
© 2008 Cable News Network
* Obama tells paper if he offended anyone, he deeply regrets it
* Obama last week said some Pennsylvanians are bitter and cling to guns, religion
* McCain, Clinton have accused him of being elitist, out of touch
MUNCIE, Indiana (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday tried to clarify what he meant when he said some small-town Pennsylvanians are "bitter" people who "cling to guns and religion."
"I didn't say it as well as I should have," Obama admitted in Muncie, Indiana, on Saturday, the day after he first defended his comments, "because the truth is that these traditions that are passed on from generation to generation -- those are important."
The Illinois senator made the controversial comments at a California event that was closed to the media last Sunday.
Obama defended his point of view amid intensified criticism from Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain that's he's elitist and out of touch.
"Obviously, if I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that," Obama said Saturday in an interview with the Winston-Salem Journal, according to a transcript provided by his campaign. VideoWatch how the 'bitter' battle is playing out on the trail »
"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 told the North Carolina newspaper. "And I hear it all the time when I visit these communities."
Clinton, speaking in Indianapolis, said she was "taken back" by what she referred as "demeaning remarks" about "small-town" Americans.
"Sen. Obama's remarks are elitist and out of touch. They are not reflective of values and beliefs of Americans, certainly not the Americans I know, not the Americans I grew up with, not the Americans I lived with in Arkansas or represent in New York," the senator from New York said.
She said Americans who believe in the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, "believe it's a matter of constitutional right." And she said "Americans who believe in God believe it's a matter of personal faith."
Tucker Bounds -- spokesman for McCain, the senator from Arizona -- also said that the reverence for faith and the Second Amendment in the United States are "cornerstone customs" and that Obama's "dismissal of those values is revealing."
"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."
Obama told the Muncie audience that the back-and-forth between him and his rivals is "typical."
His campaign emphasized that the "traditions" Obama referred to in his remarks are those of gun ownership and religion. Obama added that those traditions are "what sustains us."
Obama also labeled the dust-up that's developed as "a little typical sort of political flare-up" because, as he contends, he said something that "everybody knows is true."
The Democratic candidate continued to maintain -- as he did Friday night after the initial story began to circulate -- that people are frustrated because Washington isn't listening to the average American. VideoWatch a Pennsylvania senator defend Obama »
"There are a whole bunch of folks in small towns in Pennsylvania, in towns right here in Indiana, in my home town in Illinois who are bitter. They are angry."
"When you're bitter, you turn to what you can count on," Obama said, adding that they then turn to voting "about guns" and "taking comfort" in their faith and family.
"That's a natural response."
Obama's original comments were posted Friday on the Web site Huffingtonpost.com. VideoWatch how the firestorm started »
"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. ...
"And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are going to regenerate and they have not," he said.
"And 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 also said.
CNN's Dana Bash, Peter Hamby and Chris Welch contributed to this report.
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/13/obama.clinton/index.html
© 2008 Cable News Network
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