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WASHINGTON : Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama was forced Saturday to defend his comments on the struggles of working class voters after being slammed for saying they were "bitter."
"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 ... who are bitter," he said at a rally Saturday.
"They are angry. They feel like they've been left behind," he said of those hit by tough economic times. "That's a natural, natural response."
Obama was defending comments he made at a fundraiser in California last week that white, working class voters, seen as a key voting bloc in this year's presidential race, had turned away from Washington after years of economic decline and cast their votes on social issues instead of economic ones.
"So 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," he said, according to a transcript published by huffingtonpost.com.
His rival for the Democratic White House nomination, Hillary Clinton, jumped on his statement as condescending.
"I was taken aback by the demeaning remarks Senator Obama made about people in small-town America," she said at a rally in Indiana Saturday.
"Senator Obama's remarks are elitist and are out of touch. They are not reflective of the values and beliefs of Americans. Certainly not the Americans that I know."
Likely Republican nominee John McCain's campaign also slammed Obama's remarks.
"It shows an elitism and condescension toward hard-working Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking," McCain advisor Steve Schmidt told The New York Times.
"It is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans."
But Friday, Obama said he knew very well the struggles of middle class voters.
"No, I'm in touch. I know exactly what's going on ... People are fed-up," he said.
"They're angry and they're frustrated and they're bitter. And they want to see a change in Washington and that's why I'm running for president of the United States of America."
Both Democratic White House hopefuls have courted working class voters by finessing their positions on free trade, coming out against a pending agreement with Colombia and promising to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) if they become president.
Enacted under Bill Clinton in 1994, NAFTA created the largest trading bloc in the world by eliminating import tariffs on goods circulating among partners Canada, the United States and Mexico.
However, unions claim it has caused the loss of millions of US jobs, hitting workers who are also now struggling with an economic slowdown.
Pennsylvania holds the next Democratic primary vote on April 22. Clinton long lead in the polls there, largely due to support from working class voters and union members, but the most recent average of polls by realclearpolitics.com shows her lead dwindling to 7.3 percent.
Clinton, the early front-runner in the Democratic race, trails Obama in the state-by-state votes ahead of an August party convention, where the nominee will be chosen. The winner is likely to face McCain in November.
- AFP /ls
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