| |
| |
![]() |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania: Barack Obama on Monday struggled to repel attacks by Democratic foe Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain, who branded him "elitist" over his comments on "bitter" working class voters.
Clinton cranked up the barrage against her foe, hoping to use the row to enlist blue collar support and as a springboard to catch Obama in the Democratic race, a week before the Pennsylvania primary.
Presumptive Republican nominee McCain meanwhile sought to make inroads among blue collar voters who could play a crucial role in swing states in November's general election.
Obama spent a fourth day trying to quell the controversy stoked by his remark at a San Francisco fundraiser last week that some Americans turned to religion and guns, because they were bitter over their economic plight.
"Contrary to what my poor word choices may have implied, or my opponents have suggested, I've never believed that these traditions or people's faith has anything to do with how much money they have," the Illinois senator said.
"They are angry and frustrated with their leaders for not listening to them, for not fighting for them, for not always telling them the truth," Obama told the Associated Press annual meeting in Washington.
"And yes, they are bitter about that."
Clinton, who has styled herself as a champion of the working class, launched another lacerating attack on Obama, accusing him of condescending to a vast swathe of Americans.
"I believe that people don't cling to religion, they value their faith. You don't cling to guns, you enjoy hunting or collecting or sport shooting," Clinton said in Pittsburgh, a blue collar town feeling the economic pinch.
"I don't think he really gets it that people are looking for a president who stands up for you and not looks down on you."
Obama faced a simultaneous attack from the right, as McCain emulated Clinton's weekend comment that Obama's remark were elitist and offensive.
The Republican presumptive nominee John McCain also took aim at Obama.
"I think those comments are elitist," McCain said.
"That's a fundamental contradiction of what I think America is all about," he said, arguing that such small town Americans had sent their children off to war in the US armed forces for generations.
The Clinton campaign hoped Obama's remarks represented a lifeline for her White House hopes, as she battles to overhaul his lead in the nomination race.
The dispute played into Clinton's contention that Obama cannot attract blue-collar, socially conservative voters that Democrats need in swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, to win the general election.
Her campaign also pushed the idea that Republicans would attack Obama as an out of touch, elitist liberal lacking the common touch, in much the same way as they did against the last two Democratic nominees Al Gore and John Kerry.
Earlier, in Pittsburgh, Obama hit back hard at Clinton.
"You've heard this kind of rhetoric before," Obama told a coalition of manufacturing workers and firms.
"Around election time, the candidates can't do enough for you," he said.
"They'll promise you anything, give you a long list of proposals and even come around, with TV crews in tow, to throw back a shot and a beer," he said, accusing Clinton of being in thrall to corporate lobbyists not workers.
"Ask yourself, who are they going to be toasting once the election is over?"
Campaigning in Pennsylvania and Indiana at the weekend, Clinton spoke about how her father took her out and taught her how to shoot when she was a young girl, eyeing voters of rural areas where hunting is popular.
Obama sarcastically hit back that she was behaving like legendary US sharpshooter Annie Oakley.
The furor erupted after Obama said at a fundraiser in liberal California last week that some voters were embittered by 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.
Clinton has long led in the polls in Pennsylvania, largely due to support from working class voters and union members, but a respected poll by Quinnipiac University last week had her lead down to six points. - AFP/de
|
