Sen. Barack Obama has been hit over the head for days about remarks he gave at a San Francisco fundraiser when asked why his message has not resonated with blue-collar workers in small towns and states like Pennsylvania and Ohio. "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 gonna regenerate and they have not. 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." Mr. Obama went on to expound on what he said during a stop in Muncie, Ind. "I didn't say it as well as I should have. 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. The truth is that these traditions that are passed on from generation to generation, those are important. That's what sustains us." Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain and a host of pundits strategists called the remarks "elitist" and "out of touch." At a time when the U.S. economy may be in a recession come June, 26 million people will be on food stamps this year, almost 15 million Americans are either in foreclosure or soon will be, there is a world food shortage because corn growers are making $3.60 gasoline instead of cornmeal and flour, hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost last quarter and millions are out of work "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." How insulting.
— Brian DeBose

, national political reporter, The Washington Times

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