Obama Backtracks, Clinton Berates

Barack Obama: “I didn’t say it as well as I should have, because the truth is these traditions that are passed on from generation to generation, those are important. But what is absolutely true is that people want to feel like they’re being listened to. And so they pray, and they count on each other and they count on their families. It’s interesting, right? Lately there’s been a typical sort of political fight. Because 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. They are angry. They feel like they’ve been left behind. They feel like folks aren’t paying attention to what they’re doing here. 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. And they get mad about illegal immigrants who are coming into this country. Or they get frustrated about, you know, how things have changed. That’s a natural response.”

Hillary Clinton: “I was taken aback by the demeaning remarks Sen. Obama made about people in small-town America. Sen. Obama’s remarks are elitist and they’re out of touch. Americans who believe in the Second Amendment believe it’s a constitutional right. Americans who believe in God believe it’s a matter of personal faith. Americans who believe in protecting good American jobs believe it’s a matter of the American dream. People embrace faith not because they are materially poor but because they are spiritually rich.”