Obama: 'I didn't say it as well as I should have'

[Gunny]

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."

Sen. Barack Obama told a newspaper if he offended anyone, he deeply regrets it.

"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. Watch how the 'bitter' battle is playing out on the trail »


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"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."

more ... http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/13/obama.clinton/index.html

LMFAO ... Hillary and Obama arguing ove who holds conservative values more dear.

 

[Swamp Fox]

Guns are a constitutional right, unless I'm talking to my leftwing base and then we need to take them all away and have the Brady laws become a constitutional amendment.

 

[Gunny]

Guns are a constitutional right, unless I'm talking to my leftwing base and then we need to take them all away and have the Brady laws become a constitutional amendment.

Yeah, I still have this vivid recollection of a certain candidate standing proudly behind James Brady after the hubby signed the Brady Bill.

Now it's an "American institution?"

 

[Swamp Fox]

Yeah, I still have this vivid recollection of a certain candidate standing proudly behind James Brady after the hubby signed the Brady Bill.

Now it's an "American institution?"

It is when the next primary you desperately need to win is in a state that is Pro 2nd Amendment.

 

[Gunny]

It is when the next primary you desperately need to win is in a state that is Pro 2nd Amendment.

Yeah, there's a video on CNN of "Sixgun Hillary" at the range.

 

[manifold]

Yeah, there's a video on CNN of "Sixgun Hillary" at the range.

Really???

That would have to be at least as effective as Dukakis parading around in a tank looking like a complete tool.

 

[bush lover]

Obama is so right! The little people in the small towns are bitter -- at him! I know lots of people who live in small towns and they are very happy and satisfied and are proud Americans who love our President, our Troops and our Flag. They also know of no one who is bitter at Washington, which thank God is led by our great President Bush. Our President is doing what is right for the productive people of America - those are the people who Obama hates. Senator McClain, our next President, will reward the productive people of our country - even more than our President Bush did. And that makes Obama bitter!

 

[doeton]

"Senator McClain"

why would anyone have an elitist attitude?