San Francisco Obama back tracks in Muncie

Reuters:

Democrat Hillary Clinton kept the heat on U.S. presidential rival Barack Obama on Saturday for his comments about small-town Pennsylvanians, as Obama backtracked, saying he erred in describing their mood.

The day after Obama's remarks about small-town bitterness over job losses ignited a campaign-trail furor, Clinton said the comments were elitist, divisive and did not reflect the values of Americans.

"I don't think it helps to divide our country into one America that is enlightened and one that is not," Clinton, a New York senator, said while campaigning in Indiana. "If you want to be the president of all Americans, you need to respect all Americans."

Obama said he did not use correct language in describing the anger and frustration small-town residents feel about the struggling economy and the failure of government to help them.

"I didn't say it as well as I should have," Obama, an Illinois senator, said in Muncie, Indiana.

"But what is absolutely true is that people don't feel like they are being listened to. And so they pray and they count on each other and they count on their families," he said.

Obama touched off the controversy with his remarks at a closed San Francisco fundraiser earlier in the week. The remarks became public on Friday.

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I am not sure he helped himself much with this latest explanation. This reminds me a little of Carter's malaise speech which did so much to discredit him. I think it comes from liberals' need to blame someone other than themselves for the rejection of their ideas. It also sounds like raw polling data turned into political spin to explain to donors why he is not doing so well in Pennsylvania as he is with rich fat cats in San Francisco.

The San Francisco Obama looks down on you and finds bitterness as the reason why he is being rejected. The Muncie Obama thinks he could have conveyed that message better.