Both Hillary Clinton and John McCain were quick to jump on Barack Obama’s comments about the alleged bitterness of small-town Pennsylvania.
From the Clinton camp came a comment clearly directed at the people who will be voting on April 22nd:
Clinton said she’d seen in the media that “my opponent said that the people of Pennsylvania who faced hard times are bitter.”
“Well, that’s not my experience,” she continued. “As I travel around Pennsylvania, I meet people who are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive, who are rolling up their sleeves. They’re working hard every day for a better future for themseves and their children.”
“Pennsylvanians don’t need a president who looks down on them. They need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, and your families,” she said, implicitly casting Obama as an elitist.
The McCain camp also picked up on the elitism charge:
The McCain campaign, finding a gift in its lap, tees off on the eye-opening comments by Barack Obama from a fundraiser last week in San Francisco (of all places).
Asked to respond, McCain adviser Steve Schmidt called it a “remarkable statement and extremely revealing.”
“It shows an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking,” Schmidt said. “It is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans.”
The elitist charge is clearly one that the GOP thinks can help in November. How it can help Clinton, on the other hand, is beyond me.
April 21st, 2008 at 1:14 pm
[...] results was a firestorm, that Clinton exploited and exploited and exploited and [...]